Rife

IV ANTIBIOTICS ROUND UP
I finished up 6 months of i.v. rocephin in August of last year.  I really think the i.v. antibiotics were a necessary part of my healing.  They got me to another layer of wellness and definitely made a difference with my brain and ability to focus and take in information.  I still have a hard time when I'm tired, but it's not like before where every day was miserable.  The down side of the i.v. antibiotics is that I had an E.R. visit because of my gallbladder.  I had been warned about this and knew it was a possibility, but it was still so scary when it happened.  I thought I was having a heart attack, because the gallbladder pain radiated into my chest.  My test results were "normal," ha!  The pain went away but I had to be super careful about dairy and fat intake (both of which can agitate the gallbladder).  I started taking something called Actigall as well while on the antibiotics.  But even after being off of the antibiotics for 6 months now, I still have to be careful with fat intake.

HOMEOPATHY
I saw a homeopath after I went off of the antibiotics.  He was amazing and so intuitive.  He gave me a remedy in his office that day.  I got really, really sick two times after that, but he had warned me I would.  There is no doubt that the homeopathic remedy he gave me drastically healed my gut.  It was expensive to see him but I feel like even if the only thing that disappeared were the painful stomach issues...totally worth it.  I really had to give over to his knowledge because I didn't fully understand how the remedy could work like that.  He gave me something called Lachesis Muta, otherwise known as snake venom.  The rule of homeopathy is "like heals like," and the way it works is if a particular remedy CAUSES a certain set of symptoms, then said remedy should HEAL those same symptoms.  There are other factors that come in to play that the educated and experienced homeopath uses to treat you.  I have learned so much about healing and my body in this journey. 

BREAST CANCER FOLLOW UP
There was a follow up mammogram right before Christmas and I got the best present I could ask for.   A clean mammogram!!!  Now I have to go back in a couple of months for another one.  I've researched this though (having become an expert researcher because of lyme) and I think mammos and MRI's are not a good thing for me.  I have dense breasts and I have learned that with dense breasts mammos don't always pick up what's there.  I'm looking into thermography and other options for me.  It just doesn't make sense to me to continue to expose my already damaged breast tissue to radiation every 6 months as well as smushing it this way and that way during a mammo.  Seriously, somebody has got to find a better way.


RIFE MACHINE
I started using a rife machine about 3 months ago, a GB4000.  I think it's helping.  When people mentioned a rife machine to me when I was first sick I thought, "these people are CRAZY."  That will never be me.  But I have crossed over officially to all things alternative and now here I am.  This is the last frontier for me healing wise.  I have tried all of the other possibilities and I am still only about 80% of functioning.  I can still feel infection lurking in my joints and waiting to flare when I am tired or stressed.  I'm hoping with the rife machine I will finally be released from the lyme.   Here' s a link to learn more about rifeing and Dr. Royal Rife.  It requires it's own post!  Like all things lyme, the topic is controversial and there are people on both sides of the argument...it works/it doesn't work and is a scam.  The last thing sick people need is yet something else to fight over.  Sigh. 

I.V. Antibiotics-Month 3, Hormones, Breast Cancer Follow up, Menopause and Children

I'm on month 3 of i.v. rocephin and I'm feeling GREAT.  Not just good, but great.  There are more days of feeling normal now and last month, while I still had a flare, it was minimal and I was functional during it.  I've gained 6 pounds and it doesn't hurt to sit anymore.  I've been able to exercise, now walking again for 45 minutes without fatigue.  I actually have an appetite.  I think the multi-pronged approach has really been what has worked for me.  We're treating the adrenals, the hormones, the viruses (EBV and Herpes), and now crushing the lyme with i.v. antibiotics.  I also take Grapefruit Seed Extract and Diflucan (both of which help to eradicate the cyst form of the spirochete.)  I take B5, B6 and B12 (shots), L-Lysine, Cysteplus, Valtrex (anti-viral), Vitamin D, Hydrocortisone (which I feel I will be able to finally be weaned off of!), Magnesium, and a sleeping pill.  I'm still doing a photo oxidation session every few weeks.  All of these things combined have gotten my body to a place where it feels the best it has felt in years.  I'm also doing healing meditations which have definitely helped with my sleeping issues. 

Reading back over my blog it is so frustrating to see that in 2009, when I was treated with doxycycline I started feeling so much better and it was clear even then that I had lyme.  But it took until this year to really be properly treated for it.  That is why this illness is so confusing sometimes.  I never had a positive test and so again and again I wasn't treated for lyme, and despite knowing intuitively that I felt toxic, I became doubtful myself and wondered if I had an autoimmune disease.   It has definitely been a frustrating uphill and downhill journey.

Now that I feel like the lyme situation is under control, I am doing research regarding the hormonal aspect of my health.  Having been kicked into early menopause, and having dealt with a breast cancer scare at the end of last year, I am doing all of the research I can to understand hormone replacement therapy.   I'm reading "What Your Doctor May Not Tell You about Breast Cancer," by Dr. John Lee, David Zava and Virginia Hopkins.  I'm doing as much reading as I can and then I need to make a decision about how to move forward regarding the breast cancer.  I listened back to my little digital recorder of my appointment with my oncologist, and she basically said that because of the kind of cancer I had I actually have the option to do nothing.  Meaning, not even going on Tamoxifen.  But most importantly, I have to go off of the estrogen cream.  So I'm trying to figure out how to maintain my sanity, stay as symptom free as possible and protect my health, and whether that means I have to go off of all hormone replacement or can at least stay on the progesterone cream.  Apparently, as a menopausal woman, I am still making small amounts of estrogen and even that can be a problem with estrogen receptor positive breast cancer.  My intuition tells me I need to find an integrative oncologist, if such a person exists.  It also tells me I need to find a naturopath or homeopath to help me stay healthy and strong beyond lyme and breast cancer.

After listening back to my oncologist appointment I was very depressed for days.  I finally had to face that I am 100% in menopause and having children isn't an option.  I'm 44, and while that is considered older for most pregnancies my example was that my older sister had her last child around this age, so it didn't seem that abnormal to me to think I could still have a baby.   I had to let go of the last shred of hope I was holding onto, which hurt a place inside of me so deep that I felt like if I let it out it would consume me.  I always felt I would have two girls, and I feel like I have let down two souls who were supposed to come into the world through me.   I have mourned the loss, although sometimes unexpectedly seeing a small baby will make it hurt and I will get weepy.  Now the practical side of me has emerged and I think seriously about the process of adoption.  And I am grateful that I have three beautiful children to love in my nieces and nephew.