January 8, 2008

THE POWER OF PRAYER

We had a very LONG appointment with the infectious disease specialist yesterday.

Thank you for your diligent prayer for this appointment. We believe that God heard and answered those prayers.

While this doctor was resolute in his acknowledgment that there is definitely something wrong with me, he was not willing to exclusively conclude that what is wrong with me is actually LD. Frustrating? Yes, but not surprising given how politicized the diagnosis and treatment of this disease is. And even though he acknowledged that there is great controversy surrounding the diagnosis and testing of LD, he was not willing to give any credence to my American Lab test results. However, he did acknowledge that I certainly have the clinical presentation of LD.

He went on to say that even though I have the clinical presentation of LD, he would like to pursue further testing (i.e. a spinal tap) and investigation into my case. Not sure what he thinks he’s going to find that hasn’t already been looked for but we are pleased that he wants to be so thorough.

After he says all this to us we were starting to feel very discouraged because it seemed that if he was not willing to conclusively say it is LD than he probably wouldn’t be willing to treat me for it.

This is where we believe the power of prayer became totally evident.

After concluding that this doc isn’t totally convinced that I have LD and repeatedly re-iterating that over and over and over, he then proceeded to say that he would order 30 days of IV treatment to treat me for LD.

We nearly fell out of our seats in shock.

Truly seems to be bizarre…until you consider that God is ultimately the one at work here. And he works in wondrous and mysterious ways. His ways are not our ways.

So PTL, our prayers for IV treatment have been answered. IV treatment will be administered daily through a PICC Line.

The PICC Line is inserted through minor surgical procedure and so needs to be inserted at a hospital. This should all take place sometime in the next 2 weeks.

The doctor made it clear that he would follow the very conservative CDC criteria for treatment of LD - which means that he will only administer IV treatment for 30 days.

From what we have learned about treating late stage lyme disease this is not long enough. However, we believe that God is in control and we are praying and ultimately believing that we are nearing the end of this very long journey and that 30 days will be enough for me.

Thank you so much for your prayers.

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