Skin to Scales - yet another rash

We watched How to Train Your Dragon 3 (not my favorite by a long shot) last week.  

I look at my skin and cannot help but to feel a little awesome.  

I don't know too many humans that have scaly skin.  It's kind of freakish to touch.

My doctor said I was ready to do the metal detox.  I was given several new supplements and supports for the protocol.
Ideally, the metal was to be expelled on a cellular level, picked up by the lymph system, dumped into the blood stream, filtered by the kidneys and eliminated.
Nope.
And shortly thereafter I erupted with blisters.
Despite a very conservative level of detox - 5 drops, it was pushed out of my skin.  I stopped the detox, but the blisters lingered.

The lymph nodes in my neck were super swollen.  I performed lymphatic drainage massage frequently in an attempt to clear up the blockages.

I saw the doctor again....  

She said there was another issue to clear up.  My gut.  I have an imbalance and my gut to lymph system is not working.  No pickles, cranberries, plums, prunes, sauerkraut, or broccoli, and whole new slew of supplements.

A couple of days later My RASH surfaced once again.

ITCHY - RED - BURNING

Day 2

My forearms swelled a lot, and my knees swelled a bit too.  

The affected areas feel more like a reptile than human skin.

Day 3

My wrists were so swollen I could barely bend them.  Went to BED. 

Day 4

In BED ALL DAY

Hot and cold and sweating, tossing and turning, sleeping, sleeping.

Day 5

My knees were so swollen that I had dimples. Bending was difficult, especially stairs. 

In BED most of the day.

Day 6

The rash is still spreading down my legs, and up my chest to my face.

In BED most of the day.

Priesthood blessing in the afternoon.

Day 7

I am thinking a little more clearly and able to be up longer. 

 Incessantly ITCHY!  

Skin is drying, some is hard and crusty, and some is flaking off.

This is a letter I wrote to my current doctor on day 2.

Dr.,

In the past, my rash has usually been red and bumpy and on fire! And then followed by a breakout of blisters.  This time it began with blisters, then it developed into the red, burning, bumpy rash I now have.  

The blisters appeared shortly after I began the metal detox drops.  So that would make sense.  

I know my blisters are because of the metal, but I have not been able to figure out what the red hot bumpy rash is. 

My knees are swollen and the red bumpy skin is painful.  It throbs and feels more like reptile skin than human skin.  My wrists are the same.  My skin is very hot to the touch, and my range of motion is decreased. This has happened each time I have had the rash. 

I have a new symptom: my forearms are painful.  My skin pretty much burns and itches all over.  My forearms are especially tender, deeper than my skin, it hurts at the elbow joint. But not only at the joint.  My muscles hurt when pressed, but it does not seem to be a muscular issue either.  

This rash is on my hands and arms, feet and legs, hips, and trunk up to about my armpits, but not on my breasts.

I wake myself up at night to find myself scratching to the point I have broken the skin.  

The first time I experienced this rash, I was under the care of 4 dermatologists, on 11 different medications. And warned of potential nervous breakdown several times.   The sad part is that nothing they did or prescribed helped.  I have had this rash a couple of times since and chose not to seek western medicine.  I know I will survive this; I have before.

I wrote this on day 4

Dr., 

Today is worse.  Throbbing, burning, sleeping.  Chest slightly heavy.  My knees are so swollen there are dimples, and skin is purplish. I have to keep a sheet between my legs and arms or they stick together. They are weeping clear fluid a little. 

I ran out of the gel the doctor gave to me to help with the itching.  Eric went to the health food store to get olive leaf intrinsic per the doctor's instructions.  He came back with a salve that has been helpful with the itching.

Swollen wrist

Legs on FIRE

Knee dimples!

I have itched on a daily basis for nearly a decade now.  When I have my "RASH" life stops for me.  Nothing else really matters besides surviving the ordeal.  While I do feel a little better, I am not anywhere close to a full recovery, especially if history is an indicator of how things will go.  

I know I am not the only one with struggles and challenges. 

I tell myself and I tell you, whatever you are experiencing: 

 This too shall pass.

Wind, Rain, Floods, and Tornadoes

This is the road leading to our home.  It is my favorite scene.
But with all this green comes the water to support it.


The homeschool group we attend meets near Springfield.  The whole family went and we made a day of it.  While shopping, sirens came on and a tornado warning was issued for the following 45 minutes.  We headed to the restaurant and thought we would be fine.  The short drive was uneventful and dinner was great.

Our drive home was intense.  Rain, rain, heavy, heavy rain.  White knuckles!

Click here to watch video

The town north of us, Ava, was filled with water as we drove through.  Water everywhere.  Much of the grassy areas looked like ponds. The small trickling creeks looked like small raging rivers.

I started getting texts asking if we were okay.

We turned of the main highway to find a fallen tree across the road and downed lines.

There was debris (leaves, pine needles, twigs, dirt) all over the road and fallen trees were a very common sight.

branches broken and hanging on wires

a tree fell on a shed

two huge trees were uprooted

a tree down over a fence

I began to wonder, no fear, what state we would find our house in.
We turned onto our dirt road and there was very little water, not even standing water in the bigger potholes.  It looked as if the storm had not hit our immediate area.  We arrived to find all was well with our house.  It was raining, but not hard at all.  No flooding, no water in our ditch.  Wheew.  We dodged that one.

More and more texts asking if we were okay.....  I quickly learned that a tornado had touched down right where we had turned off of the main highway, about 4.5 miles from our house.  (The fallen tree in the road now made much more sense.)  And another tornado touched down in Ava.  And another, near our highway turn off.  Um.  We were just there!  The reality of destruction and tornadoes became very real.  We were even more grateful to arrive home safely.

Off to bed.

Then the storm hit US.  (No tornado.)  The rain was so heavy it kept our motion sensor lights on all night.  The incessant lightening lit up our house even more.  The thunder interrupted sleep often.  Some of us felt our house shake.  Our little doggie was distraught.  And the constant worry of FLOOD was ever present.  I dared not go out into it and verify though.

When morning light came, the worst was over: only a sprinkle lingered.

The ditch overflowed a bit at the culvert, but nothing too concerning.

A little flooding of the shop.  

Ditch digging!

Click here to watch video

The pond up on the hill filled up.

Side note: Snakes are out!

Seth and Scott saw a snake and immediately went for it.  Our neighbor was walking and came across a copper head last week.  

NEW RULE: You must be able to identify the snake before going near it and certainly before attempting to catch it.

We went to check on the water behind the shop.

Umm..... still flooded!

More on Flooring

More like moron flooring....



The unevenness of our floor has been the biggest, and most frustrating, stumbling block in finishing our house.

The threshold from the entryway to the living room.There was a carpet tack strip 1/2 embedded in the cement, Eric broke it open to remove the whole thing.

A closer view of above.

This is in the dining area that we will use as a sitting area.

Another angle of the same thing.

We thought and discussed and consulted numerous people over the course of several months before deciding on a floor type.  We decided on "rigid core luxury vinyl flooring."  It is vinyl flooring on a plastic core with the underlayment already attached.  It acts just like laminate: floating, snap and click, but it can be scored and cut with a utility knife and it is waterproof with a lifetime residential warranty.  Then it took longer than a month to decide on a color and actually order it.

Well, if we are putting in flooring, I want the floor clean before we cover it up!

Making some progress.

Click here to watch video

I made it to the stairs.  Next up the kitchen area.

Almost all the way across the room!

Despite some discoloring of the stained areas, the entire place is CLEAN.

While I was steaming, I asked the onions to tear out the last 1/3 of the deck so we can finish that "flooring" too.  This side was originally covered by the porch roof and is in pretty good shape, but it is 5/4" thick and we put in 2 x 10s  to make it sturdier because the supports are 24' apart. 

Click here to watch video

I came out to see a little progress.  The next time I looked, it was practically done!

THE FLOORING IS GOING IN!

The living room floor is in, all except the last row.  

The depression and crack in the threshold is not filled in yet.

Then we get to the entryway...

The unevenness is TOO MUCH.  We knew this, but the reality is now upon us.

We had to stop and reassess our plan, again.

So...  lets do the deck!

It's still a work in progress as well.

We are so very close to completion, yet it seems so far away.