Big Layoff

After waiting on pins and needles for many weeks, we finally found out officially this week that Tim has been laid off from his job.  We are so blessed that his employer has been so gracious in dealing with his illness these last 4+ years.  Most recently, his boss had been allowing him to work from home 100% of the time since he was too sick to go into the office.  He even made accommodations for Tim to join meetings via conference call.  It was really a perfect situation for us, and we were so thankful for it while it lasted.

As of right now, Tim is too sick to look for a new job.  That means that he also will not qualify for unemployment, since a main requirement for receiving unemployment is the ability to be actively looking for work, going to interviews, etc.  We are looking into starting the process for disability, but we know that can be a very long process so it probably won't be a feasible option to get us through this time.

The one thing we weren't expecting when we got the news about his lay off was that we will be able to keep our same health insurance for several more months.  That is a huge blessing for us with all the health issues we have currently in our family, including Andrew's broken leg on top of the 3 of us having Lyme.  At least this extra time we weren't expecting will get both Tim and myself several more months into our PICC treatment, and hopefully we'll be done dealing with Andrew's leg.  As an aside, Andrew is our sweet 5 year old with congenital Lyme.  He is currently doing well despite his broken leg, and we are so thankful for that.

We will keep all of you posted as we know more.  If you would, please keep us in your prayers as we navigate this new path we're on.

Andrew's Accident

The following is something I posted on my personal Facebook page yesterday regarding our 5 year old son Andrew.  He is coincidentally our child who has been struggling with Lyme for the past 3 years as well, so we are so sad that he is now dealing with this newest health crisis. 

Update on Andrew: He was out sledding in the neighbor's yard yesterday afternoon with Sarah and the other kids in the neighborhood. At about 4:45 I was in the house making dinner and Sarah and their friend pulled Andrew home on a sled because he couldn't walk. Apparently he was sledding down the 'safe' hill and his sled somehow veered into the woods. He couldn't stop it, and he hit a fallen tree. I carried him in and laid him on my bed and saw that his ankle had strange-looking swelling. We put ice on it and called the pediatrician's office.

We ate dinner and called my wonderful father in law to come over and stay with Tim and the other kids. Andrew rested and ate dinner and slept off and on, and we got to the ER around 7:30. They got him right into X-ray, but then it took a while to get the results back. The ER doctor and the orthopedic on call said that both the tibia and fibula are broken. They put him in a temporary full-leg cast for now, and we are going to the orthopedic tomorrow to figure out what's next. As of right now, it looks like he is looking at 4-6 weeks in the full-leg cast, and then another 4-6 weeks in a walking cast.

Please pray for his healing, and also his emotional well-being. He is not in a good place right now. He is having a hard time processing everything and is also in a lot of pain. Also, please pray for the rest of us as we walk through this with him. Tim is still in bad shape, and there are some other major changes coming our way in the next few days unrelated to our health issues. And for me...since Andrew can't walk for the foreseeable future, he needs to be carried everywhere. With My PICC, I'm technically not supposed to lift more than 10 lbs, but that was pretty unreasonable from the start. What mom of little kids can go without lifting for several months, right??? Because of that though, we're trying to see if we can somehow get a wheelchair for him to use when we have to go out for appointments. We are planning to try to get him into PT eventually to see if they can teach him how to use crutches, but he's not up for that right now.

Thank you all so much for all the love and support you've shown us as we walk through this difficult season in our lives. We appreciate it so much! ♥