Good News!

Hi All,
Thank you for your continued prayers and encouragement, it goes a really long way and I appreciate it more than you can know. This week my doctor scheduled an appointment with a specialist in a near by town, a small town, something a kin to Washougal, so I wasn't expecting too much. . . I was pleasantly surprised. : ) The doctor is a neurologist and he apparently specializes in headaches and, of course, neurological dissorders, of which I have both. He knew exactly what I have, knew the actual NAME of the disease that I have and said that there are a few reasons why I am predisposed to having the menengitis, (which is called Mollaret disease, nice to know, FINALLY.) So, I guess people who had the chicken pox severely as children, which I did, tend to have the re-occuring menengitis and people who have hardware in their spinal column also are predisposed. So there you have it. It is a very rare disease, but at least I know a little bit more about it and that I am not a complete freak, or that I am not making things up...of course I knew that, but it's nice to finally have some one who knows about it and can help me get well and stay well. He put me on some medication for six weeks that should help to get me well from this latest bout of fever, headache and fatigue and then there are a few other meds that I can take in the future to prevent getting sick or help me not get as sick. The other thing he said is that I have to take specialized antibiotics at the very first sign of any infection because the barier around my brain has some holes in it now and if the infection goes unchecked for more than a few days, it can affect my brain and it will become an infection in my blood stream. The other thing that will happen with out taking antibiotics is what always happens when I get run down or sick, I get REALLY sick and it doesn't go away for months. . . Totally not worth it! This is all very good information to have and very important information to have! Holy cow! I think that this last out-break of menengitis started with an ear infection that I tried to take care of on my own at home. I don't like taking anti-biotics because of the whole building up an immunity thing, and that it is so hard on my stomach, but now I know that some things are worth dealing with to avoid the greater evils. : )

Yada, yada, yada. Every time I say that I think of Brother Bradley Stuart...the speaker from South Africa. For those of you who are still completely lost, he started a school called Yada and he would often make jokes to that effect. Blah, blah, blah. Perhaps that would have been the better one to go with in the first place. : ) Ari and I are doing well. He started back to work tonight. He has been off of work because we had planned on being up in the NW this past week. We enjoyed the time at home though. We got about two feet of snow in the last 24 hours, no joke! It is beautiful. I will post some pictures of the trees outside our living room window in the next couple of days so you can see. Some times I am still amazed at the weather around here. It is still strange to have snow on the ground until the end of MAY! I don't know that I will ever get used to that. : )

I had fun tonight. One of Ari's co-workers, also our neighbor, just got engaged to the love of his life. She is a very sweet and lovely Australian whom I absolutely adore. I just never get to see her, she works nights when I'm awake! Anyway, they had an engagement party up at one of the local restaurant/bars in our neighborhood. All of the police officers from Ari's department were there, all of the officers from the department in the little town we technically live in were there and most of the sherrif's officers and the jailers were there, we were quite a group!

I don't get out much, so I really enjoy any and all socialization I can get. : ) Several of the officers from both Telluride, (where Ari works) and from Mt. Village, (where we live) are our neighbors...one of them is adjacent to us and one of them is directly below us. Then there are at least five others who live in other buildings, maybe more. It's fun and every one is really nice, they are good people for the most part. I must have hung out for about two and a half hours, had three giant diet pepsis and talked about everything, even Jesus! : ) Some how we got to talking about religion, a topic I tend to avoid around these parts because, believe me, it is unfortunately wasted breath most of the time. Once in a blue moon God will bring some one across my path up here, but it is so extremely rare. For the most part, people are young, very wealthy, have "every thing" they think that need and want and they don't believe in God, and if they do believe in God, it is certainly NOT Jesus. It is really sad. So, one of the guys mentioned that he was in seminary and he dropped out, he sounded bitter. He was saying that there was no difference between Judaism, Islam and Christianity. After he was done I said, well, there is a huge difference with Christianity. Jesus is the only one who rose from the dead and that says to me that He is divine and that He is the Son of God. My heart was pounding and my mouth was dry. The table went silent for a few seconds and then he slowly said, "You know some thing? You are right." Yay! : ) Wow, I still can hardly believe it happened. No one else said any thing. Religion is an extremely heated topic around these parts, so most people don't go there. But at least I got one man to think about God again in a way that maybe he hadn't for a long time. I really hope that God will use that seed and that He will water it. I trust that He will.

Love you all, Kristen

No Trip

Hi everyone,

Thank you so very much for all of your support, prayers and love...it means a lot to me. We are sad to say that I am not really well enough for travel, at least for a long trip up to the NW like we had planned. We are hoping to be able to reschedule our trip up for the third week in June, we will keep you posted.

In the mean time, Ari has some time off from work, so we are visiting my Mom and Dad for two days and then driving the two hours to my Sister's house for a night there. It is nice to just get out of Dodge sometimes. Tonight we are planning on taking my parents out to dinner and a movie. : ) That's a big deal to us mountain folks! Actually, we have a theater in Telluride, it's just really small and WAY over priced for the size, sound and picture content and quality. Of course they showed Brokeback Mountain for weeks to make sure that everyone got the chance to watch it, but The Passion never came! That about sums up the town.

Well, that's all for now...I have a doctor's appointment this coming monday with a neurologist/headache specialist who should be able to be of some help to me and getting well. Please be praying that this doc will have a clue and that if he doesn't know how to treat me, that he will at least know some one who can and will.

love, Kristen

Blehch.

Hi there Blogger-land, how are you all doing? Ari is feeling much better, his tummy is still a little touchy with heavy meals, but he has improved vastly...thank you all for your prayers, unfortunately, I am the one who really needs them now. As much as I hate to admit it, I am really sick. Most of the time I don't say anything because I feel embarrased that I am sick "again", or "still" and I am afraid that people will just blow me off as a whiner.

(If you want to know a little bit more of what's going on with me physically, keep on reading after the Ari story.)

Ari had a very exciting night at work this last week. There was a call with a drunk man getting on the gondola with a shot gun who, when questioned about it, he told the gondola operator that the gun was to "blow some one's head off." So, the police all converged on the center plaza where the gondola was headed. They stopped the gondola, (it's like a large ski lift all enclosed) so that the police could get into position and get ready for the guy. Ari had a shot gun, there was a police officer at the gondola controls with a hand gun, two more to the side of the gondola with hand guns, behind a wall, and then Ari out front, behind a large concrete column with the shot gun set up like a sniper. When they were all in place, they started the gondola up again, it was very dark and they were not able to see much, and were completely unable to see inside of the gondola car, so it was pretty intense. When the bucket containing the gun guy came into the gondola station, they were able to dissarm the guy fairly easily. He was VERY drunk and he had figured out that there was a problem when the gondola had been stopped for a few minutes and he had removed the ammo from the gun. I know that it sounds pretty tame in the telling, but it isn't very often that the police around here have to pull their weapons, and even more rare that they have to set up an ambush and be ready to shoot someone. Ari said that he was telling himself that he was going to have to do whatever it took to come home that night, and that it was really strange to be that close to having to actually shoot someone. Thank God that everything worked out the best way that it could have. No one was shot or hurt and everyone got to go home that night, well, everyone but the idiot drunk guy who thought it was a good idea to carry a loaded gun into a very public place! He later tried to say that he had said that the gun was to "blow the head off of an elk" not a person...nice try! What a moron!

Now for more on me...

I have been very sick with menengitis for the past three months or so, somedays I feel better, but for the most part I have a temp at about 100/101, no energy and I almost always have a headache, sometimes it's just a little "advil" headache, somedays I have to go into the doctor for an I.V. of pain meds to get rid of it. The problem is that I have an infection inside of my spinal column in the fluid that floats my brain. The spinal cord/brain cavety are completely sealed off so there is no where for the infection to go, (it will always be in there) but for some reason, my body cannot fight it off. I am really tired of being sick and tired! Please pray that the new specialist doctors will know what to do for me. Most cases of aseptic menengitis clear up with time, usually ten to fourteen days, but for a rare few it lasts for a life-time because it is always present in the spinal cord... lucky me! I am now at the point where I am ready to plead with my doctors to check me into a hospital and run tests on me until they can find a cure. I am definately at my wit's-end with this, I know that there is grace for me, but it feels like it's running very thin.

Ari is and has been wonderfully amazing...I don't know how he does it sometimes, he is always so understanding and helpful, he never complains and he is always very kind when I know it has to be so frustrating for him as well. He really ment it when he said his vows " in sickness and in health". I am so very blessed to have someone who is so understanding and willing to do little things to make my days more bearable. This has been very hard on me, especially this last week. I have finally run out of patience with everything all at once. It seems like my doctors have just been treating symptoms and not looking for ways to make me better, I can only handle so many days living on our couch before I go crazy, and to top it all off, my back isn't doing so well. I think our couch is hard on my back, it's a little too squishy. Blah, blah, blah...sorry to have such unpleasant things to talk about. : ( I really need your prayers right now, I am really have a hard time emotionally. I trust God, I know that He never gives me more than I can handle, but sometimes it feels like He has. This just gets really heavy to carry by my self, and poor Ari can't do everything. He is so unbelievable understanding and patient with me...some days it's all I can do to take a shower. Tonight he had to finish cooking dinner on his one hour lunch break, the poor guy, I just couldn't stand up any more, I had to rest. This is NOT how life should be! I feel like I just can't keep going like this, it's exhausting and depressing. I try, and most of the time succeed, to keep a good attitude and not focus on it, but sometimes it's hard not to, and when it gets this bad, it's impossible. I am sorry about all of this, I really don't want to complain or be tiresome to my friends, but because you are my friends I am asking for your support...I can't do this alone. Please keep me in your prayers, I can really use them right now.

Much love, Kristen

Our giant Icicles

These have been growing out side our window all day. When we got up this morning they were just about a foot long, now they are around four or more feet long. It was fun to watch the progress every couple of hours, they grew drip by drip and added an inch every few hours. Yes, my life can be THAT boring at times! : )
 

Jack's found a new favorite spot : )

I was putting some groceries away the other night when our cat jumped up on my back and made himself comfortable. I even walked around, stooped over to hold him on, but he just acted like that was completely normal and stayed there until I had to stand up all of the way. What a weirdo!
 

This is the view from our apartment!

I have been meaning to show all of you how amazingly glorious our view is every day, so here it is! I can hardly believe it myself...it is breath-takingly beautiful and it is different every day. When I see these mountains I know why they named them the Rockies! : ) Enjoy.


 

Our Birthday Blow-Out!

This is our Christmas tree exploding with fire and fire works on my birthday! We had quite a blast, no pun intended. : )

 

Sooooo Sorry! : )

Hey you guys, I am so terribly sorry for not having written in my blog for such a live-long time! I have not been well lately, and now Ari is sick with some undiagnosed thing...he had some bloodwork done, we are just waiting for results. It may be ulcers, his gall bladder or his appendix, or maybe some strange bacteria living in his stomach. Hopefully it will be something quite currable.

So, life has been good otherwise. We have had a bit of a blizzard the last two days, I think we've had more than two and a half feet of snow fall and it's still coming down! I had to go move our car today so that they could plow our parking lot and I had to dig the car out from underneath a mountain of snow! I was up above my knees in snow, it was kinda fun. : ) Ari and I are planning on a trip up to the NW the end of this month. He will be doing some testing for a few police departments up there. We are planning on staying with my Uncle Scotty, whom most of you know, and we will be driving. I am really hoping to get to see all of my friends and family while we are up...the time is always a challenge though, I think that we should all get together at one place or something! All of the running around is sort of exhausting...of course it is worth every minute, but you understand.

I have some pictures to post of my birthday party, which was also my Dad's, my Sister's, my Uncle Dan's and my Cousin Olivia's! We are all within a month of one another, and we always save our Christmas tree to light on fire with a bunch of fire works tied to it, so it's always a piro-good time! : )

I love you all and miss you tons, I hope desperately that you haven't given up on me entirely! I will do my best to do better with the postings!