5 Things I Learned from Having Lyme Disease

I know, I know...the picture above is like "Whoa." But I took it for a reason: I really wanted to remember the madness of having Lyme Disease. Honestly, it taught me a lot of things...so in a way, I'm kinda a better person for it. When I left Connecticut a little over 3 years ago, I left with a small mark on the outside of my right knee. 12 hours later when I arrived in Charlotte, it grew to a big, red circle on the side of my knee. It grew bigger and more painful and, well, you can see what happened from the picture. Anyways, it was quite an ordeal, so here's what I learned from it:

1. Lyme Disease is No Joke
You're probably saying "Well duh, Chris." I know, anything that ends with "Disease" is no joke. But you'll run into a lot of people who know someone who caught Lyme Disease and they took care of it with some pills. Usually, if you catch it right away, you can take some pills and get it out of your system, no harm no foul. I, on the other hand, had Lyme Disease in my system for almost a whole year before it was diagnosed as Lyme Disease. According to the CDC, the ratio of Lyme disease infection is 7.9 cases for every 100,000 persons. For those who aren't familiar with it, Lyme Disease is a bacteria transmitted by tick bites and is very prevalent in the Northeast where, SURPRISE, I'm from. The symptoms can range from pain, to joint stiffness, to flu-like symptoms...not everyone with Lyme has the same symptoms. The longer it goes undiagnosed, the more debilitating it becomes. There were times where my body would feel just fine, and then out of nowhere my knee would blow up to the size of a melon and I'd have to get it drained frequently. Doctors didn't know what the deal was and it didn't help that I didn't recall being bitten by a tick at any point. The longer it goes undiagnosed, the worse it gets, and in rare cases Lyme Disease can be fatal. For me, my knee would swell so badly I couldn't walk some days, there were days where I'd have a fever of 103, and I'd be so fatigued all the time. It's brutal.

2. Be Aware
Since Lyme Disease is transmitted by ticks, you need to be careful of ticks when you're in wooded areas, even if your part of the country doesn't see many Lyme Disease cases. Wear long socks, use bug spray, etc. If you are bitten by a tick, remove it correctly and completely and keep the tick so the doctor can have it tested. Oh yeah, go to the doctor...if you do have Lyme, your doctor will prescribe some meds for you to take orally and you'll be a-ok. Just get it done early. Likewise, guard your pets against tick bites, because Lyme Disease can affect your pets as well, so I recommend K-9 Advantix or Frontline.

3. I Am Lucky
Like I said earlier, Lyme Disease becomes a lot worse the longer it goes untreated. I was blessed to come out of it with issues with a swollen knee and some occasional lingering knee pain. I saw many doctors, who tried many things to fix my knee problem, but it wasn't until I saw a bone & joint specialist that things turned around. At that point, I felt terrible and I was frustrated and I prayed God would help me find out what was wrong with me. My doctor just happened to go to med school in CT and worked a lot on Lyme Disease. He asked me where I moved from, and when I told him CT, he said "If I was a betting man, I'd guess you have Lyme Disease." And he was right. Seriously, I could've easily seen about 20 other doctors who would have though I had a bad knee joint or something. But God pulled through! My doctor tested my blood for Lyme, it came back positive, and he put me on the antibiotics. But, since it had been so long without treatment, the pills didn't work. So he set me up for a stronger treatment: IV medication. I had to go to the hospital to get a PICC Line put in my arm. A PICC line is that tube going into my arm in the picture above. It goes into a vein and goes all the way through to my heart. And every morning I had to get up bright and early and inject myself with some extremely strong medication. My doctor called it "The Atomic Bomb of Antibiotics." Sounds like fun, right? It wasn't fun to get a foot-long tube stuck in my arm, it wasn't fun injecting myself with meds every morning for a month. But you know what? The Lyme Disease is gone, I felt better, and I didn't suffer too bad physically because of it, thank GOD!

4. Socks Have More Uses Than Just For Your Feet
This point may make you laugh, but you'll see what I mean in just a minute. When I had the PICC Line in my arm, there was also about 4 inches of tubing that stuck outside of my arm where I had to do the injections. Of course, I couldn't leave this just hanging around, so when the PICC Line was put in, they tied it down with an ace bandage, which was fine. But you know, I'm right-handed...the PICC line was in my right arm...after taking the ace bandage off, giving myself the shots, then trying to wrap it up again, I was frustrated and the tube was going everywhere. Each week a nurse would come to the apartment to clean up my arm and change out the tube and replenish my meds, and she suggested I buy a pack of socks, cut the toes off, and wear the sock on my arm to hold everything down. I thought this was stupid...until like 2 days later when I got tired of messing with that dumb ace bandage! So I cut the toes off some socks and rocked it on my arm...what a brilliant idear! So from then on for the rest of the month I rocked a sock on my arm everywhere I went, even church lol. Oddly, no one ever noticed...and if they did, they didn't say anything. On a pro-ace bandage note, however, I remember we went to an ice cream place and I was messing with the ace bandage and that stupid tube, trying to get it down flat, and the girl at the ice cream place was like "I noticed you gave some blood today, so I gave you a free scoop." Well...who was I to argue with free ice cream?

5. God is GOOD
Getting the PICC Line put in and administering the meds was an ordeal, but the worst part of it was the cost. After what my insurance kicked in, the cost of having these IV meds was over $150...PER DAY. As a grad student I definitely didn't have that kind of money. On the first day the nurses arrived with the medication, they went over the costs and - after I recovered from the mild heart attack - they gave me a form I could fill out to see if maybe I'd qualify for some kind of assistance in paying for my meds. It didn't seem like I'd have much of a chance, but I filled it out anyhow. After my month of meds, the bill came in the mail and it was frightening. I remember driving down the road to school praying real hard. I asked God to help me find a way to pay for this, whether I had to go on a payment plan, whether I had to get a second part-time job, or both...either way, though, I knew God was going to provide a means for me to pay for this, even if I had to work hard for it. After work and classes, I came back home and decided to start by calling up the hospital to set up a payment plan. The lady on the line put me on hold while she pulled up my information, then came back on the line and asked if I had filled out that financial assistance form. I said I did and she replied, "Ok, that must be it, because the hospital has covered 100% of your costs." I was speechless...I mean completely flabbergasted. I asked her to repeat that again and she did. I was SO excited right then, I could've done a backflip. God came through HUGE for me...and He can do the same for you, you just have to have faith! :)

Book Review: "The Taking of Pelham One Two Three" by John Godey

I don't remember where I first heard about this book, but I just happened to see it at the Book Lady (a used bookstore by my house) for $1, so I picked it up. It's a fairly quick read at 350 pages and was written back in the 70s, so you have to get used to some of the dialogue and technology used in the book. Anyhow, the book is about these 4 guys who decide to hijack a subway train and demand 1 million dollars in ransom.

The book jumps frequently to the perspective of different characters in the story like the hijackers, police, and even the hostages on the subway. It's an interesting story because you have to keep reading to see how the hijackers plan to get away with their crime. You see, the train cannot be operated without a motorman present...and just a tip, they kill the motorman midway in the book. I won't give it away, but it's interesting how they get away with the crime and it keeps the police guessing. The end, however, is where the book falters: the ending is pretty anti-climactic. It ends on a pretty blah, dull note and moved this book from good to pretty good in my eyes.

Overall, it's not a bad read: it keeps you interested an engaged and goes by pretty quickly. The movie was made back in the 70's and is well-liked. A made-for-tv remake was made in 1998 and was quite the opposite. And in 2009 ANOTHER remake will hit the big-screen, this time featuring Denzel Washington and John Travolta. Denzel Washington is one of my favorite actors, so I'll definitely try to check out the movie, and I'll be interested to see how they modernize the story to fit today's technology.

Rock over London, Rock on Chicago...

I love going to concerts...love, love, love me some concerts. I think they're a ton of fun, you get to see some bands you like, hear music you love, and enjoy an atmosphere with (hopefully) like-minded people. I don't go to as many concerts today as I used to because now I don't have as much time and concerts are getting ridiculously expensive. Right now Third Day is on tour featuring Robert Randolph & The Family Band, two of my all-time favs...but tickets are like $110 and I'm sorry, I'm not paying that kinda money to go to a concert. Anyhow, concerts are fun and I always seem to have a good time; so here, in no particular order, are some of my favorite concerts:

1. Come Together and Worship Tour; Third Day, Michael W Smith, Max Lucado: Fall 2002
This concert was a blockbuster, I'll tell you what. It featured Third Day, Michael W. Smith, and Max Lucado as the guest speaker and was held at West Point Military Academy in New York. It was a night of 100% worship and since it was held on a military facility after 9/11 and the start of the war in Afghanistan, emotions were running very high. It was my first Third Day concert and we drove a couple hours up a mountain to get there. Our seats stunk, but that didn't matter as the atmosphere of worship was so overwhelming. I love reading Max Lucado's books, so having him speak was an awesome treat, and Michael W Smith was fantastic, which was a surprise considering I didn't really pay too much attention to his music prior to that. It was definitely cool to be in a concert with regularly-dressed fans as well as army cadets in their dress uniforms...at one point Michael W Smith came out dressed in one of the uniforms and did a couple songs. It was a great evening and I'm so glad I went.

2. Weathered Tour; 12 Stones, Jerry Cantrell, Creed: Summer 2004
I admit it, I was a big-time Creed fan...loved them. So when I heard they were coming to CT, I saved up and bought myself a ticket in the General Admission pit section. I didn't really know what to expect, so I drove up to Hartford right after work so I can be there early and wait in line at the gates. All the GA people had to wait in another line to get a VIP wristband to let them into the pit section (how cool is that?!). Then they finally let us in and it was a stampede down the steps into the pit. Somehow I made it past a ton of people and got to the front row right up against the guardrail, yeah boy! So the first act came out - 12 Stones - and I wasn't a big fan. The bass player was wearing these huge, borderline parachute pants and kept kicking his feet back and almost kept kicking himself in the head. The singer did the robot a lot, which was weird...the only highlight was their lead guitarist, who definitely shredded that night. The next act was Jerry Cantrell, who you will know as the guitarist from Alice in Chains. His music is heavy, sludgy, kinda dark (but not creepy), and occasionally weird. But he's very talented and puts on a great show...I'd seen him in concert before and he was even better this time as he closed out with "Man in a Box". FINALLY Creed was set to go on...they came out to "Bullets" with lots of pyrotechnics and whatnot and even this huge screen with pillars and stuff in the background. They played for just over 2 hours and played all their great stuff. At the end Mark Tremonti - their guitarist - threw me one of his guitar picks (which I still have) and Scott Stapp tossed the set list into the crowd...I reached over a pack of screaming girls to grab it...they SO hated me for it! Hardy har. I still have that too. Needless to say, I stood on my feet either in line or at the show for well over 7-8 hours and my feet were KILLING me...and I had a 90 minute drive home. I was exhausted but it was worth it, I had such a good time.

3. All is One Tour; Rusted Root, Santana: Summer 2004
Santana is the BOMB. Far and away my favorite artist, I could listen to his stuff all day. This was my first Santana concert, so I was definitely amped. The opening act was some weird hippie band called Rusted Root...they stunk. Aside from this drum solo thing they did, I wanted to sleep through their show. There were a few dreadlocked, high, stinky hippies out in the crowd dancing to their stuff, but I mostly ignored them. After intermission, the real show started. Santana's intro played and he came out to play the opening to "Day of Celebration" when he stepped out into the spotlight I literally got goosebumps. I know that sounds corny, but I was excited. He tore through a lot of his more recent hits, jammed a lot, and even did his "re-connecting the molecules to the light" mumbo-jumbo. He ended the show with "Jingo", which rocked as everyone in the band did their own solo. I was a bit disappointed that he didn't play "Black Magic Woman" or "Oye Como Va", but it was still a cool show. I bought a shirt at that concert and, unfortunately, I have no clue what happened to it.

4. Santana World Tour; Salvador Santana Band, Los Lonely Boys, SANTANAA!!: Summer 2005
This was my third Santana concert and I was way excited because I had tickets in the 6th row, which was the best I could possibly get. On the way in to the concert, I got a free Dunkin Donuts iced latte in the lobby, which gave me the hint it would be an awesome evening. I picked up a Santana shirt and then took my seat near the stage. The opening act was the Salvador Santana Band, which featured Carlos Santana's son, Salvador, on keyboards. They were ok...pretty much a mix of Santana with hip-hop. They needed a better rapper, for the most part. After a quick bathroom break, Los Lonely Boys took the stage...let me tell you this, if you haven't seen them live, you need to. Those 3 brothers are absolutely amazing and very talented. At the end they played this sick blues jam and even played each others instruments at the same time...it's hard to describe but it was hot. They had everyone on their feet the whole time. After that awesome set, the only thing that could possibly follow is Santana. This concert featured a new stage setup, which was really cool...lots of colors and decorations and a massive screen in the background. The band came out and started right off the bat with "Jingo", which kicked serious butt that night...Carlos came out and pretty much tore the roof off the place. Raul Rekow was out of the country for some reason or other, but they had some dude named Bobby Allende on congas (why I remember his name, I don't know)...he definitely wasn't as good as Raul and it showed, but the band still sounded great. They played a few songs off their upcoming album (which was "All That I Am"), and even played some old-school stuff like "Batuka", "No One to Depend On", and finished with "Evil Ways." Again, no "Black Magic Woman" or "Oye Como Va", which was disappointing, but the concert was by far one of my all-time favorites. In case you can't tell, I love seeing Santana in concert...I could go see 20 of those concerts and still not get enough!

5. Sonfest; Disciple, Jars of Clay, Audio Adrenaline, Newsboys: Summer 2006
Sonfest 2006 was probably one of my favorite concerts ever. Seriously. This was my 2nd date ever with my wife. Oddly we set it up before our first date, go figure lol. I picked her up at her place and we headed down to Carowinds amusement park, where the concert was held. We rode the rides, which was a lot of fun...and Bekah stood in my shadow to cool down in the shade, which I thought was cute :) When it came time for the concert, we made our way towards the theater to find out that Jeremy Camp, who was also supposed to be there, cancelled (I later found out he was doing a concert in Washington DC...whassup wit dat?!). We took our seats, which were in the FRONT ROW! What was even better was that our row was just 2 seats and that's it...so we had the whole row to ourselves, you can't beat that. The first band was Disciple, this loud, wild, hard rock band. It was my first time hearing them and I enjoyed it, believe it or not. In fact, after their set, I went to meet the band, got their autographs, and bought one of their shirts, which I love wearing to this day. We wandered around a bit during Jars of Clay's performance because, honestly, neither of us liked them very much. We took our seats towards the end of their performance in time to see Audio Adrenaline take the stage one last time. It was kinda bittersweet: I'd seen them before and they were great, and now their singer is losing his voice, so this was to be their final tour before calling it quits. They still brought the same energy and put on an awesome show. Next, and last, was the Newsboys. I'd never seen them in concert and honestly never listened much to their music before aside from 1 or 2 songs. Well let me tell you, they made me a HUGE fan that night. HUGE fan. They put on such an amazing show and even take the time to speak to the crowd about Christ and His love for all mankind. The flying drumset at the end is definitely a must-see...if you haven't seen the Newsboys in concert, you need to...you will have a BLAST, their music is catchy, witty, infectious, and all about the Lord. I had such a great time spending the day at the park and the concert with Bekah :)

6. Faith, Family, and Freedom Concert; Leeland, Hyper Static Union, Third Day; Summer 2006
This was a concert at Knights Stadium that's put on by the local Christian radio station every summer...this one was definitely the best. The picture up above appeared on Hyper Static Union's website and as you can see from the circle, we were real close! Right up at the front. To start off, the day was HOT...brutally hot. And standing at about where 2nd base is on a baseball field does not help...it just radiates heat. Regardless, I set out to have a good time with Bekah, her brother, and his wife. When I got there, Hyper Static Union (who I LOVE - I've seen them in concert 3 times) was setting up their merchandise table, so I got to finally meet the guys in the band, got them to autograph their CD cover, and bought their t-shirt. They told me I was the first person ever to buy their new t-shirt, so I had Shawn write that on the t-shirt tag: "1st shirt" and he signed it. How cool is that?! Anyhow, to the music: the first band was Leeland, who I had never heard of. The singer and his brother the keyboard player were from England and I gotta tell you, they were great...very good music, kinda similar to U2 and Keane. The next band was Hyper Static Union, and they were phenominal as always. Shawn broke one of his guitar strings in the middle of a song and when it was over the rest of the band jammed while Shawn put in a new string, came back, and rocked out. Finally Third Day took the stage and played one their always-amazing shows...it was my 6th time seeing Third Day in concert, I love them, they're awesome. And they were in top form that evening. Finally, the night ended with a great fireworks show. To top off the memory of the evening, we went to Steak n Shake after the concert to get some drinks to go. Bekah got a root beer float and when she put the straw in, it erupted all over the inside of my car...it was HILARIOUS.