2015 Bible Memory Opportunity!!

This is an opportunity that I was informed about by a FB friend. I have done an online Bible study and did enjoy it very much, especially with the accountability even if it is online. Living Proof Ministries with Beth Moore is hosting an online Bible Memorization challenge for 2015. Every 2 weeks starting January 1, you, the memorizer, can choose which 1 verse you will work on memorizing for 2 weeks. Post your chosen verse on the 1st and 15th of every month on the Living Proof Ministries blog post for that day after 8 a.m. here at http://blog.lproof.org/. If you are having a hard time choosing a verse, there will be a suggestion given on the blog post if you'd like to use that one. You can also read through some of the other ladies verses for some ideas if you'd like. For this first 2 week period I have chosen II Corinthians 12:9 which states, "Each time he said, “My grace is all you need. My power works best in weakness.” So now I am glad to boast about my weaknesses, so that the power of Christ can work through me." This is something that I need to remember daily as I am trying to do the job to which God has called me.

It's been too long...

I didn't realize that it had been just over 2 years since my last blog post!! Crazy! Not much has changed in the last 2 years. We've all gotten 2 years older, duh. Elli started the Reading Readiness PK3 program in August 2013 and is now in the same Reading Readiness PK4 program this school year. She is learning so much and loving learning. What a blessing to our hearts! Elli has also chosen to receive Jesus as her Savior and has been growing and learning in grace. She has such a tender heart toward that which is good and right. That is just amazing to me. Phil was promoted to a manager at his job in February 2013 and has been working hard since with several different clients, staff, and parents. The Lord has provided him with many opportunities for growth and patience in the last 2 years there. Also, Phil has had many opportunities to preach in our church, Victory Baptist Church, since we were looking for a new pastor. These preaching opportunities have greatly enhanced Phil's delivery of the message and his ability to show his passion for God's Word and righteous living. Such a blessing to have a husband that's yielded to God and growing in his service. Together Phil and I have been working with the youth group at our church. We have watched the Lord grow the youth group in the last year or so -- Such a blessing! With our busy schedules and such a meager group, we began to just make a pot of something for dinner and then bring it to church to "feed" the teens that were there with us on Wednesday nights. Well, we now average about 15 teens on Wednesday nights and about 10 on Sunday mornings. The kids WANT to be there, WANT to learn, and have great questions! They are so different and yet get along so well. Every activity that we have planned, whether work oriented or for fun, has been well attended. This is just such a blessing to our hearts! We've been working with the youth since we moved here in 2007 and it's so cool to see God blessing our faithfulness. Praise him for his work in our lives. I have continued to teach and manage a learning center for students aged 13+. For the past 2 years I have been learning about the awesome opportunity that God has given me to impact each of my students personally and corporately for Him. I have gone through some physical struggles which have not enabled me to become as bothered at my students' childish imperfections and sin natures. I have learned to just take that opportunity to teach each student through discipline about what God's Word says about our behaviors and whether our choices please Him, which is ultimately all that matters in the grand scheme of things, young or old, in school or out of school. This has made my job much more meaningful, and yet, harder because of my physical struggles. In November 2013 I was diagnosed with myasthenia gravis. In February I had been having some double vision while grading tests on Friday afternoons. It gradually became more frequent and more intense. After a few weeks it was occurring daily when I looked to the sides. While driving I first noticed it when I looked in the side mirror and I saw 2 cars on top of each other. At night it would be worse and I soon didn't feel comfortable driving at night. I went to a fair type of social gathering and I was miserable. There was too much action and trying to look around at everything made my eyes terribly tired and then I couldn't focus in on anything. Because of this I went to the eye doctor and they said that everything in my eyes looked fine. The eye doctor referred me to an eye muscle specialist. I went to that doctor and didn't get anywhere. Everything looked fine and he asked me some questions. I had some questions for him because of my hypothyroid and hemolytic anemia and he became frustrated at me for asking him about things that he said he already ruled out. He then HAD to refer me to an neurologist for asking questions. It was very hard to get an appointment to see this neurologist. By this point in time(mid-April) my symptoms of double vision and some lid drooping had subsided so I just forgot about the neurologist and went on my merry way. Well, by the time that school had started in the fall I had noticed some fatigue. I went to see my primary physician and explained my ocular symptoms with my fatigue and they couldn't hardly believe that I might have myasthenia gravis after being diagnosed with hemolytic anemia but they ordered some blood work to test for that and after about 2 weeks wait the results were in. The nurse called me to tell me the results of the blood tests. My Acetylcholine Receptor (AChR) Antibody test was 86 when it should be less than 32 and my Anti-MuSK (muscle-specific kinase) Antibody was 64.86 when you shouldn't have any more than 0.5 present. So definitely I have MG. I did finally actively pursue the recommended neurologist and he prescribed me some mestinon to help with the symptoms. I took it for one day and it upset my stomach so badly that I didn't continue to take it. Besides fatigue I was asymptomatic, until August. August was a very busy month. I started getting ready for school in the beginning of August so that we could travel to NC for 1 week for a wedding. I drove the 10 hours to get to NC and rested some during the week. On the way back to FL, my husband drove and I rested. We stopped at a Dairy Queen and I got an ice cream cone. While I was eating the cone I noticed that my lips felt as if they were numb from eating the cold ice cream. Very strange. Well, one day at a time my centralized fatigue worsened. I was out for the evening with my hubby and was speaking with him and started to sound like I had a lisp. Again, very strange. Well, a week before school started, if I spoke for 5 minutes or more, my tongue and lips would become very tired and it became very hard to understand what I was saying, as if I were a deaf person. VERY STRANGE! I figured out that this was my myasthenia so I found the mestinon and started taking it, WITH FOOD, to try to help my speaking, knowing that in a few days, I would be talking with and to my students ALL day long. The medicine did help, but if I took it when I woke up at 6 and then again at 10, which would be before the medicine wore off, and then again at 2 then my 3 daily tabs were gone I would be practically dead when I got home from school. I started taking 1 tablet every 4 hours to maintain an active teaching life. I received bad symptoms from taking more than 3 tablets per day. =( Eventually these symptoms did subside after just about 4 weeks. I couldn't get in to see the neurologist during this time... I still experienced fatigue but no centralized symptoms. I did get in to see the neurologist and he is concerned because I have symptoms that have not subsided with the mestinon. He is now recommending that I: 1. take IVIG 2. Take Prednisone 3. take Imuran so that I can get the MG in remission because his fear is that when it comes back again it will be much worse, just as it has been with each recurrence, and will affect my breathing muscles landing me in the hospital... Who knows??? 1. I'm having a hard time getting IVIG locally and haven't pursued it since... 2. I DO NOT want to take prednisone as it affects my mood greatly and I do have to work with people at least 8 hours a day... 3. I hesitate taking Imuran as my husband and I would like to have another child and if you're on Imuran they want to give you BC to keep you from getting pregnant because of the harm the medicine might cause to the UNBORN CHILD, which is what a fetus is... Just saying I asked my neurologist about maybe getting Rituxan for MG. He told me that it is not proven profitable for MG and that was the extent of that discussion. I would like to take the Rituxan as I have read that it has helped MG sufferers, and because I have had it in the past for my hemolytic anemia and it worked wonders for basically resetting my immune system, helping us to conceive and getting rid of all physical maladies for about 3 years. I may continue to pursue Rituxan therapy through my primary doctor because he and his staff are very caring and helpful. FYI - I posted all of this detailed information for those that may be googling any of these topics that they may read my experience and be encouraged or further informed through my experience with MG. Well, that will update you up until now, January 1, 2015.

Poor Elli!

http://instagr.am/p/TuyZ7YvXgT/

Time out of school

We are on our way down to Altamonte Springs for the  A.C.E. educator's convention. Looking forward to some great preaching, enriching tracks, and a time of fellowship with others that have the same common goal.  It's easy to get your eyes off the goal, Jesus Christ and Him glorified!  I am very thankful for a wonderful husband who loves, cares, and supports me, who patiently cares for and trains our daughter, and who is a great friend in life. I love you Phil! <3

Easter Break!

Easter Break is here! Time for CLEANING and rest! Seems like every time I get a break from school to work on the house, I get sick and cannot do all that I need to do around the house. Ugh! Praise the Lord I have already started feeling better and have been able to get an ample amount of stuff done around the house with Phil's help. Last week our school went to the A.C.E. Regional Student Convention and we had a great time with Bro. Steve Pigott! What a man greatly used by God to impact lives of all ages but especially teenagers. We had one teen make a decision for Christ and that makes it all worth it. Not much new news here. There are 7 weeks of school left and then VACATION! Phil and I are planning to get away to see some family and go to some weddings and see some sites! We are very excited. Phil is still working for the state but may have the opportunity to be promoted which would include a raise and a M-F 8-4 type job which would be nice, but we want the Lord's will so please pray with us in this matter. Eliana is growing and doing well. She is now in 3T clothes just due to her height. I think that she will be tall like her Daddy's side of the family. She learned many new words and intonations while I was gone at convention. She is so full of facial expressions and sweet sayings. She is such a blessing! Thank you Lord for your gracious gift.

CHRISTMAS BREAK!

This is the 2nd of my 14 days off and it has been glorious! I have been spending time with my family and cleaning my house, both much needed things. Being a full time employee (in the ministry), a full time mother, and a full time wife is....challenging...to say the least. The Lord has been teaching me many things about setting attainable goals, not perfection, and serving Him with what you have, time included. I LOVE my little Elli and am so blessed to have her in my life, but I had no idea what a task of being a mother was. It is an awesome task, but one definitely learned as I (we) seek to raise her to serve and love God.

Thank you Lord for your blessings of family, friends, fellowship, and faith.

Merry Christmas 2011!

Stationery card

View the entire collection of cards.

Trying to Keep up!

I now understand why it is so hard to keep up with friends, well anyways. Children lovingly need a ton of your time. I never really realized that until now. Eliana is a very good baby but even though she will play by herself most of the day, she wants to be with me or around me lots which in turn deters me from accomplishing much while I AM at home. It truly is a lovely thing to distract me from my duties, but I can't seem to make the time to keep in touch like I would like. I used to be pretty good at it, I thought, until now.... Oh, Well! As Steve Piggot would say. You Live, Learn, and Adjust!

Ahhhhhh.....

What can I say? School is out, the yearbook is done and submitted, etc. A sigh of relief is being uttered. Ahhhhhh........It is nice to just be at home with Phil and Elli and hang out for a few days until summer school starts. Elli LOVES being at home! She is so good and relaxed when she is at home rather than school; to be expected I suppose.

Well, Elli has eaten rice cereal, oatmeal cereal, sweet potatoes, green beans, pears, and bananas. She does NOT care for, but will eat, green beans and bananas. She loves sweet potatoes and the cereals so far. Pears are tolerable; the face she makes when she eats bananas is hilarious but she will eat them.

We just got Elli's 6 month pictures and I think they turned out ok for a man photographer. She does alot better for ladies because of their higher voices. We are enjoying our little Elli very much. Thank you Lord!

22 Weeks and eating

On Tuesday, May 4, Eliana was 22 weeks. She has been trying to eat everything we eat and drink everything we drink so I decided I would try to give her rice cereal. I gave her some that evening and she did very well. I believe that she likes it and enjoys eating like mommy and daddy. She is so funny; it is so amazing to watch a child learn. =) We also got her one of those beginner sippy cups to occupy her while we try to eat. Likes that too! Such a "big girl." Thank you Lord for your gift this Mother's Day! Truly a blessing!

Excuse the imprinting on the picture; we haven't gotten them back yet!

5 months old! (20 weeks)

Our little Elli is getting big! She is getting fun now and we get to play sometimes. Things are getting a little bit harder having her at school everyday since she wants to go and do and see now but it should work until the end of school.

Early baby pics

13 week picture taken today

8 week picture taken 5/12/09

Health Update!

I just realized that I had not posted my most recent dr.'s appt! I visited the hematologist and my blood levels have been normal for 6 months now! Soooo, I don't have to go back and see him anymore!!! Woohoo!

THANK YOU everyone for your prayers!

Happy President's Day!

A Day off from School! Woohoo! Haven't posted in a looooong time BUT I have been feeling somewhat better and am going to try to be better! =) Hopefully this day off will give me a good start!

Health Update 8/25/08

Friday I had my appointment with my hematologist. I had been put on 40mg of prednisone to keep me out of the hospital while waiting for him to return from vacation. At my appointment my hemaglobin was only 7.5 with the 40mg! With that reading my doctor made the order for me to begin treatments with a chemo drug called Rituxan. It is not chemotherapy just an IV chemo drug that is supposed to kill all of the bad white blood cells that are killing my red blood cells. After the appointment, I went downstairs to the chemo clinic and got registered. Well, I told the doctor that I had driven myself to the appt that day and so he only ordered half of the amount of pre-med Benadryl to help my body accept the medicine. After I got my IV and my IV pre-meds they began the infusion very slowly. The first drip rate was fine and then they served me lunch. I began eating and began to feel my mouth itch and some constriction in my chest. I didn't think too much of it until it grew worse and I felt as if I couldn't swallow and could't breathe very well. I motioned for the nurse to come over and they checked my oxygen level and it was 99% but that didn't make me feel any better, I still couldn't breathe well. They gave me more benadryl to counter the reaction, Tylenol, Zantac for the indigestion I guess I was having and a breathing treatment to relieve the constriction I felt in my lungs. It was very scary. Finally, they began the medicine again and things were ok. After a bit though I could feel my throat begin to hurt a little again but It didn't progress like before so I was able to finish my first treatment. I have to receive this treatment for the next 3 weeks and then wait 1 month to see if my counts go up. This first week I still have to be on prednisone too. =( If after the month is up and my counts don't improve like they want they will remove my spleen. Ugh! So, hopefully this very expensive, 3rd treatment type will actually get my hemaglobin up and it will STAY up once off of the medication. Thank you all for your thoughts and prayers and please continue to pray for strength as school has started back up again here and for wisdom for the doctors and that I can be a testimony to those I come in contact with for my treatments!

Tiffany

6/6/08 Update!

Well............My hemoglobin level has dropped to 10.4 from 10.8 =(. The doctor is going to continue to shorten my tapering to 10mg every 7 days which I don't really understand, but he also notified my hematologist in Dothan, AL to see what else to do I guess. Also, my hematocrit level is 30.3 which is a little low so just continue to pray for wisdom for the doctors and for me to rest in God's will and trust him.

Thanks

Short Update

Not much to report really. On 5/7 I had a blood draw which reported my hemoglobin at 10.8 and so the doctor had me start tapering my prednisone at 10mg every 10 days and come back in a month for another blood draw. I am now at 60mg ready to drop to 50mg on Friday! I am doing well on the tapering! Such a difference from the 80mg, 70mg to the 60mg! Praise the Lord for his grace and goodness in this situation.

Check back for an update after my blood draw next week.

Health Update

I got a blood draw on Wed, April 23 and my hemoglobin count was 10.1! Praise the Lord! Thank you for ALL of your prayers! Because of my "rapid" increase the doctor wants another blood draw in 2 weeks and then they may start to taper my prednisone then! The hematologist said that they probably wouldn't be able to taper for about 8 weeks! Please continue to pray that once they do start to taper my dose that my count stays up so I won't have to have anymore treatment, BUT ultimately for God's will in all of this. He has taught me many things from this experience.

Hematology Appt Fri, April 4, 2008

The appointment went very well. He answered a few other questions that I had about this whole thing. He said that I did seem to have a very severe case of this warm body autoimmune hemolytic anemia and wanted to give me the chemo drug yesterday. However, since my hemoglobin did increase from 6.7 to 7.1 just from taking my prednisone he have me a 2 day course of decadron, another steroid to maybe suppress my white blood cells more over the weekend and then get 2 blood draws next week and see how that works. If this doesn't work significantly they want to give me this chemo drug Rituxan which does have a good outcome rate but is VERY expensive. It is an IV infusion you get once weekly for 4 weeks. The drug company does offer a potential free course of treatment for certain incomes and uninsured so I am checking into that, so please pray that we would be eligible for that because this drug is not really made yet for my diagnosis, just RA and Lymphoma so far. Then, if the Rituxan doesn't work terribly well, a spleenectomy may need to be done. Hopefully, it won't get that far but that is the potential course of action. I am continuing to feel a little better, not great, but better; maybe I am just getting used to the illness, who knows! Hopefully I will be able to adjust well to school starting again on Monday! I have been out of work essentially for a month since I was admitted to the hospital for 1 week on March 10. Pray for strength! Thank you ALL for your prayers and caring notes!

My Recent (and continuing) Illness

I have been tired for a while but at the beginning of March it was really bad. I began to be pale and dizzy some and then I began to be yellow and almost non-functional. So, March 10 after school I went to urgent care and they admitted me because my hemoglobin level was at 5.5 and is supposed to be between 12-13. They were going to do a blood transfusion but found that I have hemolytic anemia which means that my body is still making red blood cells but my white blood cells are killing them so fast they can't accumulate. I was in the hospital for 1 week being treated with IV prednisone trying to suppress my white blood cells. (They don't know what is causing this) After a week my level went to 6.7 and they let me go home and rest but not work, which I really couldn't anyway. Since being at home, I have been on oral prednisone 80mg per day (a lot!) and after 3 days my levels still didn't go up. So, last week I had to go to the hospital Mon-Thu for a 3 hour IV treatment of hemoglobulin to try to suppress my white blood cells more. Well, I had a blood draw yesterday and my hemoglobin is still at 6.7! ugh! Now, I have an appointment on Friday with the hematologist that my doctor has been in contact with for a treatment with a new chemo-drug (not a full-chemo treatment) that will wipe out all of my bad white blood cells instead of the old drugs which would wipe out ALL of your bad white blood cells. Hopefully this will allow my body to begin to accumulate and keep the red blood cells that it is making. In a nutshell, that is it. I am doing better than I was but not great. This blood disorder with the prednisone is quite a combo of 'side effects'. Please continue to pray that they will figure out exactly what is causing this to occur, whether autoimmune disease or virus or whatever, but 50% of these cases they never figure out what is causing it. Lord TRULY only knows!