September...Yep, I could have done without it this year.

Hello Blogland! It has been so long since I have blogged. Life became a little crazy in our house in August and is now just finally settling. I've been crafting, well getting back into crafting, but haven't blogged. In the beginning of September, we (me, hubby and son) went fishing. It was a gorgeous day and at a lake that we have never fished before. We set up on the shore and was there all day long. A bald eagle even flew in and perched in a tree next to us. It was starting to get dark and the clean up and packing process started. My most fabulous day ended with me getting this:

Basically I fell in the lake while washing off my hands and I tried catching myself with my hand. I didn't break anything, but caused severe deep tissue damage. My x-rays showed something funny and 2 weeks later I had an MRI. The MRI showed that I have a little too much calcification growing in my wrist, severe arthritis in my thumb and the beginning of RA. My orthopedic doctor stressed the importance of me making an appointment to see the Rheumologist...o.k. fine, no problem. My cast came off on September 25th. One of the most happiest days of my life.

 Until.....my son who is 12 said to me, "Mom, look at my face, it doesn't look right, I can't smile." Instantly the wheels started turning in Maximum Overdrive, all of the tests I knew to give for a stroke were flying out. Trying not to alarm him in the process. Off to the ER we went. The ER doctor diagnosed him as having Bell's Palsy. Over and over again she told us in her 30 years of being an ER doctor, she had never seen a healthy 12 year old boy with Bell's Palsy. We scheduled an appointment with the pediatrician the next day. The pediatrician diagnosed Danny with Lyme's Disease. Bell's Palsy is one of the symptoms of  Lyme's Disease. He asked all of the questions...a little baffled that all of the symptoms did not occur at once. Danny's symptoms came one by one and began last spring. He prescribed the highest dose of antibiotic and gave us a script for blood work. 2 days later he called me, "Mrs. Duff, just as I suspected. Daniel has raging Lyme's Disease." "Dr. M. must you use the word Raging?" "Yes, Raging is the appropriate word." (sigh)

I have done so much research on Lyme's Disease, I think I now know everything about it. Become educated about it. You can be bit and not even know. Lyme's IS NOT contagious and can not be spread from human to human. However Humans may become infected from their animals, cats & dogs. The animals can bring the ticks in from the outside, leave the animal body and go on yours. The ticks that carry Lyme's are so small, rarely do you know you are bitten, until after the fact. Danny was so afraid that the kids in school would make fun of him or treat him differently. Not want him around, sitting next to them in class, being a gym partner and even sitting with them at lunch time. Happily NO ONE treated him differently. He even found out a few of his friends either had Lyme's at one time or knew of someone that had it. A good article can be found here.

Danny is Lyme's free, his Bell's Palsy is gone and is still his happy go lucky self. I went from a cast to a brace. I'm still wearing the brace. I'm trying to wean myself from using it so much, but I still have a lot of pain. I  see another orthopedic appointment in my near future.

So anyway...sorry for rambling. I played along with Crafting By Designs this week. Lacy Sunshine is our fabulous sponsor. I had so much fun creating my card, our challenge:  Anything Goes with a Twist, Purple & Orange. 

The image I used from Lacy Sunshine is called Elenor and the Mad Scientist. I am in love with the Mad Scientist! He is simply adorable. I used Fibra-Color Markers, Colored Pencils and my Blending Chalks to color the image. The papers and ribbon are all from my stash. Please stop over Crafting By Designs for all of the details on the new challenge (Beginning October 23rd.)

Let me know you were here, leave a comment, become a follower and get crafty! 

Thanks for stopping by!