Good Things Are Coming

I haven't blogged for awhile but that's because nothing interesting has really been happening, until now. Well, except for some weird female issues that you really don't want to know about. I'm convinced that my body hates me. But anyway. John got a new job!!! He will start working at the hospital in St. Joe in a couple of weeks. I think the job title is called Systems Administrator – you know, computer stuff... He has worked there before, but this particular job opportunity is amazing and will pay a lot more than he is making now. Not only that, but their health insurance isn't as expensive so we will be saving about $400 a month on that alone. I am so excited! John wasn't the only applicant – I don't know how many they were interviewing, but he had to go through 3 interviews. It all started before Thanksgiving so it's been a long, nerve-wracking process. The waiting has been awful, and we tried to not really talk about it until we knew for sure, which was hard. I am so proud of John. He deserves this more than anyone I know. He is such a great people-person that I'm sure his awesome personality helped him get the job (along with his awesome computer skills, of course).

Yes, we are planning on moving back to St. Joe. We don't know when exactly. I am going to be extremely picky on the area we live in. When we first moved to St. Joe, we had an apartment in a good area and everything was fine. Then we bought a house in mid-town and things went downhill. We didn't even live in the really bad parts of town but it was bad enough for us – a couple of people from a small town with very little violence. One of the scariest moments for me was coming home from work one afternoon and realizing someone had broken into our house. I know that Dakota was young because I was carrying him. I walked through the house and noticed things missing and rummaged through, and I noticed the back door had been kicked open. At that moment, I didn't even know if someone was still in the house. And afterward, I was just so uncomfortable knowing that someone had gone through our stuff. I remember, not long after we moved back to Maryville, someone was murdered just a few blocks from where we lived. So... this time around, I'm determined to stay on the East side of the Belt. I know it will be more expensive to live on that side and I'll probably make John install extra locks. We actually looked at a duplex we really liked the other day. The street it was on was perfect. But we didn't have the money for a deposit yet, and it sounds like there is a chance it might be taken now. The apartments that we had originally looked at don't have any openings – except for some that are based on income and we will be making too much for that. We know now that we don't want to live anywhere where it's even partially based on income because of the strict rules and the lack of privacy with the housekeeping checks. We can't find any other 3 bedroom apartments and I'm pretty sure we won't be able to buy a house anytime soon, so we don't have a lot of options. Houses for rent are so expensive. If that duplex we looked at IS taken already, I'm going to be heartbroken.

Anyway, Thursday was my Lyme appointment in Columbia. I had to be there at 7:45 that morning, so we went down the day before and stayed in a hotel. I was supposed to have gone back in September of last year, but we were broke and I had to reschedule my appointment. All my prescriptions expired so I have been off antibiotics since then. I was feeling moderately better right before I went off the antibiotics and now I feel like crap again most of the time (though I still feel better at night). The doctor was great though and talked to me for a long time. He has a new antibiotic regimen planned out for me for the next 6 months so hopefully I'll start feeling better again. He is pretty sure that I have something called Bartonella as well – it's an infection you can get from a tick and it's fairly common to get it along with the Lyme. Ticks carry so many different diseases. It's hard to test for so he is basing it on my symptoms. I really like this doctor and I like the amount of time he spends talking with me. I'm supposed to go back in July. By then we should be much more financially stable and it won't be such a hardship to go to my appointment. Even though it's just a follow-up, the appointments are $300 that you have to pay out of pocket. We seriously had to get a bank loan just for me to go to this appointment. Luckily we can pay it back soon when we get our taxes. It's just pathetic to have to get a loan to see a doctor and it's sad that the doctors aren't supposed to treat chronic Lyme – even if it makes the patients feel better.