lavendar and developer

so my mom, dad, and brother all have Lyme disease. my brother has had it for about 10 years now, but they were able to catch it super early and pretty much nipped it in the bud so he may not have it really anymore, however it supposedly stays in your system for your entire life. during last summer while on our family vacation in new jersey, my dad discovered a large tell-tale bull's eye rash on his arm. for a person who does have Lyme, they should consider themselves pretty lucky to get this symptom, because not everyone does. this allowed my dad to get himself to the doctor relatively quickly and get checked up... however he had the misfortune of having probably one of the only doctor's who would tell him it was probably nothing to worry about. he didn't think it was Lyme - he said he thought my dad had a bad spider bite. mind you, the bull's eye was at least 5 inches in diameter. it wasn't until several tests, another doctor's opinion, and 6 weeks later that it was concluded that he did in fact have Lyme, and got started on medicine for it. the 6 weeks my dad went through not getting correct treatment, and then the time it took before the medicine was able to sink in and do its thing, was a little nerve racking. my dad is one to never ever get sick, and during this time he came home early from work about a 10 times due to not feeling well. now my mom did not have the luxury of having the commonly Lyme-linked bull's eye. she just felt miserable all the time, and decided she probably had it too. the first several tests for it also came back negative, which happens a lot with Lyme, but she had a doctor who was pretty much the antitheses of my father's first, and she was also convinced my mom had Lyme and started treatment on her for it before they got a definite answer. eventually her tests did read positive for it, however while my father was pretty much all better by this point and back to his old self, my mom had gotten worse, and here her doctor had started treating her right away. she battled with it all through the winter and fall, feeling run down all the time and generally not well. she felt tired, she ached, she had numbness in her left leg and one side of her face. i don't think a full week of work went by where there wasn't at least one day that she had to come home early. i hadn't seen her like this in almost 15 years - when i was about 6 1/2 or 7 years old my mom had cervical cancer, and although i didn't fully understand what was happening i knew something wasn't right and knew that my mom was not well. she was supposed to be the strong one, i was supposed to stuck in bed, or my brother. so, her troubles with Lyme persisted however she finally got on some medication by the next summer that seemed to be doing some good. however, the unfortunate thing with it is that when the medicine is doing its best and doing what it's meant to do, that's when you feel the worst. the doctors call it the "die off" period, which is basically when your body has been consistently barraged by it and it has finally started to sink into the Lyme bacteria, killing it off. this puts your body into overdrive leaving you feeling fatigued, headache-y, and generally miserable. this happens about every 2 weeks. we went on vacation, back to the jersey shore, in mid-late august for a week, and i hadn't seen my mom look so healthy in... well, about a year. and all she wanted to do while we were on the beach was to be in the water, be in the salt air. my mom hasn't wanted to go in the ocean, and hadn't willingly, since my brother and i were small. she had no aches, no pains, no fatigue. as we were getting ready to leave, quite literally as we were about to pull away from the house and hop on the road to drive home, my mom and dad rushed the landlord and booked the house for 2 weeks next summer.

after she got back, she decided something amazing most have come from being in the salt water and breathing in the air, and that it was time to find a new way to treat herself for Lyme. she talked to her doctor about it, about a month and a half ago she started on a more holistic approach and started on the path of homeopathy, and got herself another new doctor who practiced these things. she has been doing amazing, and has felt so good. sea salt baths, change of diet, a daily helping of what is called a "remedy" but that neither of us have any idea what's in it. and also my mom has been reading up on homeopathy and is completely fascinated from it. i am quite happy to see her doing so well. it's long overdue.

my mom brought to my attention something that really struck me and that we both found it surprising and rather interesting. see, my family has often wondered how i haven't gotten Lyme. i have a preoccupation with the outdoors and am not exactly what you would call cautious in the preparing myself for nature. i love running around barefoot, lying in grass, climbing trees, stomping in puddles, picking up bugs... i'm pretty much a 12 year old boy, affirmatively. but i've always, always been drawn to lavendar. i don't know what it is, but something about it has captivated me and i love having it all around. there's of course the aromatherapy aspect of it, lavendar being a key to relaxation. but i love it and am always on the lookout for the best lavendar scent. so anyway, my mom told me about something her new doctor told her, and that was that lavendar repels ticks. who would have thunk? doesn't seem like it should be that simple.

i had bought 2 thin leather bracelets while at the beach and haven't taken them off since i first put them on, so the lavendar smell of my body wash has soaked in. however now that i have been taking photography and making prints, so has the smell of the photo chemicals. not as nice as lavendar, that's for sure. but anywho... here's a couple pictures i've developed recently:

ok so i lied. blogger is being a pain in the tush.

also, check out the new link i have in my links list over to the left, Musings of a Musician. my friend BJ has started up a blog and would love a little debate. let's give it to him!