2020-10_October-TLP_Slow-Scrap_1003_afternoon_web

Thanks Sheri. Well, I was diagnosed with Lyme in August 2008, started having noticeable symptoms on New Years Eve 2007. I was "officially" discharged from treatment in March 2013. I went to a Lyme-literate doctor, expensive but the best thing I ever did. He got to the root of the bacteria rather than using drugs to disguise the symptoms. I know I'd probably be either totally disabled or dead by now if I hadn't gone to him. I was a mess, could barely walk, couldn't get into the shower, couldn't get into the car without screaming. My c-reactive protein levels were at 19.9, normal is under .9 (can't remember for sure), an indication of inflammation/pain in the body. With Lyme, it is very possible that the bacteria didn't all get killed off. I can self-treat, I can tell when the symptoms start flaring, usually every year or two, and it hasn't come to that quite yet. I feel really fortunate that most of the time I'm symptom free. About the only thing that I was left with (that I'm aware of) is the pulse in my left arm can't be taken with one of those blood pressure machines. They either take it on the right arm, or they get a cardiac nurse to take it. It has humbled me for sure.

@mcurtt I'm so glad you found someone to treat you! It's crazy how something as seemingly benign as an insect bite can change your life so dramatically. Thinking good thoughts that you're able to keep any symptoms at bay!

This is a wonderful collage and such amazing journaling. I am a complete weirdo, I am LONGING to go grey, I think it will suit me and look very cool LOL.

I LOVE the "OLD" in red across the body. I'm right there with you - I especially relate to "sometimes I don't think I look too bad, but then other times -" Those "other times" is in a candid photograph. I think "Yikes! I look really old"! I totally wish i could embrace my old age, but somehow, I seem to be able to do that.

Marilyn, Marilyn...... first of all, I am sure I don;t need to tell you you are one of my most favorite people, both in the way you create art and as a person, I have learned about you more and more every year, and I love that heart of yours in all the creativity and every conversation we have...... and this, as usual, makes me love you more and more...... I feel you, I love that you have opened your heart in this, visually a jaw dropping art piece, and emotionally.... I feel you again and again..... having said that....
I have a friend Patricia V Davis, who is in the US, a writer. In one of her books, Principles that all women need to know (the tittle I am sure is the Diva Doctrine, but that was more or less the tag line) there is one of these principles that says : "you are AT LEAST 10 times more beautiful than what you think you are" and it is SO true.
It happens with me every time I look at old photos, I look at those and I think : oh my....and to think I thought I was UGLY!!!!! this thing shortens the timeline as we grow older... it started with me looking at 5 or 10 years old photos, now I look at photos from last year from when I remember well feeling like I looked horribly old, and I think, wait a minute....I didn;t, not that much LOL
anyway, I better go before this turns into a novel....but you are important to me, I like saying what it comes to heart, especially as my brain doesn't work well and I may forget to write to you later.... so, this is AWESOME, even though I think you look quiet young and beautiful... I know that feeling, I suffer from so many conditions that battered my body before it was time....so I know that feeling well.... and love that you opened your heart in such an amazing piece here...I feel honored. LOVE love , love the page, and, you know, I love YOU> (I m gonna have to make a special DSD Froggy Faves to take so many of these pages to it....I will be back for that, if I do now I loose the plot LOL)
Thanks you so much for playing with us!!!