Hello friends.

 I cannot believe I even still have people who visit this page regularly! It's been a year since I could write and yet you faithful ones are still here, visiting and rereading old posts ... Thank you! I am truly moved. 

This time I do have a legitimate reason though...

I WAS SICK!

So here is the story for those of you that would like to know :-)

Last year (2014) from around July, I started finding my energy levels were not what they had always been and put it down to overwork. I was finding it more and more difficult to manage a full work day and my house full of children. I was also getting more and more stressed because I felt TLC had lost its momentum and really needed a recharged vision but I could not think of a way to get this done.

Finally in September 2014, I could no longer carry on. My physical state was in severe fatigue and my heart and mind were depressed. I announced to management my intention to step down out of the knowledge that I needed to take long leave and regain some perspective.

I spent from October 2014 to January 2015 (Yes, that's 4 MONTHS!) sleeping 12 to 18 hours a day, I developed headaches, dry mouth, sensitivity to light, sore throats, mouth ulcers, coughs, ear aches and nausea! These symptoms would appear and disappear randomly  but definitely the fatigue was the worst thing I have ever experienced and I honestly thought I might die!
I was only able to manage my children’s basic needs and bless them they were so good to me.  I was certainly not able to spare any emotional energy on the goings on outside my front door let alone further afield. 

The doctors diagnosed Infectious Mononucleosis  :-)

and I was none the wiser until a chance conversation with another doctor in April this year suggested a set of very expensive specialist blood tests. Desperate to know what was wrong with me I went ahead.

Unbeknownst to me, I was severely ill with 2 strains of Rickettsia (a debilitating but treatable, blood disorder of the Lyme disease family) a disease often misdiagnosed as Chronic Fatigue syndrome.

The Blood tests revealed besides these two infections, I also had 4 other blood infections, the most serious of which is called Q-fever and is the only one with a possibility to recur after treatment.

THE GOOD NEWS is, I am on treatment and getting better now. The doctor estimates a year to two years of recovery and I feel so much better already just knowing what it is!

 I am back in the TLC offices from 8am to 1pm and seeing to my 16 children’s needs from then onwards.

I hope to keep blogging from now on and share with you some exciting new developments that we are working on here at TLC.

Thank you all once again for your love and care and most of all for your faithfulness in friendship.

God Bless You All
Pippa