Summer 2011

That summer began with me co-directing VBS. I remember that I was complaining that whole week about my ears itching like mad and how crazy I must have looked walking around church scratching my ears! The following week, my husband was in Haiti and in addition to shuttling the kids to swim lessons, I was also in charge of mowing my sister's lawn while she was out of town. After the lawn mowing, I noticed red spots on my knuckles and in the corners of my eyes - I assumed it was poison ivy because it was itchy. Meanwhile, everyone I saw seemed to think the week alone with the three kids was too much for me to handle. The redness around my eyes had me looking like I hadn't slept in days. Our next adventure was heading north for a month to hang out with my parents at the lake. The two older kids were both learning how to ride their bikes and I was having a hard time trying to help them stay up and run along side them. Add that to pushing them on the swings and swimming... my arms were killing me! I assumed that I must really be out of shape! My sister and I decided that we would *really* swim and did so daily with a course we'd mapped out at the lake. I was having a hard time keeping up with her, but she was in better shape than I so... My rash wasn't going away, and I no longer felt it was poison ivy. My cuticles started looking as though they were infected. At this time, though, I still didn't think anything was wrong. I had excuses for any ailment. When we returned home from our month away, I remember saying to my husband about how hard it was to get up off the couch and that perhaps my body was rebelling against the no-more-daily-swimming. He shook his head an said I must be really lazy! :) We then traveled to see his parents for the weekend. At that time, I had been out of the sun for over a week, but I noticed at their house that my chest and face looked sunburn. I was now beginning to think there was something to this rash... But school was starting the following week and the beginning of the year is so hectic, so of course I didn't schedule an appointment right away. I finally decided to schedule at the very end of the month because our co-pay was about to go up! I was also now noticing that getting up out of a chair was increasingly difficult and stairs were a challenge and was pretty anxious to get to the doctor.