ON A WING & A PRAYER

this week sparky's first 2 doses of IVIG arrived. as is all things pertaining to lyme (& lyme treatment), this was not a straightforward process. in fact, it rarely is. in order to pick up many of our meds, we have to make a canada/usa border crossing. we call these 'drug runs' and we make them frequently.  

even though prescription meds are exempt
and 
everything we are doing is above board
and
we do this all the time,
we still find these drug runs stressful.

in general, our drug runs usually total between $500 to $1200. declaring that amount, after having only been in the country for 20 minutes, has raised more than a few eyebrows. we get it - our whole situation is a bit bizarre sounding and it is exhausting to try an explain to a grumpy border guard, so we are very  grateful when we are waved through at the border without having to provide a lengthy explanation. 

more often than not, this is the case but you just never know.
somehow, this time just felt a ton more stressful than usual...
this time our sojourn into the usa had been under 20 minutes
and
we'd be declaring close to $3,000.

on top of that, the whole shipping and delivery process had been a bit of a nail biter as the meds had been shipped from florida. they had to be kept cold so were shipped overnight express on ice. then we had to track the package like fiends to ensure that we made a timely pickup at the PO box. 

after all, there is so much at stake
and
so much hope riding on these 8 little vials of human gammaglobulin.

liquid gold, it is.
at that price, it may as well be.

pick up went relatively snag free - i say relatively because the package was addressed to sparky - and his name is not on the "authorized to pick up" account. in fact, he wasn't registered in the system at all so initially the mail gal couldn't even find it! all i can say, is that we are very fortunate that we are frequent customers.

we were in and out of there with our precious cargo in under 10 minutes. as the border crossing and guard booths came into view my heart rate increased, my insides wobbled and my hands started to shake and i uttered a breathless whisper of a prayer, "please, Lord, just have them wave us through." 

i breathed deeply and reminded myself that others were praying that too as i had posted this as a prayer request on FB earlier in the day...

"please pray custom officials wave us thru,

 despite the eyebrow raising dollar amount we will be declaring." 

just as we pulled up to the booth,
the officer inside turned her back to us and spoke into her radio.
my heart sank.
the one and only time that an officer pulled that move was because they were calling in a search team because, as we were told, the system had randomly selected our vehicle for a search.

yet, as the guard turned around to face us, her eyes were not on us.
i followed the direction of her glance
and
there, just past my passenger side and by an empty guard booth, stood a man. he was trying to open the door to the booth.
i heard the guard say, "excuse me."
the man did not look up.
i glanced back at her as she said it again, "excuse me. what are you doing?"
with her eyes still fixed on the man, she addressed us,
"anything to declare?"

"yes." came graham's reply, "$2,956.10 in prescription meds."
i held my breath.

she gave us a brief, blank look as she craned her neck, raised herself up on tippy toe and as she began to once again address the mystery man, she waved us through.

HALLELUJAH!

i caught a glimpse of the man as we drove away. he was an ordinary enough looking older gentleman. dressed in unassuming attire with a tool belt slung across his shoulder...but i can't help but wonder about the origins of this mystery man. after all, his odd presence heralded us thru the border on a wing and a prayer.

we face another issue that we are trusting we will be lifted up on a wing and a prayer too. we do need help. we are incredibly grateful that the help of family and donations from some friends, have made it possible for us to secure this first dose of IVIG. it means that sparky will be able to start this treatment within the time frame that DR H recommended... i'd also like to send a shout out to Infuserve America, a pharmacy that works hard to help uninsured Lyme patients access IV meds at as low a cost as possible. 

as you can see they helped us "save" a substantial amount on Sparky's IVIG.

please keep in mind that this is the first of what is expected to be a minimum of 6 doses of this medication. we cannot finance this without help.  the photo fundraiser that our friends kristie and alexis are holding on our behalf is next saturday and sunday - a mere week away. 

as it stands today, one person is registered to take part. 
surely there will be more? 
we are hoping that this number will increase. 

we are trusting for angels to show up for this too!

please don't delay!
sign up today!
you can book your session by contacting Kristie at 604-910-3866 or email info@dejongimages.com 
or
through our facebook event page at
Mother's Day Lyme Fundraiser