Its Fall

 Hello my little corner of the internet! Long time no speak, i'm still alive I promise!

I am nearing the end of my third quarter of chiropractic school! Next month I will be three quarters down, eleven more to go! 

In school I have joined the Applied Kinesiology club (AK) and have begun going to seminars to learn the subject the best I can. For those familar with AK and my story, AK played a significant roll in my healing journey. AK and CPK are two subjects my lyme doc is well versed in, and I personally one day would like to also master the subject. I still have a ways to go, like with anything the further into a subject I go, the more I realize there is too know. All in all school has been great but it is a full time schedule. Seminars on some weekends, 7a, classes 3x a week, 32.5 credit hours. Not much down time! Plus I am still making it to the gym, my current goal is 3x a week. I usually save it for the last activity of the day before dinner. 

As far as my health and lyme and PANDAS are all concerned, I am still doing well. I have moments where my fatigue slows me down, or I struggle to get a decent nights sleep. A couple months back I found a local place where I can get IV C again, I did my 3rd yesterday. Each visit I have gone up in dose, my first was 10grams, then 25grams, then yesterday was 50grams. The first two really brought my energy back up and lasted. I felt great! The 50g yesterday may have been a big jump, today I have been worn out but granted there are many reasons for this to be possible. 

I have noticed, comparing myself to other students, that I am not always to keep up with others as far as how quickly I learn. Some students here I would describe as being truly brilliant, not that anyone here would be described as "dumb" but some people can pickup new things very quickly. I am nothing but impressed, I just have to remind myself that I have a different learning style than other people. I am also far from the only one who has to put in real effort to learn new things.

One thing I learned about the chiropractic field, a lot of people do not choose chiropractic as their first career choice. A lot of students ended up here for other reasons besides " I just knew I wanted to be a chiropractor". To clarify, I do not think there is anything wrong with this, its just an observation. I have known for years what direction I wanted to go in with my life. 

My roommate for example wanted to be a dentist first, another friend of mine was in veterinarian school and decided she didn't like the field as much as she thought, another guy decided he needed to go back to school and this was a good place to go. Everyone has a different reason to be here, but I did find it odd a whole lot of students never even went to the chiropractor before becoming a student here. Not once. 

I have a lot of thoughts on this haha, but for now I will keep them to myself. I think in part some people thought it would be an easy way to get the doctor title added to their name, or bone popping sounds like fun, I don't know. I do know, there are a lot more benefits and meaning behind chiropractic than I thought there was. 

It is amazing to me, to look back and see the journey that God has placed me on. The pathway that taught me the patience to reach for more information and the caring spirit to want to help others. If I was in this just because I wanted to be a doctor, Im not sure I could do it. I am looking forward to learning all that is available to me and the options I will have for when I reach practice. 

Campus Tour

 I Toured my Soon to be College Campus!

This morning was amazing! My mom and I went and toured my soon to be college, I will start in April. I was able to meet people and see the classrooms and apartments. It was great! The people on campus, staff and students were the nicest people. They all told their story briefly, and everyone of them had a story. The college, being a chiropractic school, is multinational big time. One of our guides was from Puerto Rico and another was from Berlin, Germany. One was raised by a chiropractor, the other had a neck injury when he was a teenager and was inspired when he was healed by a chiro. In Germany, he said there are only around 120 chiropractors for the whole country-so not very many at all. I bet theres that many within 75 miles of me LOL. 

I felt like I was around other people who got it, people who are living with a purpose and dedicated to helping others. All of the teachers on campus are either DC, MD, PHD or a combination. One teacher that toured us around was from Egypt, he was both an MD and DC. He did not entirely give his story, but he seemed very fascinated by people. 

One of our tour guides, we were her last tour before she graduates, she had a back injury when she was a teenager and took the medical route. It didn't work for her and she was miserable, she lived with her issues for a long time but when she reached her early 30's she decided to go back to school and ended up at this one. She told my mom and I how she was pushed into it all, by God, how it all just landed into place and how she ended up in the chiropractic field. Pretty much all of the students who spoke said similar, they felt that this is where they were supposed to be and it was not an accident. Imagine being around that many like minded people who all believe that they are actually serving a purpose, rather than living aimless!

Talking to this tour guid though, she almost made me cry. When I told her my story, and I was only able to share a fraction of it with her, all she said was "oh my God" and she got it. She could see all I had been through and didn't question it. And she said to me "you keep sharing your story and never stop. Remember your why. Share your story often, it will mean so much.".

I have never felt like this before, but I felt like someone put such a strong value on my purpose to help others. No one tried to critique it, question it or tell me there was something wrong. I always shy away from sharing my story too much, I don't want to over share or make it seem like I have been through more than the next person. I never want to let someone feel bellow me because their story is different from mine. But this lady made sure to show me, that I am adding a value rather than substituting someone else out. How often do you hear a doctor, not talking over or trying to explain why they are right and you are wrong?? The first thing that comes to my mind when I hear "doctor" is someone who is smart but not wise, someone who tends to be snotty and a bit holier than thou. I did not get that feeling at all with any of these people today. 

This was a way different feeling from my undergraduate, the whole campus. It was a lot cleaner, a lot friendlier, a bit smaller. It will be another hard journey, making it through and passing all the boards, but I can do it. I have to do it. The environment will be much more positive than my undergrad though, because the nice thing about grad school is that most everyone that is there, wants to be there. It is more than just a means to an end, its a foundational beginning. 

I Got In

 I Have Some News!!!

Last week I recieved an important phone call, the person on the other line gave me some very important news that I have long awaited for. Today I received a letter in the mail, and I could finally see the good news in black and white.

I got into graduate school!! I will begin attending chiropractic school next year! My opportunity to officially join the alternative health community has happened, I will be more than the technician and a phone call answerer that I am now!!

I applied for the Spring Quarter starting in April of 2021, but the admissions lady that called me extended the invite to join the school in January instead. I have no yet given her my choice, its only been a few days, but I will probably hold out and start in April. I would love love love to start sooner, but I shouldn't rush into things and change my original plans. I have some things I need to do before I dedicate my life to school even more than I already have. I want to visit some friends, I want to do some traveling (though the current state of the world may inhibit that...) and I want to enjoy time off from formal education for a little bit.

For those who are not familiar with how the standard chiropractic program operates, it is 14 quarters. Roughly 9 weeks on with 1 week breaks in between each quarter, year round-with a little extra time at Christmas. The first two years are much like medical school, lots of science courses-read...THE hard courses. The last two years, adjustments, techniques, radiology and the like are taught. Again, its not easy anywhere along the way, but from what i'm told its just like undergrad. Some classes will be long and painful, others will be fairly easy (again. in comparison). Ive talked to some chiropractors around town about their education process, one man whose been in the business for a couple decades said when he went to chiropractic college it was a 12 quarter program, or roughly 3 years instead of 4-it has become more dense and difficult in the modern day. 

I am so, so proud of my lyme doctor for helping me reach this point in my life. When I was in high school, my parents pushed me to duel enroll in college, because in my state it is free college-the state pays it. I remember being absolutely miserable. My brain fog was in full swing, class was a blur, the teachers were great but I physically and mentally just barely made it through. And that was freshman classes, not hard classes yet!

Now here I am excited and ready to jump into a graduate program which I already know will be more intense and I cannot wait. I feel like I am already ready and prepared, good to go! I don't really dread it, knowing that it will be intense and will wear me out at times. I just cannot believe I have reached the point in my life where I can be excited for school and want to do more.

I have so, so, so much to be grateful for. My health, my clear (enough) brain, my energy, my physical strength, my family, my support system, my doctor, my drive (def. from God, not from me), my ability to realize that  what I have been given time and time again is a gift from God. I have made it a long way, sometimes I had to be pushed, sometimes I was pushing myself.

New Era

The beginning of a new era is on my calendar. In the past, oftentimes things in the future were scary, this time it's exciting. I have one more trip planned to go see my lyme doctor in March, the way I feel right now I probably could skip it and keep going but due to the nature of the schooling I do not know when I will have free time again to take a week or so to fly out to Kansas. So March it is!

I will of course continue to write here, I know I have been fairly quiet. If I am not mistaken google has pushed the blogger platform back some and made it less advertised online, so I know my posts on this platform are not as shared as they once were from standard google searches. But even so, I will continue to journal and share the things I learn along the way. I started this blog to catalogue my life, I see no reason to stop just because I am feeling better. I have seen so many lyme blogs end abruptly with no reason given, and you never know what happened. Did they get better? Did they stay better? Did they actually get their life back or was it only an improvement?

I want to show what it is like to beat chronic lyme and keep going with my life.

I was telling my dear friend that I feel that with this acceptance, I can actually accept this dream rather than fear losing it. Because with chronic disease, it can be so hard to dream for fear of getting let down again. 

Anyway, just wanted to share my most recent good news!!