My Lyme Protocol

Treating chronic Lyme Disease is a very complex task! There is no simple medication, diet, or anything you can do by yourself to heal. And since Lyme Disease affects each individual so differently (like neurologically causing seizures compared to organ failure like me), everyone has to be treated on an individual basis. This is why there are so many protocols (and variations of) instead of a “silver bullet” medication. 

I am so thankful to have such a wise Naturopath in Vancouver who has healed many people with Lyme Disease as well as the best Naturopathic team in Burnaby heading up all of my treatments. There is a huge arsenal to draw from so we can choose what will be the best for my body (and my children).

This is where it gets a little complicated. I want to share my current protocol with you because I believe it helps you understand me better when you have a snapshot into what my life looks like with Lyme Disease. I also hope that for other people living with chronic illness, you can see similarities and differences to what treatment you are receiving so that you can ask your own doctor what is best for you. I’ve found so much inspiration from researching what other people have done so I know that sharing is invaluable.

I'm so thankful that these treatments have been helping me to feel more like myself again. I can feel my body healing.

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Detox, detox, detox! My life basically revolves around detoxing and supporting my body in the methylation pathways that it is lacking (which I found out from the 23andMe genetic test). My body has not been able to flush out toxins properly on its own so I need to help it along. I can’t emphasize enough how much better I feel since detox has become a major part of my regime! 

Diet: I focus on eating organic produce, local meat, farm eggs, and typically follow a ketogenic diet. Choosing to eat this way has helped to keep my inflammation under control while being nutrient-dense with limited exposure to pesticides and chemicals. I definitely don’t want to be adding in any more toxins!

Detox baths: Every few days, I will have a nice hot soak in the tub (at least 30min) with a bunch of epsom salt, some baking soda, and essential oils (I like lavender or frankincense) to draw out toxins.

Infrared sauna: A good sweat goes a long way. The far infrared radiation helps to eliminate toxins that are stored in your fat cells by sweating instead of burdening the liver and kidneys. I actually feel noticeably better after using the infrared sauna!

Silymarin: Also known as milk thistle, this supplement supports your liver which is charge of detoxification.

Burbur-pinella: This brain-nerve cleanse helps for neurological problems (like brain fog) as it helps your body detox and keep herxes under control. You can take extra when herxing!

Parsley: This extract helps to open up detox channels.

Methylcobalamin: I have been self-injecting this methylated form of B12 (because my body is unable to make that conversion properly) as well as oral supplementation to help support my nervous system (brain) function and combat the chronic fatigue.

Methylfolate (5-mtfh) with Niacin (B3): My body also does not convert folic acid into methyl folate properly. 5-mtfh has been described as the gas in my engine and I can take niacin as needed to act as the breaks if I get symptoms of over-methylation (headache, anxiety, joint pain, rash, irritability, agitation…)

Myer’s Cocktail: I’m still receiving IV treatments to help my body absorb vitamins and minerals more effectively while I am healing.

I never thought I'd look forward to an IV! The Myer's cocktail has been a game changer for me.

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I’ve mentioned before that Lyme pain is serious pain. I’ve especially suffered with extreme back/spine pain and muscle spasms, headaches/migraines, and nerve pain in my feet. I’m a big fan of this list of holistic forms of treatment because they don’t add more chemicals for my body to detox.

Acupuncture: This has been a recent addition to my protocol and it is already helping significantly. I used to receive acupuncture when I was in University and I think that is what kept my Lyme under control at that time in my life. 

Chiropractor: Making sure my body is aligned is one of the only things that helps with my back pain and headaches.

Deep Blue Rub: I apply this DoTerra essential oil cream to my back, neck, and shoulders when I am in pain. The first time I used it, it took my pain level from an 8 down to a 4 in about 15 minutes!

CBD oil: Dr. E Murakami (MD) has been researching the benefits of hemp CBD oil (legal in BC where I am without a prescription) for Lyme patients. Not only is CBD oil amazing for pain management, anxiety, cancer, and seizures, but it has also been found to kill borrelia spirochetes and break through biofilm. In case you just missed that, CBD oil has been found to have antibiotic-like properties that KILLS LYME. No wonder Dr. Murakami is called “BC’s Lyme Saviour”. This oil has been the most significant for me with pain; I had a migraine disappear 10 minutes after a dose.

Low Dose Naltrexone (LDN): This prescription immunomodulator is great for decreasing pain and inflammation. Used often for autoimmune disorders (like Lupus!, RA, MS, Crohn’s, Hashimotos), neurodegenerative diseases, cancer, HIV/AIDS, hepatitis, autism, and pain conditions (like fibromyalgia or chronic migraines).

Neural Injections: We’re going to inject some of my scars (like my big c-section scar from Brooklyn’s birth) to help break up interference fields that cause problems like disautonomia, reset the action potentials for my nervous system, and clear out scar tissue where borrelia likes to accumulate.

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While many of my efforts are to control symptoms, we’re starting to fight back now as well. Not only am I battling borrelia, but also other (less significant) opportunistic infections, and small intestine bacterial overgrowth (SIBO). BUT PRAISE BE TO GOD that all of my Lyme co-infection tests came back negative!!!! This is a HUGE blessing. 

Serrapeptase: To kill spirochetes (the active form of borrelia), you have to first poke holes in their biofilm. The biofilm is like a coating the bacteria uses to hide and protect itself. I’ll take this about 20 min before the “killing” tinctures.

Samento + Banderol: These are herbal antimicrobials that I’m using to kill Lyme. And just because they’re herbal doesn’t mean they’re weak — I’ve only been increasing my dosage by 1 drop a day (each) with the flexibility to scale back if I start to herx.

Rifaximin with Biogest, HCl, and LDN: What’s a doctors appointment if I don’t come away with a new diagnosis added to the list? I wasn’t surprised to learn that I have SIBO but I am so happy that I’ll be able to treat it right away! After a couple of weeks of treatment, I’ll work on healing my gut with GI Revive and a low FODMAP diet (yeah you read that right, another diet…).  
Typically, bacteria are not supposed to hang out in the small intestine (they should be in the large intestine!) and when they get lost, it creates havoc with your ability to absorb nutrients properly, can lead to leaky gut, and causes discomfort and bloating.

Plaquenil: I’m really fortunate to have been taking this prescription to manage my Lupus activity because it also acts as a cyst-buster for Lyme! Two birds, one stone.

Azithromycin, Ceftin, and Nystatin: After 2 weeks of SIBO treatment and a break week, I’ll be getting started on antibiotics to treat the borrelia. 

CBD oil: Breaks through biofilm and kills spirochetes!

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It’s a lot, I know. And after doing all of these things for a while, I likely still won't be healed, but I hope to be feeling a heck of a lot better! And there’s still time in the future for heavy metals testing and ozone therapy (Major Autohemotherapy - MAH). In the meantime, I will continue to fight as hard as I possibly can to do everything in my power to restore my body. Every day feels like such a fight, and it brings me down often. But in my weakness, God can be strong.

A friend texted me an encouraging verse the other day and it brought tears to my eyes because even in this storm, this horrible season of seemingly endless suffering, I still feel God’s presence. I know God is right here with us, he loves us, and he wants to heal us. I have seen Jesus heal people in the Bible and I know we will one day be healed too (even if we have to wait for heaven to be restored). I have a supernatural sense of peace in his plan for our lives and his perfect timing. I am so thankful for that. Praise God for his mercy in our lives.

“But I trust in your unfailing love;
my heart rejoices in your salvation.
I will sing the Lord’s praise, 
for he has been good to me.”
- Psalms 13:5-6

Beginning to Bloom

Thank you for being so patient with me while waiting for an update! Typically when I’m more quiet, things are a little harder and I tend to bury my head in the sand a bit like an ostrich. While it has been a very difficult season and I've been in survival mode most of the time, I'm now noticing glimpses that pieces of my old self are beginning to re-bloom in little moments. I hope that this update will allow you to pray for me more specifically. 

Family Test Results
Last time I posted, I shared that Zach and Brooklyn sent their blood to Germany for the Armin Labs T-cell test to see if they have active Lyme Disease infections as well. I’ve learned in research that borrelia is (like any other blood disease) sexually transmitted as well as able to pass through the placenta and breast milk. So we expected both of their results to come back positive. HOWEVER, while Brooklyn’s results show quite a significant active infection, Zach’s test came back negative!

My heart breaks for Brooklyn and yet I’m overjoyed for Zach. I am so thankful that he doesn’t have Lyme Disease and will be able to continue taking care of us and working hard without any threat of a flare up. And while I am devastated about my little girl (she only just turned two!), I am so thankful for the knowledge so that we can begin to treat her now. 

It is my understanding that some doctors wait for children to show symptoms before treating, and others like to treat children before puberty hormonal changes. My Naturopath recommends treating the child before hormones come into play because at that time it gets much more difficult to keep symptoms under control. 

Unfortunately, Brooklyn has started to show some symptoms about a month ago after our family recovered from a little cold. Since then, she has suffered from some pretty severe insomnia, lethargy, and general malaise. There’s no denying I have a sick little girl. 

We have since tested Caleb through Armin Labs as well (which you may have seen if you follow my instagram account). Unfortunately, his test results have also come back positive for an active borrelia infection. I can feel the sorrow in the pit of my stomach. 

Caleb post-blood draw for his Lyme Disease test. Drawing blood from a 7 month old is no easy task!

The Candida Treatment
We knew that I had out of control systemic candida overgrowth so that was one of the first things we started to treat (see post here). This was a tough month to say the least, mostly because of the diet, but I made it through to the other side and have since transitioned to a ketogenic diet. I figured that since cutting out sugar (including fruit!), I was already in ketosis so I may as well keep myself there since I’ve seen so many benefits for people that are dealing with any type of illness. I feel much better overall now, but I don’t think I’m quite out of the woods here yet. 

As soon as my candida treatment finished, some symptoms did return and I wonder if there is an underlying issue I still have to deal with before the candida can really be under control. My instincts tell me I need to do a heavy metals test but since I’m unable to do that while breastfeeding, I’ll just have to wait. If I do end up being treated for heavy metals, I would prefer to do that before going back to work post maternity leave!

The 10 for 6 Diet & Gluten-Free
I started the 10 for 6 diet back in February as a way to help decrease overall inflammation (I was swelling up like a balloon!) because these foods were triggering a gluten-like antibody response in my body. Not long ago, one of my specialists was giving me a hard time again about being gluten-free, saying that I didn’t need to be because I’m not Celiac. I told her taking the Celiac test didn’t matter to me because I know I feel better gluten-free so I’m going to continue this way. She wanted to prove to me that I wasn’t Celiac so she gave me a lab requisition for a blood test. Since I’ve been gluten free for almost 4 years, I knew that it probably wouldn’t show up on the blood test without exposure so I decided to take the test with a grain of salt — even if it’s negative, I would still stay gluten-free. 

But wouldn’t you know it, that test came back positive for Celiac Disease! I couldn’t help but laugh. Okay, add this disease to the rest in the pile! 

Because I’m now Celiac, I figured that little exposures to gluten (like using the same barbecue that had someone’s gluten-containing seasoning or sauce) have been creating allergic reactions in my body. So hopefully now that I’m even more strict about cross-contamination, the other cross-reactive foods I was sensitive to won’t bother me anymore. 

I was going a bit crazy after the strict Candida diet and I was dying for an egg. You know, the easy over, sweet runny yolk, all over your sausage and avocado kind? Yum. So with my doctor’s blessing, I decided to reintroduce eggs after four months (instead of six - yes, I caved), and see how I felt. 

You guys, I am so happy to say that I did not notice any negative effects from eggs. Hooray! Now, the eggs very well could be still causing an immuno-response, but I think the risk in this case is well worth my sanity. I’m leaving lots of time in between reintroducing the new foods to gauge any reactions and since then, I’ve also reintroduced with success sesame (so I can eat hummus again!) and goat cheese. The next one I want to try is potatoes.

Starting Lyme Treatment
I’ll dive into my Lyme Treatment plan with a full post soon, but in the meantime I’m happy to share that overall I’m feeling much better since receiving some medicinal support. There are times when I feel like I’m starting to get my brain back and I can do simple things like cook dinner about half the time now. That being said, this continues to be an extremely difficult season where I’m still collapsing on occasion, battling significant pain (especially in my back), headaches/migraines, and chronic fatigue (the kind that doesn’t get better with rest). 

Recently, with the June full moon, I was completely wrecked and had a 10 day infection headache (similar to a migraine). I could feel the borrelia more active in my body and it felt like they were drilling into my muscles and joints as they buried back down. The night of the full moon, I experienced a pain I never knew existed before. I honestly don’t know how I stayed conscious through it. If Zach wasn’t such an amazing man helping me through it, I would’ve been in an ambulance on my way to the hospital for morphine. (This is coming from the girl that had a heart pic line removed without medication and gave birth to two children — Lyme pain is serious pain.)

I learned since then that the borrelia life cycle follows the cycle of the full moon and the bacteria re-emerge every 28-30 days to reproduce before burrowing back into muscles and joints. This leads to the debilitating headaches, nausea, pain, and exhaustion so many people with Lyme Disease experience especially around the time of the full moon. I believe that because the moon has a gravitational pull (remember that it controls the tides?!), that the bacteria are sensitive to the gravitational and electromagnetic changes, and use it as a signal to reproduce. 

Thankfully, I have a whole new detox arsenal that I can draw from when I start to feel especially unwell. I’ll share these tips as well as what I’m doing now to fight back against Lyme - you can check back or subscribe to be emailed when I post :)

Thank you so much for journeying with me in this season. I appreciate all of your texts, emails, and phone calls. It’s encouraging to know that there are people who love me enough to blanket me in prayer and take time to lift me up emotionally and practically. I have met some wonderful people online who are in the same boat and I’ve been surprised at just how many people are suffering in a similar way — diagnosed or not. We’re in this together! 

Lyme on the Front Line

Since being diagnosed with Lyme Disease, my brain has been a bit chaotic trying to reconcile it all. There is a lot to process and my ability to do so has been significantly affected by these little buggers! It’s hard to even figure out what’s going on so that I can share it with you. But I really want to keep you ‘in the lupe’ with what I’ve been doing and how things are going so far with my Lyme treatment journey.

This past month, I’ve felt pretty lousy but overall I can recognize improvements especially when I reflect back on how I was feeling at the start of this year. There are still days where I feel like I can’t think or converse, debilitating pain/nausea/lightheadness hits me out of no where, or my body gives out from under me when walking through the kitchen, but there are now some days (or at least moments) where there is light behind my eyes again, I can do some simple chores, and I can drive myself to appointments. 

It’s a little intimidating to share these kinds of extreme limitations because so often, I feel like even close friends gloss over those words without really understanding how significantly chronic illness has affected me. I want to share what Lyme treatment has entailed for me so far, and I really appreciate the love and support you show me by taking the time to learn a little more about my journey. 

When I'm immobilized on the couch, Brooklyn will bring her toys over and cuddle with me. She's got such a warm and tender heart.

Supplement Support
The first thing that I started was support for my immune system with Reishi mushroom capsules. I started taking these to help boost my CD-57 score (those guns for my killer T-cells I was talking about) and they have a bunch of other helpful properties as well such as reducing inflammation, supporting liver detox, blood pressure modulation, balancing hormones, and fighting tumour growth. 

Another new supplement I’ve started is Milk Thistle to help support my liver in the detoxification process. Like the Reishi mushrooms, there are a whole handful of other benefits to this herb like fighting DNA damage, reversing cancer growth, reducing skin damage caused by radiation, lowering inflammation, controlling diabetes, decreasing oxidative stress, and preventing free-radical damage.

To support my adrenals, I’m cutting back on my caffeine and supplementing with Ribes Nigrum in the morning and using Adrenacalm cream in the evening. These help to train my body into a normal cortisol curve. I’m finally feeling like a person in the morning and actually sleeping at night! The first night I used the Adrenacalm, I was actually yawning and feeling my body wind down. It’s been such a welcome change to have a restful night’s sleep!
Side note on coffee: I’ve found that I feel lousy in the afternoons when I drink coffee that may contain mould. The only coffee I feel good drinking is the Bulletproof (tested to be mould-free) coffee which can be found locally at Whole Foods. Looks like my body is sensitive to mould!

I’ve also gotten started on a super probiotic, VSL #3. Most decent probiotics contain around ten billion good bacteria, whereas this probiotic contains 450 billion! All of these good bacteria in my gut will help to crowd out the bad bacteria that are destroying my intestinal lining. When your gut lining gets damaged, this can lead to leaky gut (where gaps form between your intestinal cells and small particles can get through into your blood stream) which can cause food allergies, inflammation, and autoimmunity! 

The newest supplements added to my regime.

23andMe Genetic Test
Before starting on killing off my infections, we wanted to find out if I have any genetic variables that affect my detoxing ability. This is really important because as the Borrelia bacteria die, they release endotoxins! This creates what is called a Herxheimer reaction if your body is not able to detox the toxins properly. From other people’s experiences, herxing can be 100x worse than a flare - something I would like to avoid if possible by supporting my body in the detox pathways that I’m lacking.

I’m really glad I did the 23andMe genetic test. It’s super easy, you just spit into a tube and the results give you your complete genetic make up! I can now see what types of inherited diseases I am at greater risk of developing (for me personally, Alzheimer’s came up so I’ll be doing everything I can to support my mitochondria to avoid this), what prescription drugs my body doesn’t detox very well, and even what genetic traits I have (they correctly identified my eye colour and level of hair curliness). If you’re into your ancestry, that shows up too. 

But even better than these results is that you can put your genetic sequencing (remember those A, T, C, G’s?) into a program (Genetic Genie) and it provides your complete methylation profile (all of your mutations) and detoxing profile (determining how fast or slow you metabolize medications)! I got these results back and am waiting for my doctor’s interpretation. We can use this information to determine what extra support my body needs and what dosage levels of medicine my body can handle. 

Anyone can order the test kit from 23andme.com - keep an eye out for groupons and special occasion discounts.

VCS Test
This is a quick and simple eye test you can do with your phone online that determines your contrast sensitivity. It can suggest if biotoxins or nutritional deficiencies are affecting your vision.

Myers’ Cocktail IV Therapy
I started receiving vitamin and mineral support via IV therapy. I take a bunch of supplements but it turns out that you only absorb about 10% of the supplements you take orally and my body is not capable of getting those nutrients across my cell membranes effectively. So by having vitamins and minerals injected, this creates a pressure gradient that forces the high concentration into your cells so you can finally put those nutrients to good use! For example, if I supplement with 300mg of Magnesium, my body will absorb about 30mg whereas I’m getting 500mg in my Myers IV.
Eventually, my body will be well enough that I can start bringing those nutrients into my cells again on my own. This just eases the burden a bit in the meantime. 

I can already feel like these treatments are helping! I started by getting a “gentle Myers” and I would feel a lot more energetic that evening and next day (like play with the kids downstairs or walk up the street to the mailbox). After a few times, my veins are no longer collapsing and I’m feeling more energetic for a few days after. I was even able to help Zach with some gardening this weekend! It’s really exciting that these IVs give me glimpses of how a little bit of energy can make me feel more like myself again. 

A Myers IV of vitamins and minerals takes around 30min.

Kicking Candida
Before starting antibiotic treatment, it’s important for my body to gain some control over my systemic Candida overgrowth because taking antibiotics can make that worse. To do this, I’m completing a month of intentional Candida treatment including a herbal formula called Cadaclear Four, a prescription anti-fungal called Nystatin (which we got compounded to avoid the junk fillers), and of course the infamous Candida diet. I’m over half way through this 30 day treatment and I’m already noticing big results! Zach also did a less intense 30 day Candida treatment and 15lbs just fell off about a week after. Fingers crossed this can make as big of a difference for me!

The first couple weeks were pretty brutal to be completely honest with you. The die off of Candida also releases endotoxins and my body felt like I was losing the war most of the time. I’ve been really thankful for my detoxing support! As I’m on the second half now, it’s not as severe of a struggle, but the diet is still pretty tough. 

I’m aiming to eat around 20g of carbs a day including grains and fruit! For a visual, this looks like 1/3c of cooked quinoa or 1 piece of fruit for the whole day. It is super hard. Thankfully my diet is already free of refined sugar and dairy but cutting the sugars down even more is nothing short of traumatic. Okay, maybe I’m being a BIT dramatic, but I dare you to try it for one day. Sugar is addictive! And it’s really difficult to kick that addiction. I’m super glad to be eating a ketogenic diet now though and I can see the higher ketone levels on my blood work so I know my body is responding well. I’m feeling a lot better with my body using fat for fuel instead of the main source coming from glucose.

If you think you may be suffering from Candida overgrowth, I encourage you to do a 30 day treatment with diet and gentle herbs. It’s hard, but so worth feeling energetic, sharp, and less bloated. Some main symptoms of Candida include: exhaustion, sugar cravings, bad breath, brain fog, hormone imbalance, joint pain, low libido, sinus and allergy issues, gas/bloating, low immune function, and UTIs.

Zoodles have become my new favourite Candida diet-friendly meal. Simply sauté garlic and onions in ghee, throw in some cherry tomatoes, then add pre-cooked organic chicken, spiralized zucchini, toasted pine nuts, lemon juice, and home made pesto (keep on heat until warm). 

Family Testing
If you’ve been following along on Instagram, you would’ve seen that our family went to Germany again last week (well, our blood did!) for my Armin Labs co-infection test and Borrelia tests for Zach and Brooklyn. 

If you weren’t aware, Borrelia and co-infections can be transmitted sexually and across the placenta. There are lots of research studies that support this hypothesis and many spouses and children of infected mothers have been found to carry the same strains of Borrelia (there are over 300 strains!). It’s been our prayer that Zach and the children aren’t infected but based on what makes sense biologically, they probably are. We’ll be getting those results back fairly soon. 

Here's Brooklyn getting her blood drawn for her Lyme Disease test. She was so brave.

Thanks for bearing with me on such a detailed update! I really appreciate all of the support and encouragement in this super difficult journey. The next step will be to start antibiotic treatment. I’m hoping that I start feeling better from it, but it’s completely possible that I may struggle with Herxes and feel worse before things start to get better. Please keep me in your prayers!

Ticked Off By Lyme

If you have Lupus, I’m sure you’ve also had someone come up to you and ask if you’ve been tested for Lyme. My first reaction has always been to start explaining the differences between the diseases and the rigorous testing that I went through for my Lupus diagnosis. But I find it really fascinating to see how God will allow a veil over our eyes to something for a season; now I look back and I think “ah ha”. 

I’ve recently received the definitive diagnosis that I have an active Borrelia burgdorferi infection; I have Chronic Lyme Disease. 

I’m sure you can imagine what a difficult time this has been. I am pretty devastated, yet also grateful for the knowledge so that I can now get started on treatment. I’ve had some moments where I feel such a deep sorrow and in these times I can do nothing but abide in the grace of God. I don’t always understand why God allows these horrible things to happen, but I trust that he is always compassionate and merciful in it.

“Behold, we consider those blessed who remained steadfast. You have heard of the steadfastness of Job, and you have seen the purpose of the Lord, how the Lord is compassionate and merciful.”
James 5:11
 

It has been surprisingly difficult to talk about this new diagnosis. One reason being the vulnerable nature of sharing details of my health, and then there’s the fact that I’m going downhill neurologically very quickly so thinking is difficult, but perhaps the main reason is that I feel like I haven’t learned enough yet. I’m nervous to start talking about something when I still have so many gaps in my understanding. So I’ll humbly share with you how I was diagnosed, how this disease has affected me, and the start of my treatment journey.


For the record, yes I still have Lupus; Lupus and Lyme are different diseases. Lupus is an autoimmune disease (where your body attacks itself) and Lyme is a bacterial infection (a double membrane bacteria that is able to hide itself from your body). Interestingly, the symptoms of both are almost identical - from the extreme fatigue, pain (everywhere!), brain fog, heart failure, inflammation, and oh man the symptom list is a post in itself. It’s important to look for the root cause of your illness and for me, it’s looking like the root cause of my Lupus could be Lyme.
 

I’ve always been one to shout it from the mountains that I have Lupus - I have no fear or shame about it! But for some reason this Lyme diagnosis makes me feel different. I’ve cried like I’ve never cried over my Lupus. I think one reason may be that there are children involved now; I can take hits on my own, but this is a devastating family problem. Another reason is because I’ve progressively (and exponentially) gotten much more ill over the past several months and historically, people who start treatment for Lyme don’t feel much better for an undisclosed amount of time (years). Lyme has also really affected me neurologically; I’m convinced that untreated, I’m on the road to an MS diagnosis. This is very serious. I’ve lost much of my ability to remember, concentrate, reason, and control emotions. I no longer have any “good days”, only good parts to each day. It’s completely devastating to compare how hard it is to try to get through each day with what expectations I used to have for when I’d be a young Mom. It’s frightening how life-changing this diagnosis really is.
 

One of the steps in my Lupus Treatment Plan was to look at if I had any chronic infections that could have caused my Lupus or may be triggering my disease activity to increase. I’ve seen so many articles about how chronic infection can be a cause of Lupus but for some reason, it took me four years to get to the point where I took a test. Turns out I have at least six hidden infections… (we’ll save the treatment for these for another day). 

But one thing this test showed (an American test - Cyrex Lab) was that my body was producing B-cell antibodies against Borrelia burgdorferi; this could mean I had past exposure or current active infection. So I followed up with a T-cell antibody test (from Germany - Armin Labs) and this showed that my lymphocytes are currently fighting an active Borrelia infection. 

I do remember having a bug bite when I was around 12-14 years old. It could’ve been from my backyard, my ballet trip to Winnipeg, summer camps in the US… but I do remember vividly developing a large bullseye looking rash on my leg that had a firm red centre. I figured it was a spider bite and I was afraid of spiders for a long time after that because I believed that they affected me differently than everyone else and I must have an allergy. Knowing my Mom, I’m sure I was taken to the doctor and given antibiotics for it - whether they were the correct antibiotics I don’t know. Either way, I had the typical rash manifestation when I was a girl, symptoms ever since, and a recent positive test for current active infection ~16-18 years later. I don’t understand how Canada wouldn’t recognize this as Chronic Lyme Disease. 

In case you weren’t aware, Chronic Lyme Disease is very controversial. Canada doesn’t believe in Chronic Lyme and even one of my most trusted doctors got really angry with me telling me that my symptoms were actually likely fibromyalgia, my bite as a young girl “didn’t count” because there was no Borrelia in Vancouver at that time, it’s not likely a recent infection, these labs were preying upon me while I’m weak and searching for answers, and that my symptoms show that my brain isn’t working properly and that will be fixed if I sleep more. 

Most people who go to a conventional doctor hear something similar, but this isn’t all in my head. I’m not crazy. I have a very strong awareness of my body and I believe that the two well-renowned independent labs that gave a positive result are trustworthy and true. In that moment when I was being scolded for being so silly to believe a scam, I stood up for myself. I remembered that I don’t have to blindly do what a doctor says and that I am in charge of researching all options, gathering my results, and deciding what is the best course of action. So after I left, I made sure to find a doctor who specializes with Lyme. In my area, that would need to be a Naturopath.

I’m very fortunate that the Naturopathic team at Catalyst Kinetics has a new member, Dr. Aubrey Shannon, ND. Dr. Shannon has a background with Lyme Disease and is not only extremely knowledgable, but also able to communicate with me clearly and concisely. I will be able to be treated by her as well as a leading Lyme specialist in Vancouver, Dr. Julie Moore, ND. I am so thrilled to have the expertise of Dr. Moore as she takes the lead in my treatment plan, while also maintaining the ability to complete certain treatments from Catalyst Kinetics which is much closer to my home. 

Here I am receiving my first IV - a Myers' Cocktail - to help my body rev it's engines for the big fight ahead. 

For now, I’m getting started on improving my body’s ability to fight infection and boost my CD-57 score before testing for co-infections. My white blood cells that fight infection (killer T cells) have CD-57 (the guns) and currently, my guns are very low. I believe this is why I have so many other chronic opportunistic infections. We can start to expose the Lyme bacteria once my body will have the ability to fight it. 

What Borrelia does is essentially hide in your cells and within your tissues. These buggers can even shut down your body’s ability to see them floating around! So my immune system can sense that something’s wrong - it can’t see it, but it can smell it - so it just starts dropping bombs to try to fight it off. Unfortunately, this is autoimmunity. This is why so many people who have Lyme disease have autoimmune diseases like Lupus, MS, ALS, and Parkinson’s. If you are reading this and you have an autoimmune disease, don’t be like me and wait to get tested. In my consult with Dr. Moore, she told me that she never had an MS patient that didn’t test positive for Lyme; once their Lyme was cured, so was their MS.

Naturally, my next question was to ask if I could expect that after my Lyme treatment, that I would no longer have any markers for Lupus activity? To which she responded “yes”. That was one of the most incredible things I’ve ever heard. It looks like my Lyme infection has resulted in autoimmunity, so curing my Lyme (however long and hard this will be) will also heal my Lupus!

I am absolutely overwhelmed with joy at the way this horrible diagnosis is not just a good thing, but a great thing for my overall healing journey.