It was April 1, 2010. I was 8 years old and was holding a dozen fertilized eggs that my family had bought to incubate. As we drove home with the eggs, I was full of excitement. We were going to hatch baby chicks! Eventually, we'd have a flock of Buff Orpington and Black Australorp hens and eat fresh eggs for breakfast! Once home, my brothers and I took pencils and lightly marked each egg with a "O" on one side and "X" on the other. This was because we'd be rotating the eggs 3 times daily and would need to track which side was up. We then placed the eggs in an incubator, with the temperature set to 100.5° F, and for the next 17 days, we rotated the eggs from side to side at 7 AM, 2 PM, and 9 PM. We needed to rotate the eggs this frequently to keep the yolk, which would otherwise float to the top, centered in the egg and to prevent the developing embryo from sticking to the membrane. Normally, the mother hen would rotate the eggs, but my brothers and I were "the mother hen." Good thing we were homeschooled because we needed to be around to turn those eggs! About half-way through incubation, we experienced a 24-hour power outage. The house went dark, but then our power was restored within seconds when our RC WATT installed standby generator kicked on and kept the incubator kept running. Phew! The developing chicks were saved, and our project continued. "Peep, peep!" It was day 21 of incubation. "Did you hear that?" someone asked, as we ate breakfast. There were noises coming from the incubator! As the hours ticked by, the peeps continued, and little cracks began to show in the eggs. The chicks were hitting against the inside of their shells with their "egg teeth," temporary horny caps on each chick's beak, to break free. As the chicks hatched, we carefully picked up their wet bodies and placed them in a brooder on our dinning room table. A few hours later they were as cute and fluffy as could be. By the end of the day, all the eggs had hatched, except one. There was a small crack in the remaining egg, but that was all. The chick inside appeared to running out of energy and didn't peep much. What should we do? My brother Ben intervened. He took the egg out of the incubator, carefully peeled the tough shell, then removed the membrane. Finally, there was a blood vessel connected to the membrane and to the bottom of the chick that needed cut. "Alex, please hand me the scissors," he told my oldest brother. Snip. The chick was free at last. Our project was a success. All 12 chicks had hatched and were healthy. We incubated eggs again in 2013 and kept hens from 2010 - 2017. Below is a YouTube video that I made when I was 13 about our second incubation project.
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"The best remedy for those who are afraid, lonely or unhappy is to go outside, somewhere where they can be quite alone with the heavens, nature and God." ~ Anne Frank How thankful I am to be able to go outdoors! Some days it is only for a few minutes, but when I am in nature, somehow my troubles seem a little smaller. I think it is because in creation I find stillness and am reminded of the greatness, glory, power, and love of God. For many years I couldn't go outside, except to climb into the car for a medical appointment. I was bedridden, I reacted to the pollen, and in 2016 - 2017, I couldn't even bear the light and noises of the outdoors. When I finally took a slow 2 minute walk through the backyard on May 9, 2020, the day before my 19th birthday, it was a celebration. I collapsed in bed afterwards, exhausted but elated. Today, I still spend most of my time in bed, but when I'm not in a major herx, I can walk up to 2 miles daily. I'm praising God that it's been almost 1 year since I rediscovered the wonder of the outdoors. Enjoy these pictures from recent walks through the backyard, neighborhood, and parks, along with the lyrics to Look at the World by John Rutter. "Look at the world: Everything all around us Look at the world: and marvel everyday Look at the world: So many joys and wonders So many miracles along our way Look at the earth: Bringing forth fruit and flower Look at the sky: The sunshine and the rain Look at the hills, look at the trees and mountains, Valley and flowing river, field and plain. Think of the spring, Think of the warmth of summer Bringing the harvest before the winters cold Everything grows, everything has a season Til' it is gathered to the Father's fold Every good gift, all that we need and cherish Comes from the Lord in token of His love We are his hands, stewards of all His bounty His is the earth and His the heavens above Praise to thee, O Lord for all creation. Give us thankful hearts that we may see All the gifts we share, and every blessing, All things come of thee All things come of thee" "If you had to rewrite Humpty Dumpty, how would you do it?" I asked my family on Easter. We sat in the living room thinking. "Humpty Dumpty sat on a brick, Humpty Dumpty posed for a pic, But all of his looks, and all of our wits, Couldn't recover the camera's lost bits."
Special thanks to my family, especially Ben, for their assistance in writing this poem. Special thanks to my dad for corrupting the final image and using his selfie stick to photograph my mom, dad, and me. And, if I may say so, special thanks to myself for decorating the egg and taking the Humpty Dumpty pictures. ;) To all my readers, happy National Poetry Month from my family, a half-dozen eggheads. "Your mind knows you are going to Songdo. But you must not tell your body. It must think one hill, one valley, one day at a time. In that way, your spirit will not grow weary before you have even begun to walk. One day, one village. That is how you will go, my friend." ~ A Single Shard, Linda Sue Park Today I had a phone consult with Dr. M, my Bartonella specialist. My latest blood smear from March was still positive for Bartonella--overall the smear is much cleaner than previous ones, but I haven’t completely eradicated the Bartonella. However my main infection to target now is Babesia. Dr. M will continue to treat my Bartonella, but Dr. L will be taking charge of treating my Babesia. Dr. L is my hormone specialist, but he is very knowledgeable about Babesia and has been tirelessly developing a much better treatment protocol because his daughter (around my age) also has it. How God works brings me to tears. I became Dr. L’s patient in 2019 because he took his daughter to Dr. M, and Dr. M subsequently referred me to Dr. L for my hormones. I’d never known about Dr. L if it weren’t for his daughter’s illness, and he took me when he wasn’t accepting new patients. Under his hormonal care, I have greatly improved. More recently Dr. L figured out that his daughter also has Babesia. I am again seeing God’s providence because Dr. L was the first to suspect that I have Babesia, and I am now improving on Babesia treatment. My doctors would like me to start on a new Babesia med, but we are waiting until after May 8th. My oldest brother Alex is getting married that day, and I don’t want to miss the wedding! This treatment is going to be very intense, will make me worse before better, and will require a lot of monitoring. So until after the wedding, the plan is to just continue my current antimicrobials. I’m in a bad herx right now (as those of you who read my last update know), but I am slowly improving after lowering the antibiotic dose on Friday. I’m still in bed most of the day, but I was able to spend a few hours outside visiting with my family on Easter. Hopefully, I’ll continue to improve, and then we can bump up the dose again. We’ll probably rotate between two weeks on the higher dose and two weeks on the lower dose for a while. One day at a time. This is how I will journey. |
AuthorHi! I'm Lauren Watt. I'm a 20 year old Christian, chronic illness warrior, and amateur artist and writer. Archives
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