Knee Verdict

Well, a month after Alan's knee puffed up like a small pumpkin, we've found the reason, and it's not what we expected at all: Lyme Disease. Apparently it's not uncommon for Lyme to attack a single joint with swelling and pain like that--the orthopedist said he'd seen it plenty of times.

Alan feels good to have a diagnosis, and the fact that there's nothing structurally wrong with his knee has encouraged him to walk on it more and do more in spite of the fact that it still hurts a lot. He'll be starting physical therapy soon to regain the muscle he lost this past month. And he started the month-long round of strong anti-biotics yesterday.

Pray we'll be good at keeping tabs on the meds--we're really not "structured" people, and when a medication is as important as this is and has all these specifications ("don't lie down for at least 10 minutes after taking," "do not eat for at least one hour prior to taking and 2-3 hours after taking"), it's easy for loosey-goosey people like us to get all discombobulated.

Like last night, when he'd just waited the proper amount of time to take his meds and took it, I was opening our Christmas cards. My friend Melissa sends with her Christmas card a traditional Polish Christmas wafer called an opletek, which you eat with your family as a symbol of the forgiveness that Christ offered when he came. She included the traditional blessing, and being our naturally spontaneous selves, I said the blessing and Alan and I ate the wafer. Suddenly, Alan said, "I'm not supposed to eat!" Hopefully that paper-thin, mouth-sized piece of flour baked w/a little water did not mess with his nightly dosage.

This morning Alan took the girls to school for the first time in a month. It's the second time he's driven since this all started. Lyme Disease has offered some explanations for other things he'd been experiencing--headaches that just wouldn't go away (blamed on caffeine and dehydration) and general aches and fatigue (blamed on being the parent of young children.)

Thank you for your prayers--we won't turn you down if you continue to offer them on our behalf. Pray that Alan can keep the fears at bay (Lyme is such a strange and unknown disease still, with many, many different manifestations), and that I can be his supportive, loving, compassionate partner who puts the people ahead of the to-do list.