A Gorgeous Fall Day

The rain and dark skies finally left us today, leaving behind a perfect fall day, with bright sunshine, warm weather, and a cool breeze.  I brought my camera with me today when I took a walk, so I'm sharing some photos with you of the brilliant fall colors on display in my neighborhood.

Wait a minute...did you catch that?  Just in case you missed it...I TOOK A WALK TODAY!  It's the first time in months I've been able to walk all the way around my neighborhood, and I didn't even get out of breath on the hills!  I've been feeling absolutely great all week, and I feel like I've been reborn.

I'm not entirely sure why I'm feeling so well.  My best guess is that my latest addition to my Lyme treatment (Samento) is working.  I started it last week, went through about 5 days of feeling worse (i.e. herx reaction), skipped it on Saturday and Sunday so I would feel OK for my trip to New York, and I have felt really good ever since!  I also added a vitamin D supplement last week, after my latest labs (ordered by Dr. Levine) showed low-normal levels of D.  Maybe that is helping, too, though, the worsening last week makes me think the Lyme treatment is the major factor.  It's an on-going guessing game, isn't it??

The other thing making today such a great day is that Jamie finally went back to school and made it for a full day.  He went back last Friday about mid-morning but still felt run-down all weekend (of course, he pushed on so he wouldn't miss any fun with his grandparents).   He felt awful Monday morning, tried going in on Tuesday but only made it a couple of hours and was out again Wednesday.  He was feeling so down.  With this odd pattern of up and down and much more achiness than usual, I am quite certain that his crash has also been a herx reaction - he just started a new bartonella treatment two weeks ago.  This is actually great news - the first sign we've seen that his treatments for Lyme and co-infections might be working.  We're hoping some improvement will follow.

Thankfully, he got up this morning and was able to give it another try.  He surprised me by getting up and showering early, so I drive him to school at 7:15 and rushed back home to get Craig off to his bus (Ken has been out of town all week).  Jamie called me 10 minutes later, "Mom, school doesn't start until 9 am today."  Can you believe it?  Poor kid dragged himself out early and could have slept in!  The good news is that he lasted all day, and is even able to do some homework tonight.

And Ken came home this afternoon.  All in all, a very good day in the Jackson household.  Hope you enjoy the fall photos and are having a good day at your house, too!