like I've come to terms

Come to terms with what, you might ask?  Lyme disease?  Not quite. I still struggle every once in a while with the fact I have it and how it affects every aspect of my life.

No, what I'm talking about now is my wheelchair.  I knew I needed to use it, and I would, but it was SO humiliating to me!  It shouldn't have been but I felt too young to need to sit in it without having any obvious signs of distress showing on my body.  And people would look down at me with pity in their eyes.  Seeing a young mom in a wheelchair probably does that.

You know how I got the wheelchair?  I thought one day early in to treatment that a wheelchair would be helpful and allow us as a family to get out more and go on walks, etc.  But we didn't have one.  I looked them up on craigslist.  I was shocked at just how expensive USED ones were!  I put it out on Facebook that if anyone knew of a wheelchair that wasn't being used, then please consider letting us buy it or borrow it.  I knew we definitely would not be able to afford one.  I lay in bed that night and prayed that somehow God would provide us with a wheelchair.

The next morning my sister called.  She was set to fly in to help with the girls in a few days.  She said, "My in-laws have a really nice wheelchair that they haven't used in years and they said they'd LOVE for you to borrow it."  God really provided for us!  But she was out of state.  HOW to get it?  Well, she found out that even if you aren't physically sitting in the chair, you can get it on the plane for free!  So when she came to visit she brought it to us!

I am SO thankful for the generosity of her in-laws.  How kind and gracious!

A wheelchair to a Lyme patient is such an encouragement.  It allows us to experience more, even if it's not much.  I was confined to the house.  Even walking around the house seemed to stretch my limits of strength.  Church was hard to get to because of the walk from the car to the inside of the church!  A wheelchair allowed me to be more social.

It also helped when traveling on planes.  Most of the trips where to my doctor but some were to see family.  I would have never been able to walk the airport or stand in lines.


It took a LONG time to come to terms with my embarrassment of having to be wheeled around.  I mean, you feel so helpless and know you LOOK helpless.  My husband jokes that it's my "adult stroller".  I guess you can come up with that kind of joke when you wheel around two young kids all the time :).  It doesn't offend me because it's him saying it.

So it's been almost a year and I realized as I was being wheeled around downtown the other day that I don't care.  The benefit of the wheelchair outweighs the embarrassment of sitting in it and now I just smile at those pity-face givers who walk by and look at me instead of hanging my head in shame.

Next up - getting a shower chair (showers are extremely depleting energy-wise).  I have dug in my heels on that one but it is becoming more clear that it would be helpful.  So we'll see.  I'll tell you when I've come to terms with THAT! :)