That is how I would describe myself. I was always go, go, go. Onto the next project. Always making something, designing something, organizing something...living. LIVING.
Which has got me thinking? How much of this slugglish, relax in the easy chair, get nothing accomplished all day person is just being ruled by Babesia. I am starting to think these elements of my disease are that infection.
I received my A-Bab and A-Bart in the mail today. I have Ceftin to start as well. I will be starting all these things soon. I am just not on my Tinidazole Pulse right now and am about to start so I want to add back in the Tinidazole and then add these things so I am not confused how my body is reacting to what medication.
So now I am daydreaming. Lyme patient daydreaming. The kind where you dream of the person you were, you still ARE. The person that you take all these medications to become again...or to be released to be again. I am dreaming of keeping moving most all the day. Just getting stuff accomplished. Don't get me wrong. I SO appreciate the fact that my husband has a job that pays enough to allow me to stay home as well as feed and clothe our four kids. I appreciate that I can by lymed-out-lazy when I need to be (which unfortunately, like on days like today, which is the second day of my monthly present, I am taking advantage of). But I don't want to be lazy. I don't want to feel the constant need to just sit down in a chair. After the morning rush of getting four kids off to school (lunches packed, wake them up, brush their hair, make them breakfast, drive them to school, finish up any last minute homework they may have missed) I just come home and sit down. And watch TV for an hour or two and vedge. Completely. That is my normal routine. Sometimes I mix it up and go for a walk if I am feeling energy or maybe I go for a walk a little later. So, I am wondering will my lymed out laziness leave me after all this treatment? I hope that answer is yes, because I certainly don't want it to be the new me once all this treating is done, assuming I have a ending point in the future.
That's all for now. Got to help the kids with homework....
PS - The reason I got to think about this laziness is that I realized it feels a bit stronger after I got rid of the Bartonella. Like somehow, with the Bartonella now gone and out of the picture, the Lyme and Babesia have come to the forefront and I am facing them head on. And one of the symptoms is....sluggishness, low energy. Honestly, I really shouldn't be calling it laziness because I think laziness is usually people wanting to be lazy, and I don't. All the time I dream of being more productive than I am. But hey, I have gotten this far, with four kids under the age of 11 in tow and a husband who is busy all the time.
Wednesday, January 15, 2014
Sunday, January 12, 2014
Dr. Appt. Wrap Up
So I talked with my doctor. She will be adding in some herbs and another Lyme medication (Omnicef) so that I will be treated all 3 forms of the Lyme. Then, we will look at adding in Babesia meds after that. I mentioned to her about Clindamycin and my reaction to that - how all my muscles were hit after taking it - and how I was interested in taking it to deal with the muscle pain I have so she is considering it although she doesn't really use it in her treatment. I would have liked to start it asap because I just want all this stuff over and done, but she is putting me on A-Bab and A-Bart from Byron White. Who knows? The HH2 and Buhner herbs really knocked out the anxiety/Bart symptoms I had been having for the past 4 and 1/2 years so these herbs could be a real life saver too. I know when I went on the herbs it was a feeling of settling for 2nd best because I was too nervous to take the antibiotics while living in a foreign country with no real lyme specialist in sight. And...it turned out to be a good thing. So I am open. Only thing is right now, the herbs cost more than my medications because my medications are covered by insurance. Herbs aren't
Lastly, I mentioned to her that my stools have not been floating in oily residue after I go the bathroom and she said that the Tinidazole that I am taking treats intestinal parasites so it could be that is why I am digesting better. Parasites.
I asked her if she does the Klinghardt protocol for that but she said she wasn't familiar with it. I think right now I am just going to add humaworm in when I have all her other medications under control that she wants to start me on. Those Klinghardt parasite meds are pretty strong. I would have to go see another doctor. Get started on that protocol and kind of stop the lyme meds I think because they are so strong. It is hard to know the right path. But humaworm seems to be good too so maybe just adding those in for the duration of my treatment may be the best thing after all. I have read that Klinghardt has said that treating parasites first knocks a huge chunk of time of the chronic lyme treatment so that is where I struggle to know if just treating them with herbs somewhere down the line is the right decision after all. Maybe I should be hitting them hard with meds first. BUT, my doctor doesn't do that type of treatment so I would have to go to another. I have one in mind but I am just not ready to move on it yet. I need to pray about all this for guidance from God to know what to do and when to do it, etc.
That is not the only thing I need to pray for guidance for. My husband may be switching jobs in a little bit. There is a dream job that has come up, in an area we want to live, close to family. It would be a perfect transition for him out of what he is doing now into what he is doing. But, it is a long shot because the career he is functioning in now, they don't typically hire from, although it has happened. It would mean we could stay living close by family instead of having to move to another state. But, it would also mean a transition in insurance for me - and right now, I only have to pay 2.00 per prescription with no questions asked as to why I am taking copious amounts of antibiotics for extended periods of time. I really don't want to have to deal with fighting with a new insurance company for treatment because I think my husbands company has the 2nd best insurance policy for its workers in the whole country. No joke. His company is literally listed on one of the very best. The company he worked at a couple of years ago was even better. They paid for EVERYTHING no questions asked. I mean, that was a dream. But anyways, I digress. This is the transition we are in now. I hope he gets the job. It would be amazing. If he doesn't, I don't know what we will do. Where he will work next. Where we will live. At least here, in the transition time, if he doesn't get the job, we have family to live with until we move somewhere. But I hope, and pray, if it would be good for our family, which I think it would be, that he gets this job.
Lastly, I mentioned to her that my stools have not been floating in oily residue after I go the bathroom and she said that the Tinidazole that I am taking treats intestinal parasites so it could be that is why I am digesting better. Parasites.
I asked her if she does the Klinghardt protocol for that but she said she wasn't familiar with it. I think right now I am just going to add humaworm in when I have all her other medications under control that she wants to start me on. Those Klinghardt parasite meds are pretty strong. I would have to go see another doctor. Get started on that protocol and kind of stop the lyme meds I think because they are so strong. It is hard to know the right path. But humaworm seems to be good too so maybe just adding those in for the duration of my treatment may be the best thing after all. I have read that Klinghardt has said that treating parasites first knocks a huge chunk of time of the chronic lyme treatment so that is where I struggle to know if just treating them with herbs somewhere down the line is the right decision after all. Maybe I should be hitting them hard with meds first. BUT, my doctor doesn't do that type of treatment so I would have to go to another. I have one in mind but I am just not ready to move on it yet. I need to pray about all this for guidance from God to know what to do and when to do it, etc.
That is not the only thing I need to pray for guidance for. My husband may be switching jobs in a little bit. There is a dream job that has come up, in an area we want to live, close to family. It would be a perfect transition for him out of what he is doing now into what he is doing. But, it is a long shot because the career he is functioning in now, they don't typically hire from, although it has happened. It would mean we could stay living close by family instead of having to move to another state. But, it would also mean a transition in insurance for me - and right now, I only have to pay 2.00 per prescription with no questions asked as to why I am taking copious amounts of antibiotics for extended periods of time. I really don't want to have to deal with fighting with a new insurance company for treatment because I think my husbands company has the 2nd best insurance policy for its workers in the whole country. No joke. His company is literally listed on one of the very best. The company he worked at a couple of years ago was even better. They paid for EVERYTHING no questions asked. I mean, that was a dream. But anyways, I digress. This is the transition we are in now. I hope he gets the job. It would be amazing. If he doesn't, I don't know what we will do. Where he will work next. Where we will live. At least here, in the transition time, if he doesn't get the job, we have family to live with until we move somewhere. But I hope, and pray, if it would be good for our family, which I think it would be, that he gets this job.
Friday, January 3, 2014
Local Doctor Appointment
So my hormones I think are an issues that I have never really addressed - successfully. In the beginning (the beginning being coming down with Lyme Disease unbeknownst to me), I would notice cycles of mood swings. As time when on there has been a pattern. 14 days before my period starts, I get really tired, all day long, and I get pains in my abdomen. I get so tired that I basically sleep all day and all night With some waking hours of getting my kids off to school, and getting them dinner (pizza), making them do their homework and getting them to bed before I collapse again. So that is Day 14.
Day 10 - I start to feel depressed in the evening. Between 5-6pm and then it fades away around 8 or 9pm. So that happened today. My husband came home from grocery shopping for me, and he looked in my eyes and said "What is wrong". I said, "I am having depression". And then I went and looked at my daily journal and sure enough, 10 days before my period last month, I had the same episode of evening depression feeling that would go away.
Soooo. Why haven't I done anything about it? Well I have and haven't. Firstly, I took an estrovan pill in the beginning (when all hell was breaking lose in my body and I thought my hormones were WAY out of wack...hot flashes in the middle of the day, mood swings, just not myself) and it sent me into sobbing fits that whole night. I really worried our overnight guest who was staying with us and decided NEVER to take estrovan again. So then I turned to wondering about progesterone and read all about perimenopause and figured that is what I must be having.
Long story short, when hell upon hell broke loose, I finally went to see a Dr. and he ran some tests. And then a year later or so ran more tests (Lyme, Babesia and Bartonella were not yet on the radar). One of the tests said I had low progesterone so he gave me some progesterone drops. I think because I was trying other vitamins and things for my anxiety and symptoms, I didn't end of taking the drops and then they expired. A year or so later, yes, a year, I bought some progesterone cream from the health food store. It was a brand recommended by the John Lee (perimenopause doctor) website. I put a little on. OMG. OMG(osh)! I was flat out - energiless, major depressed in bed for 2 DAYS STRAIGHT! I never wanted to touch the stuff again. Still didn't know I had Lyme and Co. at the time.
So now I have treated Bartonella. Lyme and Babesia and possibly parasites are still in the picture. I have read several times that Babesia interferes with hormones and that Lyme patients often are low in progesterone. So I should either talk to my doctor here locally about it or talk to my LLND about at my appointment next week. Maybe I should get those drops and see how I go with adding them in.
I don't know though. I don't want to add in tons of things at once. The way I work is steady and slow and methodic. So I know what med or vitamin causes what reaction. So it has to be spaced out. I could continue this month with trying a progesterone. See how that makes me feel. I just don't want to wait for the other treatments either. Its kind of one of those things that I would want to wait 3 months to see how it works. And for parasite treatment. I would want to wait 3 months and see how THAT makes me feel. And likewise with Babesia Treatment. If I start all at once. Who knows whats going on? Who knows what is making me feel better or worse. What is a herx and what is a reaction to a hormone. I have to think this out and I guess I am thinking it out here. But it is good to note regardless. Just to have a record of where I am at today...hormonally speaking.
And the good news is. Because I take notes. I don't have to be scared of the depression because I know I get it every month near this day, in the evening, and it will past. Not like the major depression of the past that would linger and linger and linger.
All is well. Times are good. I am able to focus on the more minor nuances of this disease because that BIG BAD BARTONELLA is out of the way and so many times I speak out how grateful I am for that.
So grateful!
PS - I am going to add DAY 10 Hormone check to my list!
Day 10 - I start to feel depressed in the evening. Between 5-6pm and then it fades away around 8 or 9pm. So that happened today. My husband came home from grocery shopping for me, and he looked in my eyes and said "What is wrong". I said, "I am having depression". And then I went and looked at my daily journal and sure enough, 10 days before my period last month, I had the same episode of evening depression feeling that would go away.
Soooo. Why haven't I done anything about it? Well I have and haven't. Firstly, I took an estrovan pill in the beginning (when all hell was breaking lose in my body and I thought my hormones were WAY out of wack...hot flashes in the middle of the day, mood swings, just not myself) and it sent me into sobbing fits that whole night. I really worried our overnight guest who was staying with us and decided NEVER to take estrovan again. So then I turned to wondering about progesterone and read all about perimenopause and figured that is what I must be having.
Long story short, when hell upon hell broke loose, I finally went to see a Dr. and he ran some tests. And then a year later or so ran more tests (Lyme, Babesia and Bartonella were not yet on the radar). One of the tests said I had low progesterone so he gave me some progesterone drops. I think because I was trying other vitamins and things for my anxiety and symptoms, I didn't end of taking the drops and then they expired. A year or so later, yes, a year, I bought some progesterone cream from the health food store. It was a brand recommended by the John Lee (perimenopause doctor) website. I put a little on. OMG. OMG(osh)! I was flat out - energiless, major depressed in bed for 2 DAYS STRAIGHT! I never wanted to touch the stuff again. Still didn't know I had Lyme and Co. at the time.
So now I have treated Bartonella. Lyme and Babesia and possibly parasites are still in the picture. I have read several times that Babesia interferes with hormones and that Lyme patients often are low in progesterone. So I should either talk to my doctor here locally about it or talk to my LLND about at my appointment next week. Maybe I should get those drops and see how I go with adding them in.
I don't know though. I don't want to add in tons of things at once. The way I work is steady and slow and methodic. So I know what med or vitamin causes what reaction. So it has to be spaced out. I could continue this month with trying a progesterone. See how that makes me feel. I just don't want to wait for the other treatments either. Its kind of one of those things that I would want to wait 3 months to see how it works. And for parasite treatment. I would want to wait 3 months and see how THAT makes me feel. And likewise with Babesia Treatment. If I start all at once. Who knows whats going on? Who knows what is making me feel better or worse. What is a herx and what is a reaction to a hormone. I have to think this out and I guess I am thinking it out here. But it is good to note regardless. Just to have a record of where I am at today...hormonally speaking.
And the good news is. Because I take notes. I don't have to be scared of the depression because I know I get it every month near this day, in the evening, and it will past. Not like the major depression of the past that would linger and linger and linger.
All is well. Times are good. I am able to focus on the more minor nuances of this disease because that BIG BAD BARTONELLA is out of the way and so many times I speak out how grateful I am for that.
So grateful!
PS - I am going to add DAY 10 Hormone check to my list!
Wednesday, January 1, 2014
Klinghardt Parasite Protocol
I found the following parasite protocol on the internet and I am going to ask my doctor about doing it first before we do the babesia treatment. Theory would be - work on the big parasites (if I have them) and then down to the little...the babesia all the while continuing Lyme treatment:
My Synopsis of his protocol is: 2 Months
Biltricide (600 mg) twice daily for two days
-Ivermectin 12 mg one tablet four times per day for fourteen days (take at the same time as Pyrantel Pamoate)
-Pyrantel pamoate, 1000 mg per day at bedtime for fourteen days. Fill at Key Pharmacy
-Albenza, 200 mg (after completing fourteen days on Ivermectin and Pyrantel). Two tablets twice per day for fourteen days
-Alinia 500 mg (after completing Albenza)- Two twice per day for fourteen days
Order of treatment: Biltricide-Ivermectin-Pyrantel-Albenza-Alinia
-Ivermectin 12 mg one tablet four times per day for fourteen days (take at the same time as Pyrantel Pamoate)
-Pyrantel pamoate, 1000 mg per day at bedtime for fourteen days. Fill at Key Pharmacy
-Albenza, 200 mg (after completing fourteen days on Ivermectin and Pyrantel). Two tablets twice per day for fourteen days
-Alinia 500 mg (after completing Albenza)- Two twice per day for fourteen days
Order of treatment: Biltricide-Ivermectin-Pyrantel-Albenza-Alinia
My Synopsis of his protocol is: 2 Months
2 Days - Biltricide
14 Days - Ivermectin
14 Days Pyrantel
14 Days Albenza
14 Days Alinia
I would add to it on my own: 1 Additional Month of
30 Days Humaworm
So that would be 3 months of anti-Parasite treatment. We'll see what my doctor says.
Happy New Year!
Hallelujah! I have achieved ONE WHOLE YEAR anxiety free! Thank you God!!!! I am absolutely thrilled about this progress. No doubt there is MORE to go but so far so good!!!
What is on my mind. Well a couple of days I had a herx/breakdown. I got emotional and teary and it wasn't PMS but it is the biggest breakdown I have had in a long time so that is a good sign....especially when the breakdown is really only me getting teary and crying and being weak. You see, for Christmas I was the host of the Christmas Eve Dinner as well as Christmas Dinner. Both with different sides of my family. For the days leading up to it and the day after Christmas I didn't take any of my medicines. Then I restarted them all the next day (I went for 3 or 4 days without meds). Well, at the lovely 72 hour point, I got phlegm, nausea, headache, depressed, and then the next day I felt weak, cold and then hot (I actually had my temp go over 99 for the first time since last summer in Australia). Anyways, I question myself? Am I just being a hypochondriac and weak from Christmas but the fever clinched it for me because I never barely get over 97 since having Lyme Disease. Anyways, I was getting ready for my upcoming appointment with my doctor regarding Lyme and treating the next infection on the checklist, Babesia Duncani, and I got REALLY discouraged reading all the message boards. I just wept. Feeling like there was no hope. Truth was, a few people here and there had conquered Babesia Duncani but only a very few that I could find so I was feeling a bit hopeless. I just broke down and wept - in the middle of the day - and my husband said "you are scaring me". I know he was afraid that I would randomly go downhill into a depression like I did a couple of years ago. I learned that always happened when I would start exercising (thus the huge weight gain because I couldn't exercise!!) I am rambling.
Anyways, today I was reading the book by Connie Streisham from 10 Lyme Literate Doctors and in Ginger Savely's chapter, she shares that she would have Lyme patients know that they can get a skewed picture of treating Lyme disease because the message boards are filled with people that haven't gotten better, but in her experience of treating patients, they are the 1% (!!!!!), let me repeat, the 1% of people who dont' get better. In her experience, patients get better. I read it out loud to my husband and he said 'that is what I have told you" which I know. It just helped reading it from a Lyme Doctor.
Back to my herxing reaction to restarting the meds after stopping them for 4 days. So for about 24 hours from the 72 hour point of starting my medication, I felt ill (all of the symptoms which I said above). I was laying on the couch, not feeling well, ate a couple of rolls to help with my nausea and then a few minutes later, I literally felt my hands go from freezing cold, to warming up and I no longer felt sick. It just left. And I felt fine and I could get up and work and do stuff around the house. I have to say, I have been sleeping very extended amounts of time. For one, it is Christmas break so I don't have to wake up to get the kids to school. For two, I restarted the Tinidazole which wipes me out, and three, I am recovering from staying up all night (almost) getting ready for the dinners and wrapping presents. We literally worked the whole Christmas straight. So we laid low every day until New Years Eve, on which we hosted family at our house again. I still don't have friends over (yet). Right now, I have just focused on having family over because they know my story and I don't have to explain to them all my issues (and I can complain a little about my symptoms and they understand...at least my side of the family!) and they understand if I need to lay down and rest.
So that is my story for now!!!
Lastly. I have been thinking a lot about my upcoming appointment. I think I am going to request a Parasite Cleanse (with or without medications but using Humaworm) for a month. I want to know if this is the cause of my chronic constipation and muscle pain - or if that is the Babesia. I don't know. I just want to see if I react at all (expel worms, etc.) or reduce the above said symptoms. That would just check it off if I had no reaction. Then I could be confident just going after Babesia and Lyme. In addition to that though, I have never been tested for viruses and I would just like to know if those a part of my symptom picture and if so take herbs to address that. So that is what I am thinking about and committing to prayer.
What is on my mind. Well a couple of days I had a herx/breakdown. I got emotional and teary and it wasn't PMS but it is the biggest breakdown I have had in a long time so that is a good sign....especially when the breakdown is really only me getting teary and crying and being weak. You see, for Christmas I was the host of the Christmas Eve Dinner as well as Christmas Dinner. Both with different sides of my family. For the days leading up to it and the day after Christmas I didn't take any of my medicines. Then I restarted them all the next day (I went for 3 or 4 days without meds). Well, at the lovely 72 hour point, I got phlegm, nausea, headache, depressed, and then the next day I felt weak, cold and then hot (I actually had my temp go over 99 for the first time since last summer in Australia). Anyways, I question myself? Am I just being a hypochondriac and weak from Christmas but the fever clinched it for me because I never barely get over 97 since having Lyme Disease. Anyways, I was getting ready for my upcoming appointment with my doctor regarding Lyme and treating the next infection on the checklist, Babesia Duncani, and I got REALLY discouraged reading all the message boards. I just wept. Feeling like there was no hope. Truth was, a few people here and there had conquered Babesia Duncani but only a very few that I could find so I was feeling a bit hopeless. I just broke down and wept - in the middle of the day - and my husband said "you are scaring me". I know he was afraid that I would randomly go downhill into a depression like I did a couple of years ago. I learned that always happened when I would start exercising (thus the huge weight gain because I couldn't exercise!!) I am rambling.
Anyways, today I was reading the book by Connie Streisham from 10 Lyme Literate Doctors and in Ginger Savely's chapter, she shares that she would have Lyme patients know that they can get a skewed picture of treating Lyme disease because the message boards are filled with people that haven't gotten better, but in her experience of treating patients, they are the 1% (!!!!!), let me repeat, the 1% of people who dont' get better. In her experience, patients get better. I read it out loud to my husband and he said 'that is what I have told you" which I know. It just helped reading it from a Lyme Doctor.
Back to my herxing reaction to restarting the meds after stopping them for 4 days. So for about 24 hours from the 72 hour point of starting my medication, I felt ill (all of the symptoms which I said above). I was laying on the couch, not feeling well, ate a couple of rolls to help with my nausea and then a few minutes later, I literally felt my hands go from freezing cold, to warming up and I no longer felt sick. It just left. And I felt fine and I could get up and work and do stuff around the house. I have to say, I have been sleeping very extended amounts of time. For one, it is Christmas break so I don't have to wake up to get the kids to school. For two, I restarted the Tinidazole which wipes me out, and three, I am recovering from staying up all night (almost) getting ready for the dinners and wrapping presents. We literally worked the whole Christmas straight. So we laid low every day until New Years Eve, on which we hosted family at our house again. I still don't have friends over (yet). Right now, I have just focused on having family over because they know my story and I don't have to explain to them all my issues (and I can complain a little about my symptoms and they understand...at least my side of the family!) and they understand if I need to lay down and rest.
So that is my story for now!!!
Lastly. I have been thinking a lot about my upcoming appointment. I think I am going to request a Parasite Cleanse (with or without medications but using Humaworm) for a month. I want to know if this is the cause of my chronic constipation and muscle pain - or if that is the Babesia. I don't know. I just want to see if I react at all (expel worms, etc.) or reduce the above said symptoms. That would just check it off if I had no reaction. Then I could be confident just going after Babesia and Lyme. In addition to that though, I have never been tested for viruses and I would just like to know if those a part of my symptom picture and if so take herbs to address that. So that is what I am thinking about and committing to prayer.
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