December Update

Well I haven't yet given an update for December. I had a successful trip to my doctor in Kansas. I was doing fairly well actually after leaving the clinic, I was less annoyed all the time and much less symptomatic overall. For a change I was smiling much more often, which I feel has been a rarity for me. It seems there is always something to fry my circuits.
No miracles, but I was feeling better....but then I caught the flu. The good news is I was only sick for 4-5 days which is very short for the flu and I never puked. Last time I had the flu I was sick for two weeks and threw up for those two weeks. Not this time. The bad news is it still just beat my system down, my fever stuck around 103 F and I was incapable of eating much at all. So, I am still recovering from this wonderful event...

I don't seem to catch regular person sicknesses often, outside of a few colds a year. I especially don't catch something and run a high fever, so Im not entirely sure what to think of all this. Maybe I was just do for it this year, the good news is if this was really the flu I should be fairly immune to it for the next seven years or so. Thats one fact people rarely get told, if you contract the flu your immunity is built up for about seven years worth of flu strains. This doesn't hold true for the vaccine. I don't know if its all true, but its been about 10 years since I have had the flu last.

Lately I feel dragged down. My bones hurt, especially my fingers and knees. I have low motivation, honestly if it didn't bore me I would never leave my bed and I would watch tv all day. The bad news for me is I despise sitting around...though I don't have the energy to do much else. So I just wing it.
Also since being sick last week, I keep blowing blood out of my nose. This aint right...I have never been prone to nose bleeds...now its been bleeding for two days straight. My body is so weird.

Its starting to occur to me how long this has been going on, next month will be my seven year anniversary since getting sick. Its mentally draining to think that this is still going on...I can't believe it.
I want to be human again, I want to be happy again. I hate this annoyance towards everything I feel all the time. Things will change one day...but when?

December trip to Kansas

This month I had my seventh visit to Wichita to see my doctor for a week. It went well, I think we finally made a couple break throughs. It sure sounded like it during the appointments and we are focusing more so on some issues that have not been addressed with focus before.

This has been a long struggling year... I do not know what happened to me but Ive just broken. I am praying that 2018 will be filled with more smiles and fewer symptoms.

Day 1-

We went over my blood work, a few good improvements. My iron and ferritin are no longer high. My iron has been 40 points too high on all of the blood work I have had this year, so for it to drop right back to where it should be is great. it had been resting around 201, now its 126.
My parasite markers have also improved, last time they were at 10, this time they are at 4, 0-3 is the goal. This is great, I am just barely out of range for this.
My cholesterol dropped again, still hanging much lower than it should be.
Other than that my blood work is still slowly improving. 

We also went over my hormone panel. This dramatically improved. All of my hormones are about where they should be. Now the only ones off enough to count are my adrenals, in the afternoon they are optimal, but in the morning they are low and at night they are high. This is why I cant fall asleep early or wake up early.

This week we will be working on gut issues and parasites as these have been my most problematic issues.
Today we talked about the methylation cycle, which is the cycle of breaking down nutrients and neutralizing toxins. I have followed a methylation protocol in the past without any notable results. This time its a bit different, he tested to see which chemicals were built up in my system and he tested to see which supplements would clear these out. This current protocol he has me following is a newer program, it is not the traditional methylation protocol that you may have read about before(for those that are familiar). Instead of taking a full shotgun approach and testing all my genes and treating anything possibly defective, we are treating only what is tested as problematic.
He explained to me that in the past he has gotten poor results with the standard methylation protocol, about 80% of his patients had no change and 10% got worse. In this updated version the protocol is more individualized, so it will not overload my system making me sick and it will not miss anything making me sicker.

Today he started me on N-acetyl cysteine, Coq10, Fish oil, Vitamin K2 and K7, Vitamin D, B complex, Total Chelate, and Zinc.
All of these are low dose, most are just 1 capsule a day. Several are temporary, the Total Chelate I know will only be for a few months. It primarily helps the body detox metals and minerals that are harmful.

He was telling me about how he personally started on this protocol a few weeks ago and has had great results. After work he's been going to the gym for an hour 5 days a week, without feeling sore or beat up afterwords.
He explained to me that lactic acid is one of the chemicals broken down by the methylation cycle, so by improving the cycle it is harder for the lactic acid to over build. 

Exercise intolerance has been a fairly unchanged issue for me, so it will be interesting to see if this begins to change over the next few months.

Day 2-

Today was an easy day. The doctor primarily worked on some structural issues with my muscles and neck. I have been having a lot of headaches recently, Ive had one everyday I have been here in Kansas so far.
The bands of muscle around my stomach are very tight, which is contributing to my not being able to eat. He's working on breaking all of the fascia loose to release the muscles.
He found one of the contributors to my muscular issues is poor circulation. Which is also contributing to my headaches. So he added two things today, one of which I had already been taking and I will only take it for about a week. The other supplement is specifically for my heart and circulation. It is supposed to strengthen the heart muscle to repair any damage it has taken on from the lyme. 

Overall I have been very worn out today, I had a headache most of this morning and afternoon that wore me out. I took a short nap this afternoon for a while, that helped. 

Day 3-

So yesterday afternoon I wasn't feeling so great. My heart was beating out of my chest and overall just not entirely pleasant. I was up most of last night and didn't sleep too great.
At my doctors appointment we worked on a couple hormonal things. He found my adrenaline was spiking, causing my heart to race. This was a side effect of starting on the B complex, the B vitamins weren't being absorbed correctly. So he made a homeopathic blend for me to take to help my bodies metabolism of B vitamins. Today this issue has been much improved. He also found some metal toxicity going on in my kidneys, most likely a side effect of some of the supplements started earlier this week. Along with the metals there was some kind of mold/fungus toxicity going on, so he made a homeopathic blend to combat that also.
So after yesterdays appointment there was a lot of different things flipped around in my system that made me feel not so great.
I was the last patient of the day for my doctor, so he spent another hour just talking to mom and I. That was a lot of fun, we may get to do that again tomorrow too.

Day 4-

Todays doctors appointment was a bit more complicated than the last few days. After the last stressful 24 hours my body was showing a lot of disregulation to be fixed. He found some more hormonal things, fairly minor compared to how they have been in the past. My neurotransmitters were also all out of whack, which were the main culprits as to why I haven't felt so hot. I was low on dopamine, serotonin, acetyl choline, and gaba. Without these neurotransmitters its not possible to think straight, focus, sleep, nothin. He found the root of all of this to be in my gut, so instead of supplementing with replacement neurotransmitters he's given me a homeopathic to help heal this imbalance in my stomach.

Whatever happened to my stomach that we began treating today probably started to occur back in March, thats when I began having all of the symptoms of low neurotransmitters. So..unless we have several more layers to work through with my gut, today could be a potential turn around point.

I also tested negative for parasites today, this is a first. Of course this is subject to change and he may have me take a mild anti parasitic for a little bit longer just to keep away a recurring infection. But progress has been made.

Day 5-

On the final day we only worked on a couple minor things, mostly autoimmune related. Having bacteria in my system for several years causing issues has messed up how my body reacts to pathogens as a whole. So some of my symptoms now are caused by the autoimmune aspect of being chronically ill.
He has me taking two things for this. After this last trip I am once again taking a dozen or two bottles of supplements. After I left I was beginning to feel a bit better, less fatigue, better mood, and I was starting to gain a foot hold with how I felt overall.
Then last week I contracted the flu, Im over it now but still recovering which unfortunately means I don't really feel much different than pre KS right now. 

I am hoping that in the next few days I will begin to recover and for real start feeling healthier overall. Because right now Im worn out and my bones hurt.

The prognosis from this last evaluation is that I am most likely nearing the end of this whole ordeal. He's given me the option as to how long I want to wait to return to KS, depending on how I hold up Ill be going back over spring break in March or during the summer after school has ended.
My doctor is pleased with my progress, he said there is no need to retest some of the labs we have run in the past because they are now returning favorable enough results.
Now I just need to feel these better results....

June Trip to Kansas

Ok so, I have been saying for months that I would post my last trip to Kansas that I forgot.
Im finally getting my act together and blogging about it.

Day 1-

Todays doctor visit went well, he spent around an hour and half with me. He went over my most recent blood tests, they are still slowly improving. Last time around we cut down on parasite treatment, this time around we are ramping that back up. Mycoplasma, parasites, and possibly heavy metals are the issues so far. My good cholesterol is still hanging lower than it should be, we may be addressing that this week . The body has to have cholesterol to build tissues and hormones, so without it, hormones can go out of control. My adrenals have improved, they are not 100% yet but they are getting better even since my last visit. Tomorrow he will be going on my hormone results more in depth so I will know more on what the plan for those will be.
He tested my reaction on all of the remedies I had been taking, most of them still tested beneficial so I will be continuing on them.
He did start me on several new things today, in total I have 13 supplements to take at the moment. 

The parasites are the cause of my recent fatigue that just continues to hang on. The mycoplasma is most likely what has been causing my recent gut issues. 

Day 2-

This morning the doctor went over the CRT test results with us. Everything is still improving since last time even though I haven't been feeling so great. My gut, liver, and adrenals are all looking good. My kidneys are still taking a hit and also my sinuses, both of which have been an issue to some degree the entire time.
Today he mainly worked on my spine using the percussor and adjustor. He said this time around my back needed some work for sure, so today was dedicated to that. He did not add any new supplements today, it is likely tomorrow he will add more. Tomorrow he will be going over hormone results with me and he mentioned he may have a few exercises for me to start working on. Last time around he mentioned trying some exercises but then I got so sick we pushed it to the side. 

Right now I am still feeling well, very tired and worn out but not sick.

Day 3-

Hi all, today went well. It was just me and the doctor today, he told mom to sit out this appointment. This is the first time I have ever done that here, and it went well. Part of the time he went over the hormone results but he had already spoken to me about them during my phone consult with him a month ago. He did run through some of his testing to see where he could find some of the root of the imbalances we had tested for. It mainly showed up as emotions causing the hormone imbalance.
He found several homeopathics to remedy the causes. When he was done testing which remedies I needed he told me what each individual remedy would normally be used for. For me the remedies were for brain fog, over mental stimulation, fear, excess exertion, self doubt, OCD, and several other things. Some were expected like the brain fog over stimulation, but the others like self doubt and OCD were a bit surprising.
He said basically what I should expect to notice is before long my brain will start to calm down when the emotions begin to release, most of the emotions are affecting me on a subconscious level-not so much day to day.
Because the emotions were tied to hormones, once the emotions begin resolving my hormones should begin improving.
My hormone results this time around were low DHEA, which is created by the adrenals. He says this tends to go either low or high when the adrenals out of balance. Low is the better of the two, and mine isn't low enough to need to be corrected. Last time my hormones were tested my DHEA was too high.
Testosterone was to high, last time it was sky high this time its just a few points out of range. DHEA being high is what causes testosterone to skyrocket, when the body has to get rid of excess DHEA it gets turned into estrogen and testosterone.
My estrogen 2 was to high, last time it was also much much higher than it should have been because of the high DHEA. This time it is closer to in range but it will still need to be watched.
All of my hormone imbalances tie back to the adrenals being stressed, which is normal in anyone who is chronically ill. The adrenals are responsible for creating most of the hormones in the body, so when they are over taxed for a long period of time bad things start happening like chronic fatigue syndrome and hormone imbalances. 

The hormone tests also showed my adrenal health has improved, a few years ago I was tested and I was in phase 3 out of 4 adrenal fatigue. Now I am down to phase 1, so not to far off from what they should be.

Tonight is probably my best night this week as far as symptoms go, still extremely tired after finishing up at the clinic but i can live with that. 

Day 4-

Today was another productive visit with the doctor. We were talking about brain fog this morning, one of the issues I've had on my blood work is low cholesterol. Guess what feeds the brain? cholesterol. So he started testing me on some things this morning, he tested me for a straight up cholesterol supplement but that wasn't was I needed. However, I did need a ketone supplement. He added this ketone supplement to the mix and proceeded to test my reactions....and once the ketones were added several new things popped up. Hormones came up again and so did kidneys, so he added a couple more things to the mix and that corrected everything.
I do not digest fats well, I crave fats and I need more fats. Fats are used by the liver, our brains are literally made from fat, and our body burns fat for energy. By getting my body into a ketogenic mode and by taking ketones, all of the sudden this cholesterol and hormone problem which has been slow to resolve-fixed. The doctor himself was surprised at todays outcomes, he explained it all to us and how this works but he was surprised that so many different things were corrected by this small change.
We hadn't even planned on going into hormones at all anymore, but that came up once again. E1/2/3/, ACTH, growth hormone, testosterone, and maybe one or two other hormones flagged and were corrected today. So today we may have knocked out brain fog and hormonal issues, time will tell but this looks like its going to be a big hit.

Day 5-

Todays doctor visit was focused on food sensitivities. He checked through all of his tests and I had 20 something food sensitivities, I did not test strait out allergic to anything but these 20 something items were causing an inflammatory response.
Because of how they treat these issues at the clinic, I don't have to worry about what foods I was sensitive too. He makes a remedy to counteract the reaction response my body has-and thats it. The remedy will negate any effects from those foods and will turn off that incorrect alarm response entirely once its taken full effect.
He went through to check any side of affects of this inflammatory response my body would have, it tied back to the adrenals. So energy would be affected by these sensitivities.
He also did a quick check for anything else I could be allergic to, I tested reactive to the metals in the chicken pox vaccine. he had me take a couple of homeopathic remedies to counteract that reaction. This one though was a one time occurrence as far as treatment goes, one dose was enough to stop that alarm reaction entirely. It also tied back to the adrenals and also the pituitary, which controls hormones.

He checked my gallbladder today also, nothing pinging. One of the remedies he gave me early in the week has something in it for mild gallbladder support and that was enough.
He also checked thyroid, once again nothing came up. So today the doctor visit ended a few minutes early because he had covered all of the bases, my body wasn't screaming about anything else. 

All in all I counted up my supplements tonight, 5 liquids, 1 powder, and 16 pill bottles ending up with about 35-40ish pills a day for the next 60 days.
He is also going to have me follow to the ketogenic diet for a little while to see if that lifts my brain fog. This diet is a fat/protein based diet, both of which feed the brain. This is also a fairly good gut rebuilding diet because it limits sugars.

And here it all is. The original plan from here was to actually begin recovering and return in December to do a recheck.

This did not happen though, I returned in October to be seen again because I was feeling so poorly...

So I went to the clinic in July, October, and again this month. 

Those are my two feet. I will stand on them.

I hope you all have had a great thanksgiving week! During this season we get time to spend with friends and family. It’s a shame that we have to wait for a holiday to be around our friends and family, but that just makes it all the more special.

I have had a better week this week which I am glad to report. I like to say something positive every so often, I hate feeling so negative all the time. I do not like negativity one bit. That’s something that I miss the most, being positive and looking forward. Hard days have only gotten harder. Fear has only dug deeper. Fear...fear has grown in me in more ways than I ever knew possible. I always have had faith that I will be okay one day, whether it be that I live a healthy life on earth or in heaven. Suffering isn’t forever and I have never doubted that. 

What I have learned is how many different types of mental suffering one could experience-all at once.  I have become so afraid of others judgement and opinions, I have become so paranoid of everything around every corner, paranoid that my friends are just being sympathetic towards my cause and they are just temporary, and most of all afraid that I will never get “me” back in one piece. I don’t like the idea of never exactly being myself again, I know that my body will be healthy again but I do fear that I will have “battle scars” I guess you could say. I used to feel like being sick had built me up in many ways. I have lost this feeling, I am sad to say. I feel like the events of this year have turned me bitter and pathetic. 

I don’t know where all of these thoughts came from. I don’t know when they started. I know I never purposely welcomed them in, but maybe I did by accident ? Sometimes I wish I did have a twin, someone right beside me every minute of the day who knew what I was supposed to be like and could see when something was turning south. I used to catch it, like oh no this ain’t right I need to be working on these thoughts and these emotions. Something broke in me and I lost that too. I lost my personal monitor for keeping up with what’s running through me. Seeing as I am a chronic insomniac I spend a significant amount of time awake at night thinking(I know that’s the worst time to think). Seeing as I sleep alone also means that all this thinking that leads to my fears and rampant emotions means no one is around to see that I am torturing myself by accident. My quiet time at night used to be spent reading and calming my mind. Oftentimes my reading would be other Lyme blogs, those are always so encouraging to read. Well, brain fog said no to reading for about the last eight months. So my quiet relaxing time has diminished and anxiety moved right on in and took its place. If anxiety had a face it’d be a smiling, greedy little devil. It just showed up one day and started stirring the trouble that it causes-also unwelcomed. 

This week I have tried to get back to calming my brain down a bit. Since I started skipping some of my meds every day my brain is starting to allow reading again. While this window of opportunity is open, I’m getting back to reading some old blogs that have traditionally been encouraging. So the one I’ve been flipping through is Ticks and Trust by Shannon Goertzen. Yesterday I sent this post to several friends of mine, who I share Lyme things with. It was recieved well, as you can imagine with fear and anxiety being an issue sharing personal things is something that I am wary about. The post just explains so well what I am feeling and what everyone with chronic Lyme probably feels. I can’t not share it, it’d be a disservice. Reading through Shannon’s blog has certainly helped me to gain some of my confidence back. It’s reminded me that I’m not just hurting and suffering, I’m fighting and digging in my heels. I may be out of sorts constantly, in pain, and foggy but I am fighting and I am winning. 

I am still here am I not?? I don’t have any reason to not be here anymore. This disease isn’t going to kill me, it doesn’t have my permsion to do that. I am not in that bad of shape, my brain isn’t itself whatsoever and my body is right behind it. I still work and I still go to school, I have never had to call in sick to work. Never. So I can’t be doing that bad. At least physically. 

I just have to keep digging in my heels and reminding myself of the things I have to be thankful for. When I first started going south earlier this year I quickly became thankful for what I had. This time of year, however, everyone is talking about what they are thankful for and that does my dusty mind some good at being grateful. It gives me excuses to tell people why I’m thankful and it also inspires me of what I have to be thankful for that I may not have noticed. Something else that comes with this season is time off from work and school that I can spend with my family and friends. So I have something new to be thankful for right now. My friends are my number 1 support system, they get me through the worst of days whether they even know it’s a bad day or not. Usually all that’s visible is how much I talk out loud, the worse I feel the quieter I am. Other than that it’s not always very visible that I’m floating south. 

I can say this also, since I started to rethink my school decisions for next year my depression has disappeared. Last week I decided maybe I should follow my best friend to school next year, him d I have talked about it and he seems to love the idea. Allowing myself to even think about going off to school and unleashing myself from the teather that Lyme has kept me on has been very freeing. I’d be with my best friend so I should be safe, he’s been with me sick before. Even so, by the time I would be leaving for school next year I should be out of this funk. Some of the stress that has been a contributing factor to the severity of my health decline is gone and will stay gone. So now I am in a recovery period of sorts. Stress isn’t what put me in decline, or at least as a whole. But it’s been a major contribution I believe. 

Naturally, thinking about following my friend and going off to school has sparked a couple dozen fears about the situation. #1 being that I am only going off to school because people will think I can’t let go of my friend. The school in question was actually my goal way back when I thought I would be  100% healthy when I entered college. So it would be like going back to an old dream, opening a box that I thought had long been closed and locked. Now the box has been opened and this time I have a best friend to go with it, I didn’t when this was my original plan. Actually I wouldn’t have ever met him most likely if I left for this school my first year of college. 

So I am trying to use these thoughts to encourage myself, if this is meant to be, that I am making a good choice. 

Like I said, since I started playing around with this my depression disappeared. Remnants still poke around, but I haven’t had any for real depression since. That was more than a week ago now. 

Fears of being judged are at an all time high but this too shall pass. I figured all I can do right now is apply to the school and wait. Either I’ll get in or a I won’t and that’ll be that.

I just keep on praying. I am praying for guidance and healing. I am praying for others that are suffering(Rebekah Miller and the Goertzen family among those), I am praying for my uninvited house guests-depression, anxiety, fear, and sadness to be banished without a trace
I have faith that all of these prayers will be answered, I don’t know how or when they will be answered. If I did I guess that would be a wish, not a prayer. I’m not much into the wishing business...now that’s something I don’t have faith in.

I am also praying that this week has inspired thankfulness to be in your heart this week. I have found many things to be thankful for that my issues have prevented me from seeing. Being around others of a like mind tends to make the old wheels turn and new thoughts appear!

Claustrophobic

Lately I’m just feeling trapped. Like nothing at all is going right and nothing will ever change. I’m just stuck in my own skin with my own set of issues that no one can seem to help me with. I don’t get it.
Everytime I try to find something to be positive about, something worse happens. Whenever I start to feel a little better something new comes up. I started skipping doses off my meds, instead of taking the anti parasitics twice a day I’m doing it once now. It was just getting way to overwhelming for me to handle, I’ve never done this before. I’ve always been able to power through feeing worse and herxes. But daily life is just getting too extreme and unenjoyable for me to handle. I’m only human and my human weakness is only showing brighter these days.
My depression has virtually gone away since I started reducing my meds, I wasn’t feeling too bad for a few days last week. I liked it, I praised God for the break. But now agitation and aggravation has taken the place of depression. I’m constantly annoyed and nothing ever feels good enough. At night I lay awake listening to all of my thoughts about why I’m not good enough and that if I tried harder I wouldn’t feel so sick. If I wasn’t so needy I wouldn’t be so discontent. If I was appreciative I would be happy and grateful for what I have. If I didn’t screw up so much good things would actually happen. Instead I attract bad things and failures because I don’t work hard enough and I don’t do everything like I should.

I can’t get away from all this. I can always find a reason for something not going my way. The biggest thing bugging me right now is my best friend told me he can’t come to Kansas to be with me during treatment. He’s getting his wisdom teeth taken out instead, not fun at all for him either. But out of all the times to schedule it had to be then...on top of that another friend of mine will be having foot surgery while I’m at the clinic next. So I’ll have two friends going under the knife while I’m in Kansas and I won’t be able to be there for them either. They’ll be knocked out while I’m getting sick from treatment so I won’t have anyone to talk to...and I won’t be able to be around them because I’m in another state. It’s just screwed up.
I’m not looking forward to more treatment...I can’t comtinue on with this herxing. Going back will mean new meds and more herxing. If I’m still herxing this bad from my last round of supplements I know I still have a ways to go...

It just bugs me so much how everyone else can do enjoyable things, or find enjoyment in anything...while I’m trying to enjoy anything at all. I have a fun job and I have great friends, even though these days they are rather hard to access. It shouldn’t be seemingly impossible to smile. Why do I have to be agitated all the time?
I don’t know what I could do differently...but I’m obviously doing it all wrong....

Never Ending Frustration

The amount of pain that Lyme disease has caused me never ceases to amaze me. How? How can one little bacteria kill me like it has. Through and through parts of me have been killed. I don’t dream anymore, I don’t aspire for amazing things like I once did. It’s too painful, because I know that dream will probably get squashed by some physical limitation that I have. I can’t dream anymore...even if I wanted too, what’s out there still? I’m not even sure what I could want besides my health. I love peolle and my friends, I aspire to be the person all of my freinds can come too and lean on. I think I do alright at that. In the end though, it means more to me that I was there than it does to them. They don’t lie awake at night wishing there was someone out there to reach out too when something goes wrong.
I feel like this disease has broken me all the way to my soul. Every time I have hope and I can see the light at the end of the tunnel I get side swiped. Life throws a new wrench at me and I have to recollect my whole existence so I can once again learn how to live. I am very grateful I can work and go to school, with success. It is something that I enjoy. I don’t go to a special school by any means whatsoever and my work isn’t necessarily something astounding either. I love my job and I adore the people I work with, but I make 1/4 of what my friends make and I don’t work very much...there’s no where for me to be promoted to, so my job is about as unchanging as it gets. I want to strive for more,  a nicer school that is regarded a little higher. I would love to work more hours on more days and make some more money than I’m making, but right now my body can’t do one little bit more. There’s no open opportunity for me to do anything but what I’m doing so for now I am complacent with what I’ve been given. I just wish I was able to strive for more than the baseline.
Tonight has been a hard night. Lots of reminders of what Lyme has done to me have come to my attention, on top of all my meds over running my system leaving me overwhelmed. I am in a lot of pain, depression is eating me, and it is very hard to look up from where I sit...I just don’t know what to do besides pray..

NP Cancer, Urgent Care talk, and GI RX

This week has been full of doctors appointments. Lots and lots...and it went as pretty much expected, no for sure answers and mostly guesses as to what the problem is.

Monday-nurse practioner. My goal here was to see the NP of my old doctor(who was great) to see if I could get some insight on my stomach problems. I am in almost constant pain and it’s difficult to even drink water, not good. So I took my handful of past labs to the appointment with me. She spent a fair bit of time talking to me and looking over the blood work. She told me she was going to run some more labs and check for h.pylori. Great, I figured I probably have it but this could confirm the suspicion. 1+ point for her. She said by looking over my labs and seeing my history of high iron and high ferritin her opinion was I probably had too much blood in my system. The way she explained it made sense, it could be causing my headaches, joint pain and stomach pain. I thought great, this sounds like an easy fix. +2 points for her. The words she used for this condition was polycythemia Vera, never heard of it but sounds good to me. She’s sending me to a hematologist for further evaluation. Works for me.

She also gave me a script for mebendazole for my parasitic issue, I’ve taken this before with seemingly good results. So I welcomed it. When I finished up with my appointment with her I went into the infusion room to get IV’s of magnesium, vitamin C, and glutathione. Again, very much welcomed because my system must be toxic.

I was there just sitting in the chair, I thought I’m gonna google polycythemia Vera. I know nothing about it and now I may have it, time to educate myself. It’s a cancer! I didn’t get a great understanding of it, but it’s a bone marrow disorder. I thought oh my gosh, I have yet another major health issue...among other things I thought.

So naturally I start speaking to other doctors I know for their opinion of this. I call over to my Kansas doctor and let them know I’ve sent an urgent email. He responds a little later and says that’s a bit of a stretch, that’s a major condition to be diagnosed with and I don’t entirely fit the bill. And 3 other doctors I know said the same. Another thing, polycythemia is mainly only found in people over 60-not even close to me. Even in the elderly it’s very rare. So again, I don’t exactly fit.

Wednesday-ultrasound and urgent care.

The nurse practitioner ordered for me to get an ultrasound of my absomen. Again I thought this was a good idea, maybe it would reveal what is wrong with my stomach. No, ultrasound can’t see the stomach. This was only to look at my gallbladder, which is fine. Well, assumed to be fine because ultrasound doesn’t entirely rule out gallbladder issues either.

So Wednesday afternoon I broke, I was in pain and I was starving. Something has to give here. 

Urgent care was easy, no wait and a super nice NP worked with me. The problem is they couldn’t really do much for me besides give me a nausea medication, they were only capable of doing what the original NP did Monday-ultra sound and h. Pylori test. I refused the nausea med because it’s not a solution...just a band aid, no thanks I want to actually fix the problem. 

But, I did get a referral for a GI doc. This is good I thought.

Thursday-GI Doctor day. One again, I went in and there was no wait. Super nice and easy to work with PA. She called over and was able to get my ultrasound and h.pylori results, I appreciated how quickly they worked to get me some answers here. The good news slash bad news, the h.pylori was negative and so was the ultrasound. The GI PA said I could take Prilosec for the pain and see if that works, again no thanks it won’t fix it. She said my problem was most likely an ulcer, okay I’ll go with it. Sounds good I guess. 

So now that’s where I am, it’s assumed that my stomach issues are because of an ulcer. I am not entirely convinced just because there’s no test or anything to prove it, but after this week I’m sick of tests. I went by the office I work at and picks up some supplements for ulcers and I also stopped by the vitamin store for some aloe juice.

My current protocol is marshmallow root tea, peptobismol, mastic gum, Gastro ULC by apex energetics, and aloe juice with chamomile and other herbs. 

In a few days or so I hope to be seeing some change! 

The only downfall is that after all these new things for my gut, the mebendazole, and all my other supplements...my body is overloaded. Which unfortunately means I have uncontrollable anxiety that is absolutely driving me up the wall. Not sure what to do about this but I’m loosing my ever living mind over here....but I guess now....we wait...