Sherri Jonas—Where faith, love, and laughter lead to healing
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About this website and its author:
My name is Sherri Jonas and my family and I endured sixteen surgeries over an eight year period. The amount of perseverance needed to identify each and every issue as it arose, overcome life-threatening medical complications, accomplish our goals for our children's education, all while staying in faith, was inconceivable. Our story has been documented in two separate books, Faith, Love & Laughter, and Connecting the Dots, which is now available as an e-book.
I created this website to inform and educate anyone suffering like my son with one or more of the following ailments: palatal myoclonus, glossopharyngeal neuralgia, trigeminal neuralgia, Eagle Syndrome, Lyme disease or co-infection with other tick borne infection such as Babesia or Bartonella. The information in this site is based on years of my own personal research and experience. I have listed links to authoritative literature where ever possible to document my source information. I am NOT a medical professional. I am a retired CPA with a strong devotion to God and my family and a desire to share the knowledge I have gained to help those around me who may be suffering. Stay in faith in every circumstance and never, ever, give up hope. Faith and prayer are not a magic wand for healing, but rather one means to provide comfort, strength, and motivation for moving forward in situations that are overwhelming or seem impossible.
My writing experience prior to our medical mayhem consisted of creating financial literature including writing annual reports and prospectuses. However, when my husband was diagnosed with a brain tumor, I chose to write for a different purpose. I created a private blog in order to keep family and friends informed. It was my way of communicating without making phone calls or sending emails. The blog went viral both in his office and in our local community. The response to our story and my writing was heart warming, inspiring, and motivational. Readers said it made them laugh and cry. Our story inspired some of them to conquer challenges in their own lives. What they didn't know was that my husband's brain tumor was just a small part of the chaos and insanity in our lives at that time. My blog is included in my first novel, Faith, Love and Laughter, in which I share our journey of faith as we muddled through an uncertain future, for each of us. I am not looking for fame or fortune. I am just a woman, a wife, and a mother who has worked desperately hard to restore health to my family and to share all the information I learned as soon as I learned it in hopes that it could help another patient or their family—somewhere in the world.
My name is Sherri Jonas and my family and I endured sixteen surgeries over an eight year period. The amount of perseverance needed to identify each and every issue as it arose, overcome life-threatening medical complications, accomplish our goals for our children's education, all while staying in faith, was inconceivable. Our story has been documented in two separate books, Faith, Love & Laughter, and Connecting the Dots, which is now available as an e-book.
I created this website to inform and educate anyone suffering like my son with one or more of the following ailments: palatal myoclonus, glossopharyngeal neuralgia, trigeminal neuralgia, Eagle Syndrome, Lyme disease or co-infection with other tick borne infection such as Babesia or Bartonella. The information in this site is based on years of my own personal research and experience. I have listed links to authoritative literature where ever possible to document my source information. I am NOT a medical professional. I am a retired CPA with a strong devotion to God and my family and a desire to share the knowledge I have gained to help those around me who may be suffering. Stay in faith in every circumstance and never, ever, give up hope. Faith and prayer are not a magic wand for healing, but rather one means to provide comfort, strength, and motivation for moving forward in situations that are overwhelming or seem impossible.
My writing experience prior to our medical mayhem consisted of creating financial literature including writing annual reports and prospectuses. However, when my husband was diagnosed with a brain tumor, I chose to write for a different purpose. I created a private blog in order to keep family and friends informed. It was my way of communicating without making phone calls or sending emails. The blog went viral both in his office and in our local community. The response to our story and my writing was heart warming, inspiring, and motivational. Readers said it made them laugh and cry. Our story inspired some of them to conquer challenges in their own lives. What they didn't know was that my husband's brain tumor was just a small part of the chaos and insanity in our lives at that time. My blog is included in my first novel, Faith, Love and Laughter, in which I share our journey of faith as we muddled through an uncertain future, for each of us. I am not looking for fame or fortune. I am just a woman, a wife, and a mother who has worked desperately hard to restore health to my family and to share all the information I learned as soon as I learned it in hopes that it could help another patient or their family—somewhere in the world.
Original artwork from Faith, Love & Laughter
This is an excerpt from Faith, Love & Laughter (Chapter 30):
"I had a dream. It was beautiful. All my dreams had been nightmares in recent days. In my dreams I was always trapped somewhere or being held against my will and no one knew where I was or what I was experiencing. I was always lost. This dream was different, up-lifting. The timing of this dream was perfect. I was spinning in a vortex, but there was no fear. The surrounding vortex that completely enveloped me contained nothing but the words of God. Positive biblical verses rotated and propelled me upward, giving me hope and strength. I woke up refreshed and happy. How could I be happy? There was so much sadness, so much despair, so much pain and suffering. But I was happy. I was reminded of the very first Psalm quoted at the beginning of this chapter. May I be the tree; may all my efforts prosper. We were on the right path working toward our miracle cure. I could feel it."
My son lost many precious years of his childhood. He missed years of school. He lost contact with some of his friends. Some people shied away from him because they didn't understand his condition. He wasn't in school because he couldn't think, focus, concentrate, read, or write. Chronic pain ruled his efforts to survive. He looked normal so some people had trouble understanding. Funny how that works. You can't see cancer but that word gets attention. Palatal myoclonus gets nothing but blank stares and disbelief, but the illness debilitates regardless. Faith, Love & Laughter documents our journey from my husband's brain tumor to my children's rare diseases. My second book, Connecting the Dots, is devoted entirely to documenting my one son's medical case from symptoms, diagnoses, and medications to surgeries. My son survived more than seven years with multiple rare diseases including palatal myoclonus, glossopharyngeal neuralgia, trigeminal neuralgia, and Eagle syndrome. After seven years of searching for a cure, we believe his myriad of rare diseases may be connected to undiagnosed tick-borne illness, Lyme disease with co-infection of Babesia.
Our story is current. Rare diseases affect one in ten people; Lyme disease and other tick-borne illness affect millions. It is only a matter of time until either a rare disease or a tick-borne illness affects you or someone you love. Everyone's story is different. My son's case was unusual, atypical, and difficult to navigate. Everyone has challenges, but we had more than most. Read, learn, and spread the word. May my son's suffering be a blessing to others in some way; may our tears along our journey smooth the path of others who follow in our footsteps. I pray that God sends the right people this
"I had a dream. It was beautiful. All my dreams had been nightmares in recent days. In my dreams I was always trapped somewhere or being held against my will and no one knew where I was or what I was experiencing. I was always lost. This dream was different, up-lifting. The timing of this dream was perfect. I was spinning in a vortex, but there was no fear. The surrounding vortex that completely enveloped me contained nothing but the words of God. Positive biblical verses rotated and propelled me upward, giving me hope and strength. I woke up refreshed and happy. How could I be happy? There was so much sadness, so much despair, so much pain and suffering. But I was happy. I was reminded of the very first Psalm quoted at the beginning of this chapter. May I be the tree; may all my efforts prosper. We were on the right path working toward our miracle cure. I could feel it."
My son lost many precious years of his childhood. He missed years of school. He lost contact with some of his friends. Some people shied away from him because they didn't understand his condition. He wasn't in school because he couldn't think, focus, concentrate, read, or write. Chronic pain ruled his efforts to survive. He looked normal so some people had trouble understanding. Funny how that works. You can't see cancer but that word gets attention. Palatal myoclonus gets nothing but blank stares and disbelief, but the illness debilitates regardless. Faith, Love & Laughter documents our journey from my husband's brain tumor to my children's rare diseases. My second book, Connecting the Dots, is devoted entirely to documenting my one son's medical case from symptoms, diagnoses, and medications to surgeries. My son survived more than seven years with multiple rare diseases including palatal myoclonus, glossopharyngeal neuralgia, trigeminal neuralgia, and Eagle syndrome. After seven years of searching for a cure, we believe his myriad of rare diseases may be connected to undiagnosed tick-borne illness, Lyme disease with co-infection of Babesia.
Our story is current. Rare diseases affect one in ten people; Lyme disease and other tick-borne illness affect millions. It is only a matter of time until either a rare disease or a tick-borne illness affects you or someone you love. Everyone's story is different. My son's case was unusual, atypical, and difficult to navigate. Everyone has challenges, but we had more than most. Read, learn, and spread the word. May my son's suffering be a blessing to others in some way; may our tears along our journey smooth the path of others who follow in our footsteps. I pray that God sends the right people this