Terri Drake Terri Lynne Drake

TERRI is..

Tremendously Brave

Extra Special

Reaching for God's Glory

Relying upon God

Inspiring to her littlest sister (and to all who visit here)



















Wife, Mother, Daughter, Sister, Aunt and Friend to many grateful hearts!





Welcome to Terri's CaringBridge Page. We hope to keep you updated on her progress and communicate key prayer requests to all of you. Please feel free to leave a guestbook entry as these tend to bring us all closer to her and each other.





It seems I should have started this journal a few months ago. In retrospect, I began experiencing, seemingly, miscellaneous symptoms in December. I had a lot of problems with my lower back, and my sciatic nerve, pain which has been continued. Visits to the chiropractor brought relief, but no cure.

In January I began to experience shortness of breath with sharp pains in my right rib cage and shooting pain up through my right shoulder. The episodes were disturbing, but generally lasted only a few hours. I thought more time in the gym would be the answer. Shortness of breath was only experienced every 3 wks or so, if that often.

In late January, during a weekend trip to Santa Cruz with high school friends, I had muscle spasms and electric like currents running through my right upper arm. The spasms and currents lasted about 45 min. and a few hours later I felt as if one section of my upper arm had been badly wind-chapped or burned. When I examined my arm there was no visible change, but it bothered me all weekend and I used a lot of lotion to try and relieve the dry, burning sensation.

During February I continued to be bothered with some numbness on my upper arm, but it wasn't until Feb. 18th that I had a more identifiable problem. I woke up for church and found my right forearm and hand were swollen to nearly twice the size of my left forearm. Frustrated that I seemed to be having multiple issues with the right side of my body, and finding no evidence of a bug bite or any other mark that would explain the swolleness, I simply moved on with church and the celebration of Caitlin's 18th birthday (her STAR birthday!). The following day was a holiday, and on Tuesday my focus was to pack and prepare for our early morning departure on Wed for college visits in Chicago and Boston.

My arm did not improve during the trip and on Friday I was miserable and determined I should be seen at Boston Med Center's ER – next to our hotel. The doctors were thorough, performing a breast exam, & an ultrasound to rule out blood clots, inally determining I had a skin infection that had resulted in edema. I was given an antibiotic and advised to immediately see my doctor on Monday.

Each Monday since I've been seen by my doctor, and each week been advised to work p/t, and elevate the arm. It's been frustrating and along the way I've had other infections. My body has felt under assault, yet I never had a fever or other sign of illness. I was given new antibiotics each week, and began to wonder if I was just a hypochondriac.

This first entry is a mini-novel, I promsie future entries will be a paragraph or less. Please continue to next entry for "the rest of the story"....