...You Make Lymeade

Remember that one time when I had Lyme Disease?  That was a neat two weeks.

Much to my consternation, it seems that I am, after all, losing my mind on my own accord.

Paul and I were sitting in the office of the infectious disease doctor last week.  (My primary doctor found that I had Lyme Disease, started me on antibiotics, and referred me to this infectious disease doctor who I saw two weeks later.)  He had read over my history, squinted at my last round of blood tests (including the ones that showed I tested positive for Lyme Disease), poked my body hither and yon, then turned to us and said,

"You do not have Lyme Disease."

Paul and I laughed in aghastment.  For two weeks I had been reading books and websites about Lyme.  The more I read, the more symptoms I recognized.  What's that one thing some people are?  Hypochondriac?

Know what I have?  Nothing.  Know what's wrong with me?  Nothing.  Know what's causing the fatigue and such?  Nothing.

His official diagnosis is: You are tired.  And he validated my symptoms by saying, "What you're feeling is real.  You are tired."

And this is my favorite part...  He said something like, "You're going to drive yourself into a mental situation if you try to search out more answers for why you're tired.  Don't do it.  You are healthy.  You are tired.  You will feel better."  He just gave me the freedom to stop trying to fix myself.  Just be tired, lady, and one day you won't be tired any more.

So, People of the World, this is when you offer all your insights as to what is really wrong with me and how I need a third opinion.  Ready...go.

While you gather your thoughts about that, I will further express how I feel.

Well, first, I feel tired.  (ha - tired, but still funny)

Nextly, I keep wondering to myself, sometimes with tears of frustration:  HOW IN THE WORLD DO I MAKE MYSELF FEEL UNTIRED?  It's been nearly a year full of tiredness and I can not find the little toggle switch to flick it from "tired" to "not tired".  I think it broke off.  The Doctor of Extensive Knowledge said I need to work through the tiredness and get back to exercising.  That's it.

Some have suggested that this is my subconscious way of declaring that I do not want to move to Chicken (ever been there?).  Others have offered that maybe Satan is working hard to slow us down and discourage us from moving to Chicken.  And a third opinion has been that perhaps God is testing and strengthening my faith, determination, and character as we prepare to... move to Chicken.

I kind of like the "You are tired" one.  I did pay him a lot of money to make that statement.

But, you know, one gets a lot more sympathy when she has a real diagnosis like Lyme Disease.  I'm kind of missing it.  Who cares if you're tired?  Everyone is tired.  For real.

So here's to my way up out of the sloggy tired mind and into the rejuvinated go-get-em...

Ohhh, trying to creatively create that sentence just exhausted me.


But, look!  Here's our annual family picture at Turkey Run.

 Tired shmired.