I've been slacking pretty badly at keeping up with my blog lately, but for once, it's for a good reason: I've been doing significantly better! My energy level has gone way up and my pain levels have gone way down. My memory is slightly better--I've been starting to remember major and minor details--things that matter so much to me--without having to draw pictures on my hand!
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| Muddy Buddies! Fjóla and me on a muddy day. |
For the first time in over ten years, I've been able to get off of my asthma medicine. I've been off for a few months now and have not had a single asthma attack. Most people--including doctors--do not connect asthma with Lyme disease, but I developed asthma (along with several other health problems) shortly after my health went rapidly and "mysteriously" downhill following a tick bite in 2001. Lyme disease can wreak havoc on any and all systems in the body!
One of the most exciting changes in my health that I've started noticing quite recently--which now that I've put that into writing, I've realized probably isn't exciting to anyone but me--is that I have started getting hot at the appropriate times. That might seem like a strange thing to be excited about, but the daily Lyme chills that I've suffered from for years make it impossible under any circumstances to get warm, even in the summertime. I've been known on many occasions to zip myself into a 0-degree Mummy Sleeping Bag, plus multiple comforters, not to mention coat, hat, mittens, etc. in the middle of a heat wave and still be chilled to the bone!
I remember someone telling me that one of the first things the Lyme bacteria does is attack your thyroid so you can't regulate your body temperature. The bacteria thrive in the cold and so most people with Lyme disease have low body temperatures. Normal for me is around 96.2! For me to feel hot at appropriate times again makes me think that my body is starting to win back control again!
While I am doing much better, I still have many Lyme symptoms left. Though my joint pain has been relatively mild lately, I still suffer from daily flu-like body aches, at times very severe. I tend to run completely out of energy quite abruptly, so I have to pace myself very carefully if I'm not at home, and sometimes I will use a wheelchair still for that reason.
My current Lyme disease treatment consists of Bicillin intramuscular injections three times weekly (read: shots to the butt on Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays). My doctor wanted me to do six to eight months of Bicillin and I am currently only 19 shots away from my own personal limit of six months of this pain-in-the-butt-treatment!
I am currently researching rife machine treatments for Lyme disease and have been reading Lyme Disease and Rife Machines by Bryan Rosner. I can't say enough good things about the book so far and I really think this is the route I want to pursue. I am getting tired now and will have to save explaining what rife machines are to those who've never heard of them for another post. Which reminds me of one last thing--I've been getting tired at a normal hour again for the first time in a few years. I think my body is really starting to win this battle!
I would love feedback from any Lyme friends who have had experience with rifing!
