Next Round of Fighting

Lots of things have happened since my last post. First, my memory has been all over the place, for one September is almost over...my last post was August 30...and I thought that was last Sunday or maybe the weekend before. In reality it was actually three weeks ago.

Second, my stomach has been severely messed up. Last Tuesday I went into work to do some things, I was very sick and unwell that day, I spoke to another co worker there. She said You have a hell of a hernia thats what you have!
I hadn't been able to eat anything significant in several days and couldn't even drink water much, I was down to 129lbs which I haven't seen and haven't wanted to see in a long time.
So I saw my chiropractor that day and she put her hand on my stomach..she said oh my goodness, this must be one of the smallest stomachs I have ever felt. After that she said, without even pressing down I feel the artery pulsing, this is serious you need to start eating again and gain some weight back. She wasn't wrong either, I feel sickly thin...like a starvation malnourished thin.
Sure enough though, hiatal hernia. She adjusted it and man did that hurt! I saw my friend later that day, she's trained in some kinesiology. So she could do some muscle testing to see what else she could find with this whole abdominal situation. She did some things on my illeoceacal and houston valve. Plus she did something for my whole emotional ordeal, color balancing I believe its called.

During the color balancing she found that I was grieving over school, so we dug deeper to see the specifics. Long story short, I was grieving over having enough money to pay for school soon. But heres the catch, my school is cheap and its not bugging me...so I asked my friend, could this be for someone else? She said yes. Then I knew, it was about my best friend. I do not want him to go off to school this coming school year next year....if he saves enough pennies and gets the money he's going to school a thousand miles from me...I don't want that. Not one darn bit. He is the one person in my life that is health and he gets it. A healthy person who understands what I'm going through? Holy crap thats rare. He understands how important it is for me to talk about some of these issues that come up with me and he does the best he can to be there for me. He did that when I was healthy a few months ago too, we just have that sort of connection you could say.
I know I've lost my mind and my body for now...badly...but I can't imagine him being gone from me or wanting to be gone like that, ya know? I just don't get how he would want to go so far away when he doesn't have a need for it...but school is one of those things I just don't get like the normal people do...being sick, I just show up and do the work then leave..dont get me wrong, I have good grades and do well in school. But I have no excess energy to spend on it.

Anyway, back to my kinesiology friend. We finished out that day cleaning out my emotions, I went home feeling a bit lighter and able to eat. I had some progress for the first time since I last visited kansas. It didn't stick though. The next day, I was able to eat better than previous but not well. Emotions hadn't come back full blown but they were sliding.
That thursday my chiropractor told me to come for a visit(yep, she texted me and said to come see her. She's just that cool). She rechecked my stomach, out again. She adjusted it, this time much less painful and I could feel it release. My eating improved for several days after this.
She also checked me on her little oil biofeedback device, it gives out a reading on essential oils that will be beneficial for my body. Several relaxation oils plus a few for digestion were my results. Since then I've been keeping up with using my oils, seems to be slightly relaxing if anything. I smell good too, like a whole flower shop exploded.

This week I've seen my chiropractor again, for my stomach to be adjusted. I saw my friend yesterday and she did some more digging on me. Some kind of school stress related to me came up, we couldn't figure out anything deeper than that though. We cleared it, that was the only emotional situation for me this time, very much improved after the visit. I also started my supplements back, last week when I couldn't eat or drink i quite everything except for a few important things.

The week before last my ND here told me it could be h.pylori, so I started Mastic Gum. That has helped my stomach upset and it was effective quickly, still taking for now. I don't think I have h.pylori...I think its all been the hernia. Either way I'm taking mastic gum and a natural antibiotic called biocidin to clear any candida or other nasties from my digestion. Plus a super strong probiotic.

All of this, catches y'all up until today.

Today I spoke to a lyme friend I haven't seen in a long while. She's starting with a new llmd that is super well liked and way up in the food chain. After telling her about all my psych symptoms that I cared to share plus my physical, she said I think you've got a bartonella infection brewing that needs addressing.
She did a quick muscle test on me and told me yes its bart, however no babesia this time. I figure if anything it'll be worth talking to my kansas doctor about when I see him.
Im going back the week after next for a short visit, by that I mean an emergency visit for him to work on me.
Speaking to my friend was great, it was nice to talk to someone whose as well lyme educated as I am. Except she's not so much in brain fog as I am right now, so it was much easier for her to take a shot as to what could be causing my new found symptoms. When she said bartonella, i remembered back when i took houtynnia several years ago and had a brain herx, which gave me a severe brain herx.
Since then, sometime last year, I had my KS dr. check me for bart, to which i was negative. But i wasn't having these symptoms then...so, maybe we've reached a new layer of junk in my system to remove.
I don't currently feel toxic, I feel like it is more pathogenic...I do the ionic foot bath and some other stuff...I should be pulling out a significant amount of toxins. Idk how its even possible that I still have toxins in me at this point, but whatever.
Ill keep on working.

Did You Miss me??

I'm back! With good news at that.

I did well on my trip, I was able to stay upright along with everyone else the entire time! Usually after something strenuous like travelling and doing activities I fall behind everyone else. I just cannot find the energy to keep up with everyone else, but this time I did it. Goal accomplished.

Last time I came home from a trip I had a huge symptom flair, felt like an entire relapse sort of flair. Doesn't seem to be happening this time, another goal accomplished.

I stayed on all my supplements and teas even. Only missed one day of tea. Better than what I expected of myself. Making tea isn't as simple as swallowing a pill....sooo if I just feel a little lazy that would be what I skip...but I didn't. Only missing one day is great.

I even exercised (on purpose) one day. I blame peer pressure for that.
I am what they call "exercise intolerant". If I exercise I feel worse and in pain afterwards. Like a while back when I thought it would be a great idea to bicycle for a mile.
They dragged me into the gym, first I found a place to read and stay out of the way. The gym equipment and people exercising however, were to distracting for my wandering mind.

So I just went for it. I picked a treadmill and just hopped on.
Started at .5 mph, not bad. Heart rate was 60BPM according to the treadmill sensor.
I slowly increased the pace, eventually working all the way up to 4.8MPH.
Impressively (to me at least) I did this for 25 minutes. I did a total of 3K and my heart rate rose all the way to 148BPM. The only major symptom I had while walking was my heart rate would drop every so often out of nowhere, which is normal for me.

Afterwards wasn't too bad, as usual I was dizzy and nauseas but nothing intolerable. All of the walking in one place for so long at that speed did mess up my balance afterwards...but it didn't last for terribly long.
I wish this was something I could do daily, but I have already proven to myself that my body-cannot handle it. Every few months I get the notion that I can finally start exercising, after a few days to a few weeks my body gives out. One day ill figure out how to resolve this.

During this trip I started reading Buhners co infection book on mycoplasma and bartonella, very good so far. I like how well everything is explained. I haven't gotten too far into the book yet...but I cannot wait until I have read the whole thing and get some new treatment ideas.

Even though this last week was the biggest reason for my Feel Better for Christmas Challenge I am not stopping. My goal is to feel as good as possible at Christmas and during the month of December.
I am going to call today day number 19, because the junk food is gone and I am back to juicing and blending smoothies!

I drank the glass and saved the rest for this evening :)

One last and final thing, it is slightly shocking (or at least to me). During this trip I was able to eat, I didn't feel like not eating. I actually had an appetite. I ate a load of junk but...I guess I have to start somewhere right??

How I was Diagnosed

     Lyme disease is a tricky organism to find. Easy to contract...but a pain in the rear to locate. The tests are insensitive, and the symptoms can be hard to narrow down. I mean really, do you know how many ailments fatigue and joint pain is associated with? Its not a small number!! Fatigue can be caused by anything, insomnia, the flu, mono, hypothyroidism, a cold, cytomegalovirus, exercise, etc.
Joint pain is not as common as fatigue. Joint is usually only associated with osteo and rheumatoid arthritis, which is lyme is misdiagnosed as often.

     PCR, Western Blot, and ELISA are the most common tests utilized for diagnosing lyme disease.
Usually a doctor will order an ELISA (enyme linked immunosorbent assay) first, according to ILADS it misses 35% of culture proven lyme disease. That's a big number to just ignore. 35 out of every 100 people are told they tested negative for lyme disease, even though they are infected.

     The western blot for lyme disease is the most favorable test in the lyme community. This test detects proteins in the blood which are measured as bands. Some of these bands are extremely specific to the lyme bacteria, here is a breakdown of each individual band meanings.
Some of these single bands can prove the presence of borrelia (band 18), while most are indirect i.e. band 41.
The western blot is so popular because it can show the level of infection. Igenix specifically shows how positive each band reacted, some are low + and some are higher +++. The more + the higher the immune response towards the band. One thing Igenix does that is unique is that they show equivocal results. Equivocal is the fine line between positive and negative, something showed up on the test but not enough to call it a for sure positive.

     The PCR (polymerase chain reaction) test is also popular. PCR is very accurate but not sensitive. The infection has to be high for it to be detected, but a positive result of this test has an almost 0% occurrence of false positives. The ELISA can have false positives (though rare) and the western blot bands can be reactive to other pathogens. The PCR is not as popular as the ELISA and WB because it is more expensive and can miss new infections.

     Personally, the only thing I ever tested positive for was rocky mountain spotted fever through Quest. I was also tested through Quest for lyme (ELISA) and ehrlichia, but they always came back negative.
When I started to do my own treatment I ordered a kit through Igenix. Those tests all returned negative for babesia, bartonella, and anaplasma. A lyme EIA was equivocal and the western blot had band 41+ (ill post the results if I can find them). The EIA could be considered positive by some LLMD's, I don't think much of it.

     One of the best methods, however, is clinical diagnosis. This is when a doctor matches your symptoms to the illness, ignoring negative test results. This is also how I diagnosed myself long before any doctor told me what I did or did not have. Most people in the Lyme community will tell you to find a doctor who is capable of a clinical diagnosis. I agree with that, no blood test is 100% accurate. Doesn't matter what its looking for, mistakes can be made.

     After the Igenix results is when I returned to the ND. The ND I go to utilizes a SCIO biofeedback device. I like this device because it detects the body's reaction to so many things at once. It will also show stresses towards pathogens. My body was stressed towards RMSF, Lyme, malaria, ebv, cmv, and some parasites. Ill be darned...something actually showed up! The malaria could be a cross react with babesia, which is a cousin to malaria. That's what I am calling it anyway.
Before this, I had received 3 consecutive negative tests for RMSF, yet it showed up as a high stress right of the bat on the machine. Imagine that, my body knew it was there, my immune system just wasn't reacting anymore.

     ND's cannot officially diagnose me with anything, only MD's and DO's are legally allowed to do that. They can advise for and against supplements, but they cannot tell me I have to do something.
So they advised me to take several supplements to bring my body back into balance. This went well, but none of my symptoms ever actually ceased.
I still go to the ND. The machine can also test reactivity to supplements (like muscle testing) and if they are causing my body stress. Since I have to treat using supplements entirely, this can be an invaluable resource. I also like to see how my stresses change from month to month. I went today in fact, that will be my next post.

I hope this post offered you some clarity towards how lyme can be tested for!