During this trip, I had the incredible blessing of meeting
two Tarlov “cysters.” God has miraculously put Anne in my life through a mutual
friend. She has been an encouragement and given me lots of tips, both
spiritually and physically. While we were in Dallas, we got to meet her and
also see my old friend Nikki who I grew up with. After spending hours on the
phone with Anne, it felt like I was meeting an old friend. There is no doubt that God knew what He was
doing when he led us together. It was very validating to see someone else
laying on the couch asking their husband, “Honey, can you bring me that?” The story of our lives! Michael has never
doubted that I’m making this up in my head. But, still, I couldn’t resist
laughing and saying, “See baby! I’m not making this up!” I’m sure it was encouraging to Michael to know
he isn’t the only husband out there who has to be a servant slave to his wife!
I also had connected with another cyster on the Tarlov Cyst Disease
Facebook group and she is from Asheville. We don’t live too far away from each
other, so after our ordeals are over, I know we will see each other again.
Though we were both hurting and in pain, we still pushed through it to not miss
the opportunity to meet each other. She is also a woman of strong faith and we
all help each other through battling this nasty disease. We both sat on our
tush cushes at the Gas Monkey Bar and Grill and shared how this disease had
affected us. We prayed before our meal and, again, God’s presence was with us.
It was a great comfort to meet another friend who understood firsthand what I
was going through.
I have to say, even though ALL of my TC friends warned me, I
was not mentally prepared for the toll this trip would have on my body. I can’t
explain how I felt. I knew beforehand I couldn’t do much and had to stay in bed
most of the time and only leave the house when absolutely essential or I would
have a nasty backlash. But, for some reason there was still a disconnect in my
mind. I was disappointed that I couldn’t handle it like I normally would and
had unrealistic expectations. It was definitely a wakeup call, that even though
I feel ok sometimes when I’m in bed, I’m not. The impact of pushing myself too
hard not only leads to pain and fatigue, but intense muscle spasms. While we
were in Dallas, I had to see something! I mean, how can you travel to Dallas
twice and not say you’ve seen a single thing!?! So, we drove by where JFK was assasinated and ate lunch in the art district. After that we went to the Gas Monkey
Garage from the show Fast and Loud (Sorry, I’m a girl. I had no idea what this
show was.) As we were crossing the street, the guy from the show literally
almost hit Michael when he was trying to turn in. We bought some souvenirs for
the kids since Conner is a fan of the show too. Every other minute in Dallas I
spent in the hotel room bed. On our way home from the airport, my legs were
weak and unstable and would shake when I stood or walked. The worst was when we
were waiting for our flight and my legs began shaking uncontrollably. Like
NUTS! I’m sure people probably thought I was some kind of drug addict or
something. Especially since I had this nice big bruise on my arm from my MRI
with contrast injection gone wrong. I’d push them down to make them stop, but
then my calf muscles would shake just as badly. Even my hands were shaking.
Luckily, it calmed down after about an hour.
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