#Cryoglobulinemia - Day 1 - Awareness Month 2017

Day 1- September is Cryoglobulinemia Awareness Month. 

This year I will try to write a short personal blog daily on living with Cryoglobulinemia. The Goal: to increase understanding, awareness, and compassion for those suffering from Cryo and the ones who love and support us.

I was 15 when symptoms of the disease began. After many sleepless nights, I was diagnosed with fibromyalgia, sinusitis, hyperglycemia and gastrointestinal issues but as I think back, it was the Florida "cold" by way of outside heat and then air conditioned buildings that really got me aching.

Horrendous symptoms prevailed and by the age of 23 my legs went black. They were almost amputated. At 26, a specific blood test revealed the diagnosis of Cryoglobulinemia. 

Years with no sleep, complicated and confusing medical issues and my failing marriage sent me on a downward spiral that caused me to fall apart by the age of 27. Some of the worst years of my life taught me much.

Against all odds, I've made it to 50 years of age. 

Ice Cream Headaches
Have you ever gotten an ice cream headache? Can you imagine having that kind of ache in your entire body for one hour?  For 24 hours?  ...What about 30+ years?

The deep pain and ache settles into your bones and every muscle fiber... you stretch, use hot packs but nothing helps.  

It's Cryoglobulinemia Awareness Month.


My name is Dr. Diane Dike. This is some of my cryo story.














Author: Diane Dike, Ph.D., founder of Second Chance with Saving Grace, Inc., an international nonprofit organization dedicated to providing hope and help to those in need.

She is the author of The Adventures of Gracie and Diane book series for children and animal lovers of all ages. All proceeds from the sale of The Adventures of Gracie and Diane book series and Gracie merchandise go to support the outreach work of Second Chance with Saving Grace, Inc., whose mission is to encourage individuals of all ages to overcome even the most daunting of life’s challenges with God’s help.

A gifted teacher, singer, mother and speaker, Diane lives in the Vail Valley of Colorado with her husband Paul, fourteen-year-old service dog Gracie and SIX adopted children and foster children as they need her.

And They're Off.....

Daily Devotion brought to you by Shelley Brandon, Grief and Encouragement Coach

 

Hebrews 12:2 MSG

Do you see what this means—all these pioneers who blazed the way, all these veterans cheering us on? It means we'd better get on with it. Strip down, start running—and never quit! No extra spiritual fat, no parasitic sins. Keep your eyes on Jesus, who both began and finished this race we're in. Study how he did it. Because he never lost sight of where he was headed—that exhilarating finish in and with God—he could put up with anything along the way: Cross, shame, whatever. And now he's there, in the place of honor, right alongside God. When you find yourselves flagging in your faith, go over that story again, item by item, that long litany of hostility he plowed through. That will shoot adrenaline into your souls!”

We live in a race.  Some call it a rat race, some call it a maze.  Either way it’s a lot of energy expended on doing things that don’t need to be done.  Don’t sweat the small stuff, right?

I don’t know about you, but I can get so caught up in the small stuff that I lose sight of my destination, my goals.  This happens in my day to day activities as well as long range objectives.  I can get on the computer to send encouragement to a friend and get so caught up in everyone’s Facebook status updates that I completely forget what it was that I started out doing in the first place.  For me cleaning house should be a marathon event.  I spend so much time walking back and forth after the supplies that I thought I already had with me that I’m exhausted before even one room is done. 

Getting caught up in day to day activities prevents me from keeping my focus on what I’m supposed to be doing for Christ.  I allow the busyness of life to weigh me down and drag me under to the point where I’m completely useless as His ambassador.   We’re talking lead blankets on all my limbs type of weighted down.  Dragging the lead blankets against the current of a mighty river weighted down.

That is not what Jesus wants us to do.  Paul tells us that we are to strip down and start running.  Pretty sure he didn’t mean our clothes here, but rather all of the stuff of living that just doesn’t matter.  I love the Message version of scripture.  No spiritual fat, no parasitic sins.  Your sins have been forgiven, leave them behind you and keep running.  Don’t get so caught up in religion that you lose sight of the Savior. 

Read the Gospels and get back to the important tracks of the race.  Embrace Easter and live!

Schedule Gracie and Diane!