Hello! I am going to give this a whirl after taking a break due to illness. I still have West Nile Virus and all of it’s not so wonderful side effects but I do see improvement week to week.
This journey started a little over 4 weeks ago when I just didn’t feel right. It quickly advanced to nearly living in my bathroom near the toilet with an ice cream bucket in hand. The next day I was curled up in bed and a day later, when my fever climbed to 103+ my husband took me to the doctor.
They took blood, saw my elevated white count and gave me two shots of Rocephen. I was told to come back the next day to check labs again. The next day, Sunday, saw my white counts up higher. I was shuffled off to ER, had a cat scan, x-rays, and a spinal tap.
The next 4 days were spent in the hospital hooked up to an IV pole that resembled a Christmas tree. By the time I was dismissed I really wasn’t sure I should be going home as I was dizzy and still weak….but at least at home, nurses would not be poking, prodding and taking blood at all times of the day and night!
I have discovered a lot about West Nile. It attacks your nerves and picks different nerves for everyone. For me, It affected my nerves that deal with my inner ear and my eyesight coordinating with my brain……hence….the awful dizziness. I ended up with Bell’s Palsy on the left side of my face but that is coming back.
I am going to therapy twice a week to deal with retraining my brain, ears and eyes to work together and I am happy to report…..I see progress! I still walk with a walker because I never know quite when the dizziness will hit and the world will slide by like a big avalanche.
I have gone from sleeping 20 hours a day to less than that. I get tired quickly, dizzy, and tremors but it is much better than 2 weeks ago!
It will be a while before I am back to reading blogs as knitting, reading and screen time is really hard and messes with my brain at this time. So please bear with me. I am not ignoring you and I do read the comments, but typing answers back at this time is hard.
Two weeks ago as I sat in my chair, with my eyes shut, I had a conversation with God. Actually I was whining, lamenting, and plain upset with Him. I could not figure out how in the world I was to be a witness through this when my life consisted of sleeping, trying to eat and sitting with my eyes shut. I wailed, I whined and when I was done was reminded that here I sat with my eyes shut and plenty of time on my hands…..I could pray.
So…in the whirling, weird dizziness that is my West Nile journey I pray. I pray for the aunt who suffers with back pain even after surgery, for the young man in our church at Craig in Denver, for the mom in our church who is on a cancer journey and shows such grace, for the latest West Nile victim in a town 20 miles away, for those on the east coast, for those in the towns around us who are dealing with the latest round of flooding, for the cousin in Michigan going through rounds of chemo…..the list is endless.
I always thought being held in God’s hands would be kind of like that feather floating on the Forest Gump movie. My experience of hanging on till I could not any more has been more like sliding down a rocky mountain face….bruised, tired, ice cream pail clutched tightly, dizzy as all get out and landing with a smack in those tender hands……but my small mustard seed of faith has landed me there and I am blessed.
I am blessed by the words of encouragement, by cards, by meals brought in by friends, family and church people, by my husband who is not only doing his work but mine also. (Yes I hear him humming Shania Twain “Feel like a woman” as he heats supper). And the prayers….what can I say…I am blanketed by prayer and it is wonderful.
In this crazy journey, blessings are everywhere. May your week be blessed, may your journey through wherever He is taking you leave you hanging on tightly with faith. I can guarantee you it might be a miserable journey but we will make it and He will catch us when we cannot hang on any longer!
He says, “Be still, and know that I am God;
Psalm 46:10
New International Version (NIV)
For I am the LORD your God
who takes hold of your right hand and says to you,
Do not fear;
I will help you.
Isaiah 41:13
New International Version
The Chicken Grandma 