Die, bugs, die!!

For those of you who have been following Terri's recovery progress, we have tentative good-ish news (how's that for lackluster celebration?)!

She talked to her doctor tonight, and given her reaction to the strong antibiotics she's been on for the past month, he is pretty sure that she has some kind of tick-borne infection. Now it's just a matter of finding out which one (infection, not which tick). Most likely Lyme disease plus any number of bacterial co-infections (also tick-borne). She definitely has one of the co-infections so it's very likely that she also has Lyme. She is having some more tests done but since Lyme disease can be sort of hard to pin down with a test, we're just going to go ahead and treat for Lyme since she's responding well to the antibiotics.

As for how she got this, we're not sure. It could have happened when she was in Guerneville last year, or it could have been that she got bit a long time ago and then for some reason, something triggered the bugs and they reactivated.

The good news is: we have a great doctor, and he is going to aggressively treat whatever this infection is. The bad (well, relatively bad) news is that it's not a fun treatment and will still take a long time, and most likely she'll do battle with it in some form indefinitely. However, I just feel so relieved that we are on the right track. I know it'll be a rough road ahead, but not nearly as rough as not knowing what what happening. This has just been awful. Finally, finally! A little light ahead.

She still feels really, really awful most of the time but we are hoping that within a couple months she'll be feeling the effects and stepping onto the path of feeling better. So, more icky antibiotic treatment but thank goodness we know that the side effects are a *good* thing because it's killing the bugs, and we have a good doctor with a plan. Die, bugs, die!!

This has been an extremely stressful, scary, and awful experience. And, it's not over yet. But I'm allowing myself a tiny moment of celebration that we are finally on some kind of treatment path that seems to be doing something. We have another family emergency happening right now so it's hard to feel like celebrating, but I will admit that one of those gigantic stones that have been weighing me down feels like it's starting to shift.

I'll keep posting updates as we find out more about what it is or is not. And really, who cares what it is, as long as the treatment is working??