Monday, November 9, 2009

Halloween and Girl Scouts of America

Hannah and Jacqui carving our Halloween pumpkins

Halloween pumpkins by Jacqui & Hannah

Jacqui's Halloween costume




Hannah and Jacqui and their new Girl Scout troop - just after making their promise (being invested) into the Girl Scouts of America

We haven't been so busy over the past few weeks. Mainly we have been finding where everything is in Annapolis (we still haven't figured out everything yet), but we've still had some fun.
We had our first real Halloween. Hannah and Jacqui carved pumpkins which we lit up with candles. One is of a bat, and the other the classic "Jack-o-lantern" shape. On the back of the bat they carved a southern cross, to bring a bit of home to Halloween. Jacqui and Hannah actually celebrated Halloween at Lake Peekskill, New York, with their friends from the NBTSC camp, and had a great time trick or treating. Nikki & Steve were at home in Annapolis, looking after the neigbourhood kids who came trick or treating - which was a lot of fun.
Hannah and Jacqui ran an "Australian Girl Guides" workshop for 130 girls & parents near Washington DC - this was partly for their Queen's Guide Award back home, but mainly to start spending some time with some Girl Scouts. Unfortunately there were no Girl Scouts their age (the oldest was about 12), but they had a great time, and did a great job.
After many months of negotiations with the Girl Scouts of America (Central Maryland) Jacqui and Hannah finally have a Girl Scout troop to call home when they are here. They seem like a nice bunch of girls, very similar to their unit back home. They took part in an investiture ceremony, where they made their promise as Girl Scouts.

We are heading off to Florida next weekend to spend some time with Steve's exchange student sister Tammy & her family, going to Walt Disney World (to see our friend Sara from Australia who is working there), and most excitingly of all, to watch the launch of the Space Shuttle, with the families of the astronauts (thanks to Tammy).
We promise to put up some photo's from Florida as soon as we get back.
We hope you are all well. We are having some challenges with our health (see the post below this for an update on that), which we hope will resolve over time, with the right treatment.

Thursday, November 5, 2009

Our (not so happy) news

This is our new weekly medicine routine - maybe for the next 18 months

Normally we post here about all the fun exciting things we’ve been up to and spare you the boring or not so pleasant things. We will get back to the fun and exciting again after this post, but thought this was a good way to let everyone know what was going on for us…..


Nikki is continuing the treatment for Lyme Disease (LD) that she started in January, and has had some slow improvement (very slow - it is a bit of a long hard slog). We are hoping that will continue with her now seeing one of the world’s experts in Lyme Disease in Hyde Park New York.

During her consultation in September with the LD specialist, he was very concerned about Hannah, Jacqui and Steve possibly also having acquired Lyme Disease, so they had the testing. They all came back positive, and have all been diagnosed as having Lyme Disease, and are starting similar treatment to Nikki. Hannah & Jacqui got it from Nikki transplacentally, and Steve got it sometime during the 20 years they’ve been married.

It explains Jacqui & Steve’s strange health problems over the past few years, and we have suspected that Hannah has had Lyme Disease for a while now, as she has been getting much sicker (almost as sick as Nikki, with many of the same symptoms making our trip in Europe very hard for her). We are hopeful that now we have a diagnosis and we start
treatment for everyone, that we will begin to get better, and possibly even recover completely (there isn’t a cure for Lyme Disease, you always live with it, you can keep it under control with antibiotics, supplements and herbs).

We just want to stress that Lyme Disease isn’t normally contagious, except from a mother to a baby in the womb, and sometimes sexually transmitted, so there is no chance that our friends and family can get it from us.

So the summary is that Jacqui & Steve have Lyme Disease mildly, and Hannah & Nikki have it severely. The treatment will be large doses of antibiotics, supplements and herbs, as well as injections for Hannah. We don’t know how long the treatment will last, but a few months for Steve & Jacqui (maybe) and a minimum of 18 months for Nikki & Hannah (& maybe much
longer).

We will post here soon about our Halloween experience, and our upcoming trip to Florida (where we will be watching a Space Shuttle launch (with the family of one of the astronaut’s being blasted off into space), catching up with old friends and going to Walt Disney World). We are missing all our family and friends, and think of you often, & hope you are all well back home, and enjoying the warmer weather.