Category Archives: infections

Patience and Waiting for Healing

Posted on by swollenmystery

photo

One might think with all the detoxing, eating so well and anti-bacterial treatments, my pain levels would be great. Unfortunately, I can’t yet proclaim I’ve been healed from Lyme disease or my co-infections. But I can attest to gaining patience and obedience when it comes to waiting for healing. You might ask How do you gain patience when every cell in your body feels like it’s under constant attack? There are several things that have helped me get through the last few months.

  1. Books – My good friend Tim at Life Fitness Academy recommended a book called Suffering and Sovereignty of God. To my great surprise, my wife already read the book this year so we had a copy in our library. It took me a while to start it but once I did every time I had to stop I couldn’t wait until the next time I could continue reading. The authors discuss their own sufferings and I can relate to their questions and what they went through. There are so many Scripture references that it made me seek out those passages, read them, and think about them. When I read about Joseph’s suffering in the Old Testament or Paul’s suffering in the New Testament and realize suffering has been around for such a long time, or that God can allow suffering for a greater glory we don’t understand, my short life comes into perspective and it helps me be patient.
  2. Family – Often I overlook this one, but I gain so much patience by just watching those around me. My mom has taught me patience without ever saying anything. When she was only a few years old she unexpectedly caught the polio virus, leaving her with partial paralysis and the use of only one leg for the rest of her life. Growing up with a mom who always walked with crutches and never complained once to her children is not only astonishing, but it helps me see that if she can get through it, I can have more patience for my suffering. Even if I suffer the rest of my life, I still had 30 years more mobility than she ever had. To this day, my mother has more energy and spirit than any other woman I know at her age. Who would think someone with a lifelong disability could always be on the move? She’s an avid shopper and I often joke with my brother or sister about how mom can out-walk us all. It’s humbling to think that she raised 3 kids, went back to school, and took on a new career later in life while patiently realizing she could not physically do what most moms do.
  3. Knowledge – If this disease has taught me anything, it’s that there is hope. Perhaps not for a cure in the short-term, but hope that my Lyme and co-infections will go into remission. Hope that others with Lyme can experience relief. Hope that others with similar auto-immune diseases can feel like they are making progress toward healing. Reading so many studies and articles, and listening to doctors and specialists has shown me that there are a lot of conflicting reports out there. It can be frustrating sorting through what is right, what is wrong, and what we just don’t know. However, every time I read an article or listen to a speaker talking about how they have seen progress with a patient or have experienced relief themselves, I gain a little more hope. Along with that hope I gain a little more perseverance. And with that perseverance I acquire a little more patience.

Lately I’ve realized how much our society trains us for the quick fix. “Take these pills and come back in a month”. Who doesn’t want the most immediate path to feeling better? I’ve fallen right into the trap of impatience and doubt when it comes to healing. Maybe that statement should be, “Eat like this for a couple years, give your body the time it needs to heal, and don’t worry about ever having to come back”. That’s the kind of healing I want. One of the hardest things to deal with when going the natural route is the patience and discipline it takes to get through to the end and not settling for the quick fix. If taking that route, whether it’s 1 year or 10, gives my immune system a chance to get back on track, I’m opting to be patient for a little while longer.

What Does Detoxing From Lyme Disease Feel Like?

Posted on by swollenmystery

If you’ve ever heard someone say, “I’m doing a detox” or “I’m on a detox protocol,” you may wonder, what does that feel like? Perhaps you’ve seen people downing an entire glass, or better yet, mason jar of green liquid sludge for lunch. Or maybe you’ve been brave enough to try a shot of wheatgrass on a dare.

Detoxing can be done by a number of methods. Baths in epsom salts or ginger, eating blended raw green vegetables, herbs, saunas, and exercise can all assist the detoxification process. Most of the time you’ll probably hear about these things helping you to feel better. But can they make you feel worse? They do certainly help to make the body feel better eventually, but unless the process is moderate, detox can be immensely painful. After I chose to treat my chronic Lyme naturally, I decided to continue searching for ways to eliminate toxins from my body.

You might wonder why I continue to pursue detoxification when I should be able to detox for a period and then be free and clear. The process of killing bacteria in your body can flood your system with toxic, dead organisms. With persistent bacterial infections, particularly Lyme bacteria, which love to change forms and hide in tissues, that toxic die-off is in a constant cycle. I sometimes picture walking through a battlefield with millions of dead soldiers scattered all across the landscape left over from a massive war the day before. Detoxification is like the clean up, so your internal landscape can once again be clean and flourish with life. Similar to battle, it’s the casualties that hurt.

Recently I’ve been feeling effects of my detoxing more than the past. To be blatantly honest–it feels awful! As the day nears nightfall I usually feel heavy and fatigued. I try so hard to avoid movements like turning my head or twisting my torso because my muscles ache. My skin aches and is sensitive to the touch. The aches are so deep I can feel them in my bones. Getting up from sitting feels like my upper body weighs 900 pounds and my legs beneath my knees are hesitant to move for fear of being crushed under the pressure. My entire body feels the need to stretch, but moving only causes a sense that my limbs will tear from their joints. I wake up at night sweating as my body tries to crank up the heat and move toxins out through my skin. Each morning I get up early because the aggravation near my liver and kidneys is too painful while laying in bed. If you’ve ever gone for a month of not exercising and then did a gruesome 2-hour workout, you know the feeling of soreness you get a day or two later. When your body is laced with millions of toxins and dead pathogens it feels like that muscle soreness through your entire body is multiplied by 10.

So what have I learned from all this? Detoxing should be carefully planned and it’s best to proceed slowly in small doses, no matter which method you choose. It also helps to choose one method at a time. My most painful experiences have occurred while zapping with electromagnetic frequencies, drinking green smoothies, taking multiple herbal tinctures, and exercising. I constantly strive to find ways to kill spirochetes or harmful bacteria but I also catch myself realizing that the body needs time expel all those unwanted organisms and chemicals. If I can remember to be patient, I might feel a little better.

Diagnosis Solved?

Posted on by swollenmystery

During the past  three years I’ve developed an enormous amount of skepticism, caution and indecisiveness when it comes to the medical world. I’ve felt that every path has led to a dead end. Often the treatments I experienced have made my symptoms of inflammatory arthritis worse. Yet I now look back at those events as learning experiences. Perhaps God was showing me something, giving me knowledge and experience with those events for a purpose. A purpose which I may never understand. But that’s ok. Through an unexpected chain of events, meeting new people, finding new doctors and growing closer to Him, I finally have a diagnosis.

Last week my western blot test came back CDC positive for lyme disease. Along with that I tested positive for several coinfections including Bartonella, Chlamydia Pneumonia, Mycoplasma and HHV6. Wonderful? Yes! In fact, I’ve never been so happy to have a diagnosis. A diagnosis that can be treated. Better yet, a diagnosis that can be treated with a possibility of complete remission!

So that’s it. I have lyme disease. More specifically chronic lyme disease, as it’s apparently settled in for quite some time. The greatest part of all this is knowing what to treat and having confidence that there is an end in sight. So what will I do with this blog now that I have a diagnosis? I will continue to post progress during my treatment. I’m continuing the natural detox protocol while introducing other all natural treatments aimed specifically at the bacterial infections. I plan to continue providing a resource for those with not only lyme but other related autoimmune diseases. My hope is for the best possible diagnosis and healing of anyone that continues to suffer through the mystery of pain and inflammation.

Going After Lyme This Time

Posted on by swollenmystery

Loss of sleep each night due to new symptoms: 7 out of 10. Pain and inflammation levels last month: 8 out of 10. Frustration with taking Plaquenil and Sulfasalazine for a year with no results: 10 out of 10.

It’s been a year since finding a new rheumatologist. Last week was my latest 3 month appointment and I was dreading it. It’s been a month since I tapered completely off Prednisone and a few weeks after having a tongue biopsy due to ulcers I believe were side effects from the medications. While the biopsy results came back negative I closed the door on another dead end. Meanwhile, my symptoms grew worse. I started experiencing things I hadn’t felt during the entire time I’ve been stickered with inflammatory arthritis.

Every night I began waking up every hour or two, finding my knees and my entire back in so much pain it was hard to roll over. Sleeping on my side wasn’t even an option anymore. Mild fevers each night and chills all day became the norm. Headaches behind my eyes, neck stiffness, flu-like aches all over, night sweats, constipation, muscle twitches, extreme fatigue, muscle weakness and jaw pain also became a regular occurrence.

I was at a crossroads. I was about to set up an appointment with my primary care doctor but had an upcoming visit with the rheumatologist in only a week so it seemed logical to wait and see what he had to say. That same week, after some investigating of my symptoms, I couldn’t help but pursue Lyme disease as a possibility. I don’t recall a tick bite except for when I was young, but my symptoms all matched up. And after watching the documentary Under Our Skin a few weeks ago, I was convinced that cases of chronic Lyme are serious and growing quickly.

So I set out to find out more information about chronic Lyme disease and how to get tested. Last year I did get tested via my family doc through Mayo Clinic with a negative result. But I quickly learned that this test can be very unreliable and if your result is negative, you can go no further with testing. With many referrals for testing methods beyond the standard ELISA, which is what most hospitals and clinics use, I set out to find a Lyme Literate Medical Doctor (LLMD). I knew this was the only way to get tested and be sure. It wasn’t long before a list of friends helped me find a LLMD nearby.

Surprisingly, the LLMD had an opening appear in his schedule for the same week so I jumped at the chance to meet with him and discuss my symptoms. I was so excited. Perhaps mostly because the visit with the rheumatologist earlier that week didn’t go so well. Instead of discussing antibiotic therapy as read in The New Arthritis Breakthrough I left the office only with more brochures for Humira, Simponi, Enbrel and discouraging news from the doctor that I may need biologics for the rest of my life. To make matters worse, I was given word that I needed to schedule a colonoscopy to check for Chron’s disease and a CT scan to rule out lymphoma.

Back to the excitement. Even though testing for chronic lyme can be controversial and usually frowned on by insurance companies, it seemed worth it to at least get tested. It was a bit expensive, but it’s either that or tens of thousands each year spent on a biologic bandaid. Furthermore, I decided to get a blood test for coinfections at the same time in case Lyme isn’t the answer. Infections like babesiosis, ehrlichiosis or bartonella can cause some serious complications and might even be the main reason for my symptoms.

I’ve been praying for how to get through these next few weeks of waiting for my test results to come back. And out of nowhere, God gives answers! Not only do I get to meet with a knowledgeable LLMD, but another possible treatment has just opened up before my eyes. With the help of some helpful nutrition, I’m off to start an intense natural detox protocol! More to come in the next post…