Diagnosis Unsolved | Swollen knees, Lyme Disease Treatments for Chronic Joint Pain and Inflammation

Trust and Tooth Infections

By swollenmystery On March 5, 2013 · 3 Comments

What defines a bad tooth? Is it pain? Do problems areas show up on x-rays? What about meridian testing? A week ago, I made it through month 2 of the Cowden Protocol, or suffered through it, may be a more appropriate term. Now I’m on to month 3 and things are not going well. Knee swelling is at an all-time high. My left thumb is inflamed. Both ankles are painful and stiff all the time. Elbows are tender and difficult to bend. Neck stiffness has increased and the left side of my jaw hurts non-stop, making even the softest foods difficult to chew. Meanwhile, I had a third jaw surgery for suspected cavitation and infection in space #9. I mention this because the last surgery was on the right side of my jaw, where my wisdom tooth used to be. It’s been over a week since the surgery and I have no pain at all in that area. Where I do have pain, however, is on the left, upper side of my jaw. I want to make sense of it, but frustration prevails. All these aches and pains can be overwhelming, but I still have hope. It’s the hope that keeps me going, and continuing to pursue the source of all these symptoms. Ever since the surgeries, joint pains have increased and the addition of newly swollen joints has me questioning more than ever how much of a connection there is to infection in my mouth and jaw. [...]

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Cowden Protocol: Month 1

By swollenmystery On January 21, 2013 · 4 Comments

After diligently watching all of the livestream videos from the 2012 ILADS Boston Lyme Disease Conference a month ago I still wasn’t convinced that long-term antibiotics were the way to go for treatment of chronic Lyme disease. Why? Perhaps it’s my nutrition classes teaching me about the importance of gut flora and maintaining a healthy gut terrain to allow the body to successfully fight off infection the way it was designed. Antibiotics tend to destroy large portions of bacteria that make up the gut terrain and don’t stop to ask whether specific bacteria are helpful or hindering. Or maybe it’s that some doctors and patients claim to have success with antibiotics, yet I still see so many instances where the drugs only seem effective while taking them, causing patients to relapse with symptoms again after finishing treatment. Or it could be the idea that multiple infections make it so difficult to target infections with the correct antibiotics–the idea that specific antibiotics may work well against a particular strain of borrelia burgdorferi but not as well for that unknown, non-Lyme spirochete hiding out in the deep recesses of the jaw. Those thoughts bring me to my latest method of treatment–the 6 month Cowden Protocol or Cowden Support Program as Nutramedix calls it. At my last visit with Dr. Yu in St. Louis a month ago, all of my meridians finally checked out normal yet I still had swollen [...]

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Healing with Homeopathics

By swollenmystery On December 12, 2012 · Add Comment

Homeopathics may be controversial, but I can say from experience now that I would recommend them. After a lot of my Lyme treatments, I find it difficult to know whether a specific herbal tincture, medicine or even food has a direct effect on a symptom or condition. But recently after a second jaw surgery, (one where the surgeon cut open the inside of my mouth and drilled out infected, diseased bone) my doctor recommended I take Body Mend, a homeopathic solution that is taken a few drops at a time every 10 minutes the first day, every 30 minutes the second day, and every couple hours the next. He also prescribed a bottle of Hydrocodone/Acetaminophen (Vicodin). To my surprise I had absolutely no pain after the surgery, or the day after, or the day after that. And I didn’t even need to take any Vicodin! On top of that, the morning before my surgery, I slipped on a few concrete garage steps and fell on my side. My entire left leg ached all day, but the morning after the surgery that pain was gone too. It has been almost a week since the surgery and I have had no jaw pain in or around the surgery site. I’m hoping and praying that will continue. I did ice the area non-stop for 3 days and received an IV infusion of vitamins and minerals directly after the surgery so I’m sure those helped too. However, what I remember most about [...]

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1,000 Piece Dental Puzzle

By swollenmystery On November 14, 2012 · 2 Comments

When I was growing up, my grandma would often come stay with us for a week or two and she had one hobby I’ll always remember. Jigsaw Puzzles. She always had the most complex scenes – beautiful yet incredibly difficult. Whenever she got to that piece #998 and discovered it was missing, I loved to search around under the table looking for those last one or two lost pieces. I feel like this is exactly what’s going on with my health problems, a 1,000 piece puzzle, where the missing pieces are dental related. The last time I wrote, I was awaiting exploratory surgery in my jaw. This procedure was planned to take biopsy tissue samples of the bone near where my wisdom teeth #17 and #34 were removed seven years ago. Three weeks ago, I successfully made it through the procedure, which was a truly pleasant experience considering the circumstances. The surgery was like wisdom teeth extraction where my gums were cut open and the surgeon drilled out samples of the jaw bone to later send out to a lab. Unlike my previous wisdom teeth surgery, I was awake the whole time for this one. Dr. Stuart Moreland in St. Louis performed the procedure. Like Dr. Yu, the physician I’m working with that discovered my dental issue, Dr. Moreland was very helpful in educating me through the process and really took a look at my health in a holistic approach. During the surgery, a few surprises [...]

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Is It Really Lyme?

By swollenmystery On October 8, 2012 · 13 Comments

I was going to title this post, “There and Back Again” because of all the traveling back and forth from Des Moines to St. Louis lately but I didn’t want to risk any copyright infringement on The Hobbit. Not too long ago, a friend recommended I take a look at a book called The Accidental Cure, by Dr. Simon Yu, MD. With a gracious offer to borrow the book for a couple weeks I decided to read it in between classwork and see what it was all about. I didn’t expect to find so many references to nutrition and holistic approaches to healing in a book authored by a doctor trained in traditional medicine. The book is easy to understand and I got a good sense of Dr. Yu’s unconventional methods of practicing medicine pretty quickly. I was enlightened to read that he looks at the whole picture when seeing a patient, and takes a holistic approach to treatment, whether by traditional medicine or alternative therapies. I was also pleased to read about his experience with nutrition, Lyme and dental issues. Since my Lyme disease diagnosis a little over a year ago, a new symptom appeared as I began treatment with natural treatments (Samento, Enula, Banderol, Houttuynia, ACS200 Silver). Second to the inflammatory arthritis in my knees, I began to experience pain in the left side of my lower jaw. It started as a minor pain near the spot where a wisdom tooth had been removed [...]

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About Me

I'm a freelance web designer with a background in graphic design. I'm also a part-time nutrition student. When I'm not creating or designing, I'm studying nutrition. When I'm not doing either of those I'm usually eating or talking about food. I've been interested in health and fitness for a long time but it wasn't until I became seriously ill with a mysterious chronic autoimmune condition in my early 30s that I realized how intricate and complex the human body is.

Along my journey to healing from chronic illness and Lyme disease, I discovered that eating healthier has improved my life the most. This blog is not just a journal of my progress but is also intended to help anyone that might be suffering from an autoimmune illness. My goal is to learn how to support the body's natural healing process holistically so that it has the resources to fight off illness the way it was designed. As I learn more every day, I write about my journey here at Diagnosis Unsolved. Read more about how all this started and my story here.
-Brad Linberg-
Now Reading
Planned books:
- The Whole Soy Story: The Dark Side of America’s Favorite Health Food by Kaayla T. Daniel
- Recipes for Repair: A Lyme Disease Cookbook by Gail Piazza, Laura Piazza
Current books:
- Nutrition and Physical Degeneration by Weston A. Price
- Folks, This Ain’t Normal: A Farmer’s Advice for Happier Hens, Healthier People, and a Better World by Joel Salatin
- The Salt/C Plus Protocol for Lyme Infection by M. Fett
- Seamus Mullen’s Hero Food: How Cooking with Delicious Things Can Make Us Feel Better by Seamus Mullen
- The Candida Cure: Yeast, Fungus by Ann Boroch
Recent books:
- The World’s Healthiest Foods, Essential Guide for the Healthiest Way of Eating by George Mateljan
- Nourishing Traditions: The Cookbook that Challenges Politically Correct Nutrition and the Diet Dict by Sally Fallon, Mary Enig
- Accidental Cure: Extraordinary Medicine for Extraordinary Patients by Simon Yu
- Cure Unknown: Inside the Lyme Epidemic by Pamela Weintraub
- The Top 10 Lyme Disease Treatments: Defeat Lyme Disease with the Best of Conventional and Alternativ by Bryan Rosner
View full Library

Trust and Tooth Infections

Cowden Protocol: Month 1

Healing with Homeopathics

1,000 Piece Dental Puzzle

Is It Really Lyme?

Categories

Archives

Good Sites about Health, Lyme and Living

About Me

Now Reading

Planned books:

Current books:

Recent books:

Lime Disease – Story of Recovery

Trust and Tooth Infections

Cowden Protocol: Month 1

Healing with Homeopathics

1,000 Piece Dental Puzzle

Is It Really Lyme?

Tags

Categories

Archives

Good Sites about Health, Lyme and Living

About Me

Now Reading

Planned books:

Current books:

Recent books:

Lime Disease – Story of Recovery