what a weekend

despite the rain and cold of our sad excuse for a typical danish summer, the strawberries are producing. three buckets we managed to pick today. there were more, but the energy faded before we could pick them all. they'll be there tomorrow as well.  energy was low because we got home around 4 a.m. last night after attending husband's middle child's gymnasium (high school) graduation festivities. on graduation day, the kids got to the ceremony in the morning, then drive around in a decorated and highly dangerous looking open truck, drinking all day long. they visit each student's house, where the parents try to get salty snacks down them and the odd red bull to keep them going as they go back to their beer and cider and odin knows what else on the truck. hmm, i don't seem to remember my high school graduation being that much fun.

i'm also tired because i've probably got a case of borrelia, which you may know as lyme disease. husband removed a tiny tick from the back of my arm a couple of weeks ago and on friday, it felt like my whole body was breaking down. it started with nighttime leg cramps, which hurt so badly they caused me to throw up from the pain. then, i developed a fever and chills felt generally very unwell. this was no fun because i was visiting friends and not at home.

i called my doctor back at home and he recommended that since i wasn't home, i should go to an emergency room. i did and ended up spending the whole day there, getting a battery of blood tests while doctors ruled out a blood clot in my leg (which i feared it was initially). while lying there waiting for the various tests, i read webMD on my phone (i do not recommend doing this) and diagnosed myself with addison's, deep vein thrombosis and type II diabetes. however, i came across a reference to lyme and remembered that tick from a few weeks ago, so it wasn't all bad. i told the doctor about it and she immediately nodded, saying it made sense in light of my symptoms.

i had actually been to my own doctor last monday with a strangely achey, stiff neck and a swollen lymph node but they couldn't find anything then. the blood tests on friday showed that my body was in full swing fighting some kind of infection. i will have to have some more tests with my own doctor this week to have it confirmed, but they started me on the heavy antibiotics recommended for borrelia immediately.

what's worrying is that i've read that borrelia is on the rise - doctors are seeing more and more cases of it. sometimes people realize it very early (like me) and sometimes it takes years. if it takes years, it can cause serious damage to nerves and joints that people never really get over. i'm hoping since my tick bite was only a couple of weeks ago that i'll escape that fate. tho' i got a little freaked out on friday, thinking my body was suddenly failing me, i'm glad it made a commotion over this so i could get treatment.