Author: Jesus is for the Wounded

While it seemed like the thing to do at the time, counting the pills in the bottle of antibiotics (abx) should have told me if I’d already taken my dose on Saturday.  Counted the pills, counted the days from which it was prescribed.  Took pill.

Only problem is that I remembered the wrong starting day!  What followed was the most wretched night of my days battling Lyme Disease.  Continuous noxious symptoms followed for 10 hours from about 10:00 p.m. to 8:00 a.m. in the morning.  Actually watched the womens’ marathon at the Olympics in London, LIVE!

Couldn’t get up or move but twice; the consequences would be too great.  Moving increased the degree of symptoms or triggered them.  Dang!  Just rode it out.  When Steve got up for church, I took 1 1/2 doses of a drug that makes you relax.  I had to get some sleep.  I was out within 15 minutes.  Woke up 5 hours later, stunned, lost, and without noxious symptoms except for the sharp headache.  I’d made it through another episode.

Might be a good thing in the end.  Another person I know with Lyme had a bad reaction to antibiotics that lasted for an 2 intense days.  Turns out it knocked the disease down measurably.  So I’ll hope for the same result.

In less than 2 weeks, I’ll take the definitive IGenx test for a pretty $1100+ out of pocket.  My Lyme Literate Doctor says it’s time.  We’ve already had important findings from the energy testing and CD-57 blood test; all results from traditional labs have been negative, however.  That’s probably because the spirochete/bacteria aren’t in my blood.  They are in my nervous system and other tissues.  There isn’t an assay for that.  My clinical presentation matches that of ILADS for Lyme and its co-infections.  So with the course of antibiotics for a recent illness and mix-up that happened on Saturday, there will likely be antigens in my system from killing bugs.  That’s why there are herxheimer symptoms, or die-off from the bacterial toxins.  So there.  Take that you stealth beasts.  Maybe this episode is a Divine intervention?  All I have to do is hold on for the ride as I take the remaining abx for 5 days.

Isn’t that like a life with Jesus Christ?  He doesn’t promise us a rosy path.  He promises that he will be with us now and till the end of the earth, for those who love Him and call Him Lord (“and, lo, I am with you always, even unto the end of the world.  Amen.”   Matthew 28:20)  And in the Bible when the disciples screamed for their lives as their ship tossed on stormy seas, He was there and intervened as would show His majesty and strength (Luke 8:22-25).  He wanted to build their faith in Him, Lord over all creation.  He is my Lord and Savior too when I am tossing and turning, screaming utterances of distress.  Looks like this will be a temporary setback as most crises in life are actually.  Eventually at some level we heal, adapt, grow, become stronger, and marvel at the journey He designed for us to bring us more than we could have ever dreamed.  Often the “waves” are smaller than we realize, eh?

So I must choose to believe this.  I trust in Jesus.  He has proven His love for me so many times before in crisis and this is no different.  Looks a little different sometimes, sure.

No different.  Tough nights, yes.  Better days ahead, for sure.  How about you?   Who are you trusting?  Can you trust Him too?

Here’s a description of the most definitive, traditional lab test for the main spirochete of borrelias, Lyme:

http://www.researchednutritionals.com/information.cfm?ID=200

In the Lyme world, there are no definitive lab tests to tell you if you have it or not.  The blood tests are about 50% accurate if you have it within a couple weeks of the bug bite (tic/spider/mosquito/and others says ILADS.com) and much less if you have it later on.  I had a tic bite within the past 4 years Steve removed it that day.  Never saw a rash or noted any acute symptoms.  Then when:  I didn’t get well after exposure to blue green algae in a local reservoir October 11, 2011, I was given a diagnosis of Lyme.  The criteria:  1) clinical presentation matched those with chronic Lyme, 2) a diminished CD-57, 3) noxious (aka herxheimer) symptoms once treatment began, and 4) results of Biomeridian testing. 

The CD-57 was the only objective lab marker and telling it was:  normal is somewhere between 180 and 360; mine was 40!  Persons with borrelia bufidi, the primary bacterial spirochete of Lyme (5 strains, 20 or more types) tend to have reduced natural killer cells (NK) due to this specific infection.  Additional diagnostic testing with a digital oscilliscope (aka Biomeridian testing) found co-infections typical of Lyme, such as babesiosis, bartonella, mycoplasma, and anaplasmosis.  These are all nasty by themselves; bartonella is the king of nastiness, adapting and hiding in the presence of antibiotics, targeted supplements, and other strategies.  Great.

I began my treatment in March of this year with a specific protocol of oral antibiotics and supplements designed to kill the bacteria in it’s various forms:  spirochete, biofilm, cyst, and L-form.  The latter 3 of these are forms in which the bacteria hides, virtually impervious to treatment.  They are erradicated by longstanding, rotating, symptom-driven treatment coached by a Lyme Literate Medical Doctor (LLMD).  I am very grateful to have a LLMD in this relatively small town.  God is good!  I had to stop the abx treatment to be able to get out of bed; this is common.  Three weeks later, Steve and I had decided on another technologies:  a Rife machine called a Beam Ray.

I am now almost 4 months into treating Chronic Lyme Disease with limited oral antibiotics, specific supplements, dietary restrictions (e.g. gluten free and no sugar), and the Beam Ray.  My symptoms are noxious, ranging from low grade flu symptoms and headache to continuous hours of seizure-like tics or “neuromuscular events.”  I am able to do limited activities, for which I am grateful.  However, I never know when a dive is coming.  This past weekend consisted of nearly 40 hours of the tics and a blasted headache.  There was a 3-hour break, gratefully, in which I could go with Steve and Christina to Ohio to meet Patrick and Kate for dinner.  Praise the Lord!  On the way home I lain in the back seat of the car, nauseous, headachy, and shaking quite a bit.  Geez.  Overall, at least with the Beam Ray, I can grade the treatments to a more tolerable level.  You take the good with the bad, eh?

Earlier this month, my CD-57 was remeasured for the second time and it is 23.  Crap.  That’s a long way from 180+!  The LLMD says the low number is a sign that my body is fighting the infection, a good thing.  I’m a bit freaked out and paranoid about getting other infections.  Steve has a cold and we’re being very careful.  Hey, I’ve got a Beam Ray so I ran a “Colds2”  program this morning.  My pre-cold symptoms diminished.  Very cool.  And it wasn’t a bad thing that I wasn’t able to go to Rivergames this past weekend along the St. Mary River downtown.  That green water isn’t good for anyone, no?

So this is going to be a long haul, which typically goes from 1 1/2 years to 3 1/2 years when approached via antibiotics alone.  We are hoping for a better course than that, given that I can function some days, some moments.  It’s a different kind of life for sure.  It’s not more than I or me and my Stevers can handle with the Lord Jesus Christ at the helm.  

Did I tell you about the dahlias that are starting to bloom in the back yard?  Starting to see goldfinches in addition to the bluebirds too.  Some things are sweet no matter what is going on in my head or my body . . .

For more information on Lyme Disease, you can watch a fascinating movie online for free at:  http://www.hulu.com/watch/268761

My husband, Steve, is racing today in the USCA event of Rivergames at Three Rivers Fest.  He’s also coordinating this event and the Citizens/recreational races for local yokels.  Last year I raced in the Citizens race at both this event and Riverfest one month prior to Rivergames.  So much has changed!   Not only can I not race, I’m not feeling well enough to be there to cheer on my River Bear.  Don’t even want to be near the water because of the pollutants, green color, yuck that characteristic of the 3 rivers of Fort Wayne, Indiana.  Still makes me nauseous to be by the water since I got hepatitis after kayaking in the Cedarville Reservoir, upstream of these events, in October of 2011.  That’s where my time of illness began.  And it’s not over yet.  Lyme followed, as it was underlying the whole mess.  So here I am, recoverring from having a delightful missionary family over for dinner last night; recoverring from Rife and related treatments today.  It’s just the way it is.  Up, down.  Down, questionable.  Up for a moment, sideways for another moment. 

So in this moment, if he can hear me, I’m yelling at the top of my lungs, “Goooooooooooooo Steeeeeeeeeeeeeeeve.!”  Oh how I love my Stevers.  My own River Bear.  And I am soooooo proud of you!  I have had the privilege of loving you as you became a champion racer and leader in our church and community.  You live the life I want for myself. 

I can’t write anymore today.   Lord, hold me . . .