Monday, January 7, 2013

I won the lottery!




*HUGE news in this blog!*


I started my New Year off right. Sipping apple juice in my pj's in front of a fire and watching a Portlandia marathon with my parents. We think we fancy, huh?

Ma wanted to make me "champagne" but what we thought was sparkling water turned out to be just spring water, so I enjoyed my watered down apple juice and reminisced over Baptist Sunday School snacks from childhood...

I was fighting a winter cold (which felt like swallowing golf balls), but actually, it was one of the best starts to a new year I've ever had. I was cozy and relaxed while surrounded by laughter and love. Then there's the added bonus of no crowds, or parking, or freezing weather, or traffic, or doing my hair. Winning.

Cutting to the chase, I mentioned in my last two blogs that I had really great news to share. So here we go...

My Candida is normal, my intestinal flora is rebuilding, and most importantly, my Aspergillus is dying or dead, with no new growth for the past six months. This is HUGE news. I'm getting better! My health is the best it's been over the course of this entire journey that started back in February 2010.

I knew this news back in October/November, but I didn't say anything to anyone. It just seemed to be way too good to be true and I didn't want to jinx it until I was sure that it would stick. There have been so many false starts and setbacks in my recovery that I couldn't bear to get my hopes up just to endure another letdown.

I was also very run down and exhausted during that time and I had just lost the two people who would have been my very first calls with the good news. I escaped from reality, sowed some wild oats for a few weeks, then hibernated for a few more. In hindsight, I think I was in shock.

I fought so hard for this, for three long years, and there were times I never thought this day would come. When it finally did come, I didn't know what to do with it, so I did nothing.

Then I used it as the best Christmas surprise EVER. Forget wedding proposals and pregnancy announcements, people do those all the time. Amateurs. I have them all beat! I kept this news from my family for two months and then sprang it on them Christmas afternoon (because we took FOR.EVER. to get to my sis's house to open presents). And they all cried. I win!

All joking aside, I did win. I hit the jackpot. The paperwork in my chart now reads "Our findings indicate that the condition of Aspergillosis is responding well to current treatments and does not currently pose a life-threatening risk to this patient." And that is worth all the money in the world.

I think 2013 is going to be my best year, yet! Cheers to whatever it has in store for me!



"Above all, do not lose your desire to walk. Every day I walk myself into a state of well-being and walk away from every illness. I have walked into my best thoughts." -Soren Kierkgaard


*Disclaimer* This does NOT mean that I am healed. It does NOT mean that I can eat whatever I want.  It DOES mean that I am not actively dying. Please field your responses and questions according to this, it will save us both some grief. Thank you!




Friday, January 4, 2013

Lucky 13

I just noticed that this blog has been read 13,013 times. Thirteen is my lucky number, but more than that I am lucky, honored, and thankful that people have allowed me to share my life and my experience with them that many times. Thank you for coming along on this journey with me! I think 2013 is going to be incredible.

Earlier in the week, I promised that I would share some really great news in 2013, and being a fan of Soap Operas and "Cliffhanger Fridays," I'm going to tease and say that the news made my immediate family ugly cry. Tune in Monday to find out why!