A 2 Z: Dragons!

My ideas for the "D" week kept coming back to dragons, even though I really don't have that much to say about them. I loved the movie How to Train a Dragon (although Toothless is a stupid name for a dragon, just saying) and as a child I used to run around the house swinging an imaginary sword, yelling, "One, two! One, two! The vorpal blade went snicker-snack! and with his head he went galumping back." (from "Jabberwocky," of course).

Then it occurred to me that each of us have our own dragons we hunt and maybe even slay, everyday. We gain strength, wisdom, and even respect from each of our battles. The Bible tells us to put on the full armor of God everyday, so we're ready to fight our dragons. Besides the ones that come from Satan and his minions, we have the everyday battles each of us face. Some days just getting out of bed is a battle, or going to work, or cleaning the bathroom. Some of the dragons in our lives are sinful ones we must actively seek out with our vorpal blades.

Others of our dragons are ongoing wars, like my health issues. I've been feeling the heat of one sneaky dragon that's not yet diagnosed, but I think I'm very close to finding the lair. I had an MRI last week that was clean, so between that and my symptoms we think we can rule out MS. So that's one cave that is empty.

The next cave to look in is Ehlers-Danlos Syndrome. It's a genetic connective tissue disease—people who have it don't make enough collagen, so it can affect everything: skin, muscles, joints, and organs. It can range from mild to disabling, but doesn't normally affect the length of life, unless there is a rare complication. My family is pretty convinced we have it, and I see a geneticists on Monday, June 20th to check for it. It would explain so much—more than I even realized needed explaining!—my GI and eye problems since birth, and my current heart issues and joint and muscle pain and weakness (which seem more severe than Fibro alone would cause), etc. Getting this diagnoses would mean I'd go from having tons of random separate issues to just two diseases: EDS and Fibromyalgia. That makes much more sense. It would give me peace of mind of knowing exactly what dragon I'm fighting, and would give the doctors more wisdom to know how to go about keeping it at bay as much as possible.

Next week I'm also meeting with two lawyers to decide which to use to get some help fighting the dragon of the government disability aid labyrinth. The next step will be to go before a judge, though I guess that can take a year before it actually happens. If I get enough support from my doctors, which has been a challenge to even get good care much less anything else from them so far, there is a chance the lawyer could get a special review of my case that would expedite things and could get a ruling of disability without even going to the judge. I'm finally starting to find doctors that are willing to at least try to take care of me, so that's a good sign.

I'm so thankful I'm done with interpreting work at the college for the summer, so I can focus on all these other appointments for a few weeks. Then I'm determined to spend much of the summer doing writing projects. I have one short story that just needs a few more tweaks before I send it off to a magazine, and another in the works. My novel, Reaching Sky, isn't coming along as fast as I'd hoped, but I am half-way done with this revision, so am hoping to get it off to some beta readers for feedback before too long.

I'm so thankful for all my family and friends who stand by with prayer and encouragement to help fight my dragons, and for the ever-present strength and peace from the greatest warrior, God. One group I've found is http://www.healkick.com/, a recently-developed online community for young adults with neuro-immune diseases. If you or someone you know deals with that type of dragon, and is under 40, check out this great new website.

What are your dragons? How has God helped you fight them?

As always, check out my friends' A 2 Z 4 U & Me posts for "D" at Patty Wysong's blog.