I Started taking Hydroxychloroquine - Here's What Happened

Because I had a mild stroke in April and I felt my body had enough to recover from, I asked my doctor for Hydroxychloroquine (HCQ) as a preventative for the Wuhan Virus. 

She said no.

I then asked my neurologist the same thing. 

He said no.

So, I contacted America's Front Line doctors at speakwithanmd.com and they, through a virtual visit, agreed with me and prescribed it for me. The pharmacy was only allowed to give me 11 pills. They cost $30.00. 

I took one a day for five days, then one per week. I take 200 mg once per week now. That's it.

Here's what happened to me since I've been on it:

    The arthritis in my right hand is no longer a problem. This hand was broken a few years ago, and even with a doctor's referral, an orthopedic doctor would not treat me. No reason given. So, I wrapped it up myself and after about three months, it seemed to heal but developed arthritis. It was so painful I had to wear a brace for over a year to be able to sleep and was taking Tylenol twice a day for the pain.

Since taking HCQ, my hand no longer hurts, no longer swells and has gained the strength it had lost. I can grip again....a feature I had lost.....and am able to move and use my hand like it never had a problem!

Based on that, I wanted to be able to keep taking HCQ past my 11 pills, but the governor of our state has put restrictions on it. However, the same doctor was able to prescribe it for me and give me more than a year's supply because he prescribed it for arthritis this time and we used a different pharmacy. Only two pharmacies in my city will dispense it.

I was able to get 60 pills for $85.00.

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The second benefit is, my severe eczema has cleared up. By severe, I mean at one point I had eczema from head to toe over 80% of my body. I tried all kinds of things over the past four years since it broke out and nothing provided lasting relief. While the 80% had finally cleared to less than 20%, it was still severe in that it would break out to the point where it broke the skin and was very painful and bleed. I thought I'd have to deal with it for the rest of my life.

Enter HCQ. 

I had no idea it works on severe eczema! My skin has healed and I have had no breakouts since I started HCQ. Sometimes I have a little itching, but NO breakouts! I am amazed. 

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For my arthritis any my eczema, I hope to take this for the rest of my life.

Bonus: I'll likely never have a respiratory disease because of it, either! 

Win/win.

If you're worried about negative side effects, I have had none. At such a low dose, 200 mg once per week,  side effects are nil. As with any drug, a higher dose would be dangerous, but my low dose makes it safe and effective. The doctor who prescribed it is so pleased about the eczema because he told me he had no idea! It's nice to have a doctor humble enough to admit that.

So, that's my HCQ story!

~Tricia

My Stroke Story

 This is a recount of what happened to me. I do share some opinions of what happened but overall, but this is my experience. 

On Sunday, April 5, 2020, I had spent the day with my hubby. We had gone to Blythe Landing on Lake Norman, one of our favorite spots. He had stopped for a burrito at Chipolte, but I felt funny and didn't want anything. I didn't feel bad, just funny. No big deal.  

When we came home, I put a roast with potatoes and carrots in the InstaPot and dinner was all set. Around 5:45 pm, it was time to set the table for dinner, make the gravy and call the crew. As I attempted to get up off my chair to do just that, I felt extremely dizzy and my legs went very weak. I had to sit back down. At that moment, my son Marty came downstairs and offered to set the table. I tried to talk to him but my words were slurred. I tried to stand up but I couldn't. Something was wrong. Marty ran and got David, my hubby, his dad, and told him what was going on.

He said, "She's having a stroke! Help me get her to the car!" He got my other son, Myles, and he and Marty escorted me to the car. By this time, my words were no longer slurred and could walk fairly well with assistance. 

We got to the urgent care center and I had to check myself in because David was not allowed in with me due to a viral outbreak. They finally took me to a room and ran a bunch of tests, but the tests were inconclusive so they said they wanted to admit me to the hospital where better tests could be run. I was alone except when someone came in to adjust something or run a test. I had a video consult with a doctor and by this time I could walk and talk just fine, even going to the bathroom alone. The doctor said he thought I had a stroke but was sending me to the hospital for confirmation, etc. 

The only way to the hospital was by ambulance so I had to wait for that. I waited over and hour and was very hungry by this time. We had gotten there around 6:00 pm and it was now 9:00 pm. I asked for some food; a nurse found a frozen breakfast sandwich and microwaved it. It was very soggy. I couldn't eat it. 

Finally the ambulance came and two very nice young women took me to the hospital. We chatted on the way and they complained about wearing masks and I told them God loves them. 

David ran home and got a few of my things and tried to meet me at the hospital. He was stopped at the door where they told him he could not come in because of the virus and they would take my things and see that I got them. The room number he was given turned out to be wrong but my things did eventually find me.

I got to my room and was met by a male nurse who said he was my nurse for the night. He told me how lucky and fortunate I was to be walking and talking so well after a stroke. He told me how grateful I should be. Then he left the room and I never saw him again.

They gave me blood pressure medicine since my blood pressure was high. I was walking and talking easily and really just wanted something to eat. They found me a couple graham crackers. That was it. I was so looking forward to breakfast, which I ordered easily on the phone. My talking was fine by then.

The next morning, I was taken out of my room in a wheelchair to go for tests. I had an ultrasound of my neck, an ekg, and 2 MRIs. I was gone for two hours. I was so looking forward to breakfast when I got back to my room; by this time I was super hungry. 

I got back to my room and there was no breakfast. I called the nurse's station and asked about breakfast and they told me breakfast was over! I told her I needed food and she said she'd try to find me something. She brought a small box of cereal and some milk, but no spoon and no bowl. When I told her I needed a spoon at the very least, she brought a styrofoam cup and a plastic spoon. By that time the milk was rather warm and I couldn't eat it. I was so looking forward to lunch.

Besides the blood pressure medication, the doctor had me taking an antibiotic for a suspected "UTI" which I questioned but was told he felt sure I had one. I had never had a UTI in my entire life. But, having no one there to advocate for me, and dealing with the confusion of having had a stroke, I took it. It made me very sick and I was too nauseated to eat for my entire hospital stay. 

After my morning of tests, nothing happened, I was alone except for someone taking my vitals every four hours. My husband could not be with me. I was alone and they kept my door shut because of the virus. I was completely isolated and was not allowed to leave my room, 

They did not change my bedding one time while I was in the hospital. They did not give me a bath towel or clean out the shower for me to use (it was being used to store a bunch of stuff). I felt abandoned. A lady did come and quickly cleaned the bathroom sink at one point.

So, they kept me for a few days, even though I felt fine and wanted to go home. Finally, on Tuesday afternoon, they said I could go home the next day.

Tuesday night, in the middle of the night, I woke up with a start. I was shivering out of control so I called the nurse. I couldn't talk on the speaker to tell her what was wrong so she came to my room. I was very confused, was shivering and suddenly couldn't talk. I tried to tell the nurse something was wrong but she wouldn't listen. She checked the thermostat in my room and it said 55 degrees! I tried to tell her to please turn it up but she would not and said that "you get too warm." I tried to tell her something was wrong because I could hardly talk and she got up in my face and said, A "You brought this on yourself! Calm down or I'm going to give you some medication that will calm you down!"

Then I feared and said nothing more. In my mental state, I felt trapped. I suddenly couldn't talk to make my needs known and no one would listen, I know I could have called another nurse but I'd just had a stroke and was confused. I decided to say nothing more and just go home the next day. I needed an advocate.

When I got up the next morning, I had trouble walking. I was still shivering and could not stop. I made my way to the bathroom and got that done. I noticed when I tried to take my pills, I had trouble swallowing the water they gave me. I told her it was because I was shivering. She believed me. 

A physical therapist came in to make sure I could go home. My actions did not match up with a previous physical therapy report; I was much worse. I told her it was because I was shivering and she believed me.

Next, the doctor, a neurologist, came in my room. He asked if I was ready to go home and I nodded. I tried to talk a little, but I couldn't talk. He looked at me and asked what was wrong and I struggled to say it's because I'm cold and shivering, He shrugged and signed the papers for me to go home.

I went home. I could barely walk and could hardly talk,

I started physical therapy the next day.

The doctors had me go to a speech therapist. I needed my husband to help communicate with her. Not allowed. I struggled the entire time. She was wearing gloves, a long-sleeved gown, a mask and a big shield over her face. She tested my swallowing. She worked on her keyboard for a long time with those gloves on, then started to open a pack of graham crackers for me with those same gloves on. I stopped her and told her I would open my own crackers because I didn't know where those gloves had been or how long she'd been wearing them. I opened my own crackers while she promptly changed gloves. As a matter of fact, once she was aware, she changed her gloves 3 times while I was with her.

She offered me NO speech help whatsoever. She handed me a paper that was printed before I arrived. She asked me repeatedly if I was being abused. I left there with no help for my speech and she said he did not need to see me again. I was on my own.

I found a speech therapist on YouTube who was a tremendous help to me.

A few weeks later, I had an appointment with the neurologist. During that visit, I told him what happened at the hospital; that the nurse threatened me and made me feel unsafe. His response was that he does not deal with hospital staff; that's left to others. 

I filled out the hospital survey of my stay and gave them very negative points. It was awful. They had a policy that patient room doors had to remain closed and no one was allowed in, so I was isolated in a room with a closed door with no one to help me for 3 1/2 days. I could not wait to get home.

My recovery is going well. I had the best physical therapists you could find and they tailored my care to me, helping me recover "faster than they'd ever seen." I was so thankful for them!

I will never go back to that hospital for anything ever again. CaroMont Regional Medical Center. Every single nurse and CNA I saw complained about wearing a mask and they all touched it constantly. I was isolated from anyone who cared and spent all my time alone, too nauseated to eat. They would come in every 4 hours, take my vitals in a hurry and quickly leave all while complaining about the mask. 

Overall, I lost 35 pounds after this stroke. That, and meeting my physical therapists, was the good things that came out of this. At this writing, I am 95% recovered. I still struggle to type. I went from typing 90 wpm to about 30 wpm so that's a challenge still. But, I'll get there.

Thanks for reading to the end and for caring.

~Tricia

What I Knew Then

I was in high school when Roe v Wade was finalized and abortion was made legal. I was clueless and ill-informed, trying to get through each day as most teens do. My main focus was home, my seven siblings and a few close friends.

I may have been clueless and ill-informed, but even in my teenage state of mind, I knew unborn babies were babies. I knew abortion was wrong, had always been wrong and would always be wrong. Maybe it was that I was raised on a farm. I knew a pregnant cat would eventually give birth to kittens because her pregnancy was actually kittens growing inside her. I knew a new calf was the result of the pregnancy of the mother cow. I knew turtle eggs would mean turtles hatching, that robin eggs meant baby robins were going to hatch.

I also knew that destroying turtle eggs was the same as destroying turtles. I knew if one of the cats got to the robin eggs, they would be having unhatched baby robins for lunch. I knew this from observation and common sense (which my dad would call horse sense to this day). It was common knowledge to me that abortion meant killing a baby and killing a baby is wrong.

Imagine my confusion when I heard pro-abortionists argue that a fetus is just a bunch of cells and not a baby. At first I thought they were just clueless and ill-informed. I remember thinking that someone needed to educate them so they would realize abortion meant they were killing babies - and surely they would put a stop to it. In my young mind, abortion was unthinkable.

I knew what a fetus was - it translates "little one," and not just any little one - a human little one. A little human. Specifically, according to the Merriam-Webster Dictionary, "a developing human from usually two months after conception to birth." Prior to two months after conception, the child is called an embryo. These are simply terms and they are describing different stages of life. Not one of these terms denies the humanity of a fetus/embryo/baby.

I knew abortion was wrong even in my limited understanding of things as a clueless teen. I knew!

Today, the Colorado legislature voted down a bill that would require doctors to provide medical care to babies who survive abortion. They voted it down. How can they think this is acceptable? The bill is talking about babies born alive. Think of it. A baby, born after a failed abortion, left to die of neglect. I shudder.

Just like that, abortion has transitioned to infanticide. It didn't really take that long, less than a generation. Other states have done the same thing. The stuff of horror films has been a legal reality for helpless babies since 1973. Horror. Absolute horror.

May God have mercy on their souls.

~Tricia

A One-Time Resolution to Last a Lifetime

Another new year.....and this time a new decade! I've seen many people summarize the past decade with a year-by-year recount of a major event for each year and it's a good idea to do that as a reminder of what God has done in our lives.

Do you make New Year's Resolutions? I normally don't because I find them confining and they interrupt creativity. However, there's one "resolution" I made many years ago that has stood the test of time and remains true for me today. This was not a New Year's Resolution, it was simply a resolution I made to myself in response to spiritual abuse and I resolved to never let that happen again.

My decades-long resolution: To never take anyone's word for what God's Word says; always look it up for myself.

God's Word is very commonly misused, misinterpreted, used as a weapon, and abused in many other ways. I have not found even one "Bible study book" that does not misuse, misrepresent and/or teach things that are outright against what God's Word actually teaches. I honestly can't for the life of me figure out why people buy and use so-called "Bible study books" since they are anything but.

Most abuses of God's Word are very subtle and hard to spot. Bill Hybels, in his book Simplify, misuses God's Word right in the introduction. He said, and I paraphrase, that if we fail to simplify our lives by cutting back on our hectic schedules, we run the risk of forfeiting the abundant life Jesus promised us in John 10:10. We cannot forfeit the abundant life promised in Christ since he's talking about quantity of life in this verse.....as in, eternal, everlasting, unending life. Bill Hybels is wrong, but without such threats to our very relationship with Jesus, Bill wouldn't sell many books. He has to keep his target audience under threat.

In nearly all her books, Beth Moore refers people to her other books telling them they "need" to read another one of her books to answer a particular question and she claims her books will change your life. She does not refer people to God's Word, she refers them to her own books. She claims that if she did not write her books, the rocks would cry out. She equates her books with God's Word in this way. Her books have been recommended to me by well-meaning friends, but I've yet to get past her introductions before I find her abusing God's Word. No, thank you.

I was once told by a pastor that he did not want me to teach the Bible in his church, but I was to teach a curriculum he chose, verbatim. When I told him I would not teach it verbatim if it had doctrinal errors, and that I would use God's Word as the final authority for all my teaching, he would not let me teach in what he called "his" church. Goodbye, dude, we have nothing more in common. If God's Word is not your final authority, you have bigger issues than a shallow curriculum filled with bad interpretations of Scripture.

My list of examples and encounters like this is nearly endless, but the bottom line for me is, I will not take anyone's word for what the Bible says. I will look it up. If I'm listening to you preach, I will have my Bible open and make sure you're staying in context and not using the pulpit to bully people or push an agenda. While I would never make a scene, I have quietly walked out of many services and never gone back when the preacher has violated the very Scriptures they claim to be preaching.

Looking things up for yourself creates discernment, confidence, and wisdom. This practice prevents spiritual abuse. It helps your spiritual growth. This is a good practice. Because of this resolve, I do not use Bible study books to study God's Word, I use the Bible. And my related tools are not commentaries, but a good lexicon. I use Logos software, which has lexicons and concordances built in.

A commentary is not a Bible study tool; it is simply someone else's study. Do your own study. Take no one's word for what the Bible says.

Happy New Year!
Happy 2020!
~Tricia

Boycott Chick-Fil-A? What about AARP?

Just this week, it was announced that Chick-Fil-A would no longer support certain charities. Read one article about this here. This particular article (as many others) indicates they dropped their support of these charities in response to pressure from the LBGTQ community. That reason may or may not be true. I don't know since I was not in the room when the decision was made.

However, I have found a good number of professing Christians publicly say "Bye-Bye" to Chick-Fil-A on social media and threaten boycott.

So, basically these professing Christians are doing exactly what the LBGTQ community did. They are telling Chick-Fil-A that unless they continue to contribute to charities they approve of, they will no longer be a customer. This is wrong, unbiblical and utterly foolish. If these people are going to condemn the tactics and actions of the LBGTQ community, why would they turn around and use the same tactics?

Liberty is something many people have a hard time understanding. In the US, we have liberty. Our right to liberty is in our constitution, embedded in our country's DNA. This liberty means Chick-Fil-A can operate in any way they see fit. It's unbecoming to Christianity to boycott Chick-Fil-A over a decision they made. It's inconsistent with Christianity to do this.

I will not boycott Chick-Fil-A.

If Christians want to boycott an organization that supports every liberal cause, including abortion, they should boycott AARP. So many Christians have joined (and promote) AARP, yet boycott places like Chick-Fil-A over one decision (a decision no one really knows the inside story about) that it's very confusing.

Christians, stop adopting the tactics of a liberal organization and use the Bible as your guide, instead.
Take a step back and realize Chick-Fil-A is free to make any decision they want and we as Christians should be the first to recognize - and rejoice in - their liberty to do so.

Now I'm getting hungry.....I think I'll go grab some of Chick-Fil-A's Chicken Tortilla Soup! That stuff is SO good!
~Tricia

Here's a Question for your Pastor

Because 1 Timothy 2:8-12 is often used to make the argument that all women are barred from all preaching and teaching of men for all time, I made a few interesting and powerful observations of how the Apostle Paul speaks to and about women in I Timothy 2:8-12. Keep in mind that my observations are in no way comprehensive and I'm not listing all the observations I've made in this passage. I'm mainly making observations about Paul's mention of women in these verses.

⁸ I desire therefore that the men pray everywhere, lifting up holy hands, without wrath and doubting; ⁹in like manner also, that the women adorn themselves in modest apparel, with propriety and moderation, not with braided hair or gold or pearls or costly clothing, ¹⁰ but, which is proper for women professing godliness, with good works. ¹¹ Let a woman learn in silence with all submission. ¹² And I do not permit a woman to teach or to have authority over a man, but to be in silence.  

My observations:

1. From the first chapter, I already know the Apostle Paul is talking to Timothy and this is the first letter he wrote to him.

2. Verse 9 uses the plural of the word gyné for women. 

3. Verse 10 uses the plural of the word gyné for women.

4. Verse 11 uses the singular of the word gyné for woman.

5. Verse 12 uses the singular of the word gyné for woman.

These observations raised questions in my mind. Why did Paul switch from talking about women, plural, to woman, singular? Is Paul talking about one particular woman and not all women?

We cannot know the exact thought of the Apostle Paul here, but we do know God is very precise in His Word and that every letter and symbol is intentional.

We cannot change the meaning from singular to plural when God has written, through Paul, a singular word. We cannot use this as a proof text that all women are to be silent in all churches for all time. Certainly, if this was an admonition for all women to be quiet in all churches for all time, Paul, himself, violated this again and again as he approved and used women in ministry as deacons, church leaders, patrons, etc.

This requires more study on the part of anyone who teaches or preaches God's Word.
Don't take my word for it, look it up for yourself. If your pastor does not make this distinction when preaching this passage, ask him why.

~Tricia

What Mark Cuban knows Better than your Pastor

Mark Cuban, famous owner of the Dallas Mavericks, inherited a patriarchal, abusive environment within the organization. He came up with a great solution and hired Cynt Marshall as his CEO. Before taking the job, she went around the company and interviewed women, finding out it was not a friendly place for women. She also found that the leadership in the organization was out of balance. She took the job and now, under her leadership, there is a balance of power within the organization and women have an equal voice. Click here for her interview on the Today Show. Click here for her message at an Expotential conference.

In her Today Show interview, she stated, "Diversity is being invited to the party, but it includes being

asked to dance. You can be at the table, but if you can't talk and people are not including you, so what?"

This made me think of the situation at ABWE where, after Donn Ketcham got away with decades of abusing women and girls on the mission field in Bangladesh, ABWE finally put women on their board of directors.....3 women.....and 16 men remained. To this day, ABWE has not done enough to rectify their culture of abuse. It remains.

How is it that a worldly man like Mark Cuban can "get it" about abuse and power and churches don't? One could argue that church leadership is not about "power" but I see nothing but power, and the abuse of power, within today's church leadership.

A recent adult "Bible" study played this out. It was a group of married adults and they were studying a Sunday School quarterly. This particular lesson covered a few of the 10 Commandments, including "You shall not commit adultery." The teacher took the class to Matthew 5:27 & 28, where Jesus says, ".....if a man looks at a woman to lust after her, he has committed adultery with her already in his heart." Ok, so far, so good, but I was shocked at what happened next.

In the class, the people started a discussion about this verse and one woman said, "Well, girls have to be modest." They followed this statement up with extreme examples of women and girls not being modest in church. In looking around the church, I found no one dressed immodestly.

This turned the discussion to women and the "part" we women play in "causing" men to sin and commit adultery in their hearts. I was appalled. This discussion went on for about 10 minutes, and even though a couple of us presented the Truth, that this verse said nothing about women having a "part" in a man's sin, the people stuck to their thinking that men would sin less if women were more modest. Women have NO part in any man's sin.

So, the culture of abuse remains. Women are continuing to be blamed for the sins of men in the church. While I agree women ought to be modest, I contend that the Bible is not talking about modesty in the same way we do today. When Paul taught instructed women to dress in modest apparel, he was talking to wealthy Ephesian women who were flaunting their wealth in church and he wanted them to tone that down since it's not good to flaunt wealth in church. Read more in I Timothy 2:9-10. Paul clarifies that women are to "dress modestly, not with elaborate hair styles, gold, pearls of expensive clothing, but with good deeds..." These verses say nothing about dressing modestly to help men avoid sinning.

What struck me about the discussion in the class is how quickly they spun the Truth of the verses they were studying. Even the teacher of the class did not refute their opinions, but reaffirmed what they were thinking. They are wrong. Spinning Scripture at any time is wrong and it's wrong to take what Jesus said and spin it like they did.

The natural leap of patriarchy is to blame women for men's sins at every turn. If a man sins with a woman, the church talks about what she was wearing or what she did to entice him. But Scripture does not teach this. Scripture teaches that when a man sins, he is drawn away by his own lust and enticed (James 1:14). It does not say women need to modify their behavior in any way to help men avoid sin.

To jump from a verse about adultery where Jesus addresses men specifically, to the subject of girls needing to be modest is a huge and unjustified jump. This jump is very natural for patriarchy, however, and many church folk would argue with me, some vehemently; but they are out of line.

It's not safe or wise to filter the Bible through any lens, even the lens of patriarchy.

Do I think women and men should dress modestly? Of course. I simply stand against the idea that this is taught in Matthew 5:27&28.

~Tricia