There have been a lot of new changes recently and yet, this is one of the first times my life has started to feel stable again. It’s really amazing to look back on the past eight months and see just how far I have come since my Lyme was triggered. And then I think about just how quickly things have improved since I started treatment only four months ago! It’s a night and day difference and has brought me to tears more than once.
Lyme may have knocked me down for a little while, but I won't surrender.
My regular pain has gone from a level 8 to a 3, my headaches are no longer daily (just weekly), my brain is functioning better, I find myself dizzy only occasionally now, and I’ve had the energy to do household chores like laundry and cooking! All with a smile on my face :)
I’ve even been able to take the kids to appointments without Zach and got out for a playdate. I’m not taking those regular things for granted anymore.
That being said, with a morning outing I know I need to schedule in a nap after, and I still can’t do more than one or two things a day, but it’s a huge improvement from curling up on the couch for hours in agony and being too anxious to leave the house. I’m so thankful for how far God has brought me so quickly!
For the first time, I was well enough to take the kids to visit Zach at his fire hall!
It was really nice to get out of the house with the kids again!
Yesterday, Zach and I celebrated our 9 year wedding anniversary! I’m so thankful for him and how sensitive he’s been towards me; God knew what I needed in a husband! He’s been so patient and compassionate with me through all the years I’ve been sick but undiagnosed, and even more so since we found out about the Lupus and Lyme. I can’t publicly praise him enough for carrying me through so many rough seasons.
To celebrate, we spent the day as a family at the zoo. I was a little nervous knowing it’s typically a two hour outdoor (in the sun!) excursion but I figured it would be a good test to see how much my body can do now. I was pleasantly surprised! For the most part, my body cooperated with me and we had a wonderful time.
I'm looking forward to this weekend when Zach and I are going to get away together for a nice dinner and a little R&R.
I was even able to push the stroller most of the time. Zach took over when I started to fade.
I’m almost done my four week round of antibiotics and like expected, I’m feeling a little worse (nausea, headaches, that yucky feeling) but overall nothing too crazy. I’ve been detoxing A TON to keep the herxing minimal and I think that has made a world of a difference. I’m really very fortunate to have such a detox arsenal at my fingertips. I’m expecting (hoping) to start feeling a lot better once I’m finished these antibiotics! But it looks like I’ll be coming back to them intermittently in the future.
I’ve also been cleared to ditch the SIBO diet and go back to my Ketogenic diet - hooray! I bet you’ve never heard anyone cheer about that before!
It’s proving difficult to get back into ketosis (seems like everything has sugar!), but I’m pushing through and trying to remember just how good my body felt in fat-burning mode. Not to mention I lost weight easily for the first time in my life (would you believe 25 lbs in those 3 months?) because the inflammation has finally started to subside. I don’t plan to follow the ketogenic diet forever, but it sure is what my body needs right now while I am sick.
And the new treatment I just added to my protocol is Major Autohemotherapy - MAH. It’s an IV treatment where they draw your blood, mix ozone gas into it, and then drip the product back into your veins. It’s helpful for supporting your immune system so that you can fight infections with more oomph and also oxygenates the environment so borrelia cannot survive.
I thought it would be more uncomfortable than it ended up being, it was actually pretty painless! The biggest obstacle for me was getting past the fact that I was doing this because I’m sick; it can be hard emotionally to sit through treatments and think about the fact that I actually do have Lyme. And an hour and a half is a looooong treatment! It takes a while because we also do a Myer’s drip to provide the vitamins and minerals necessary for the ozone therapy to be effective.
Ozone gas is incorporated into my blood before putting it back into my body (you can't straight up inject ozone gas).
This is what it looks like for the lab tech to mix ozone into the blood. It changes the colour to bright red!
Dripping with the company of my lab tech, Lauren :)
I was actually blown away at how much better I felt the day after. I did so many little tasks and chores that I even mentioned to Zach how I felt like a regular healthy person again! It’s really exciting to see the positive changes so quickly!
In moments like these, I’m so hopeful that I will be healed through medicine. I know I just need to keep going, keep appreciating the healing process, and keep my eyes focused on what is to come. Please don’t stop praying for us!