I PLAYED SQUASH!!!!!!!

So I tested out my new lungs on the squash court today, and they PLEASANTLY surprised me!!!!!!! It was SOOO easy!!!!!!! And pain-free!!!!!!! And just felt absolutely entirely awesome.... We played 4 games, and I won 1 of them. Hopefully Craig didn't let me win on purpose... but I'm sure he wasn't prepared for what he encountered on the court. The scores were 9-7, 9-8 (I won that one!), 9-4, 9-6 I think. So they were really good games!!!

Last night's DVD was very nice, although a bit sad. At least the company was great! Other than that I don't have much news...

Someone asked how Antoinette's health was... well as far as I know it's OK. Will check out for myself next week when she's here!!

Also, someone asked about TBI's, and I'm going to post the explanation that Jennifer sent me...

They are small. Some are small as the size of the period at the end of this sentence. However, ticks carry big diseases. Some that you may have heard of are Lyme Disease and Rocky Mountain Spotted Fever. Not only are there other diseases, but each disease has many different strains making it difficult to diagnose and to treat. There are several diagnostic tests for tick borne illnesses, but those tests only test for a few of the strains of each illness causing many false negatives. The best lab in the United States to test for Tick Borne Illness is IgeneX in Palo Alto Califnornia, but even they don’t test for all the strains of the bacteria. Lyme Disease is a spiral bacteria. It bores itself into your cells and hides. Because of it’s corkscrew shape, it travels in your tissue and hides itself in healthy cells. Therefore your own immune system doesn’t start to fight it because it doesn’t even realize that there is bacteria there. The bacteria also can change form when in a “hostile” environment (antibiotics) and can form into cysts which are safe from most antibiotics. Lyme Disease reacts differently in each person and there can be a multitude of symptoms. Some people infected with the Lyme bacteria have over 75 symptoms. Most people associate joint pain with Lyme Disease, however not everyone has joint pain. Also another marker of the disease is a bulls eye rash near the site of the tick bite. Again, most people do not get the bulls eye rash or it is in an area where it can not be detected (scalp under your hair). Because the bacterium multiplies so quickly, when the bacterium is killed it creates toxins which make the patient feel worse on antibiotics. There are two types of physicians that treat Lyme Disease. It is a very controversial illness and the two types of physicians believe different things. One particular group of doctors believes that long term antibiotics is not the answer. That if you are on antibiotics for more than a month and still have symptoms that you have Post Lyme Syndrome. The other group of doctors believe that if you have symptoms of Lyme Disease (or any of the other tick borne illnesses) that you still have Lyme. Most Chronic Lyme patients side on the group of doctors that believe in long term antibiotics. I do not know a whole lot about the other tick borne illnesses. I personally have Lyme Disease and another one called Bartonella. I do not know a whole lot about Bartonella except that it is just as difficult to get a positive on a blood test. The symptoms of Bartonella include a cat like scratch rash, fevers, headaches, back aches, fatigue, abdominal pain and many others. Lyme Disease causes multi system symptoms. Lyme Disease can cause flu-like symptoms, joint pain, muscle aches, fatigue, headaches, rashes, muscle twitches, sore throat, sensitivity to lights, seizures, ringing in the ears, diarrhea, abdominal cramps, sweating, heart pain, poor balance, dizziness, mood swings, sleep deprivation, over sleeping, memory loss, speech difficulty, reproduction & sexual dysfunction, low body temperature, continued infections, increased allergies, and many many more. I have had or still have most of the symptoms on the list above and even some more that I haven’t listed. I could go on for days and days about doctors, testing, treatment, and the politics of Lyme Disease, but I think Alice will run out of room.  Thanks Alice for letting me share. These are some of the best websites on Lyme Disease and the last one is a newsletter for tick borne illnesses and other public health issues.
http://www.canlyme.com/patsymptoms.html
www.truthaboutlymedisease.com
http://www.nclyme.org/
http://www.publichealthalert.org/