Spacey but upright

There’s no pretending when the story gets bizarre.  I mean who could make this stuff up?

As the grace of the Lord has blessed, I am not bedridden thus far in the ramp up of treatment for a serious protozoal infection.  Just headaches, increased convulsive episodes at night or morning, achiness, and fits-n-starts of my ability to function.  While this is certainly awful, I was sick like this every day for the middle years of these 4.5 years of illness so I am kind of familiar with it.  This time we can call it a “herxheimer” (die-off) reaction and temporary!  I am thinking that I have benefitted from a pretty comprehensive protocol that has finally come together:

  • Ongoing IV Rocephin and fluids via home infusions 3x per week for the treatment of chronic Lyme disease, per my Lyme Literate Medical Doctor (LLMD).
  • Weekly injections of a compounded B-vitamin and prescribed nutritional suspension.
  • Weekly injections of a bio-homeopathic treatment for a newly diagnosed autoimmune disease (to start in 2 days).
  • Additional IV fluids now pending to combat dehydration and the effects of the anti-fungal protocol.
  • Supplements to improve calcium trafficking as prescribed by my naturopath and genetic coach.
  • Pharmaceutical grade supplements including an iodine protocol.
  • A switch from filtered water to non-fluoridated, purified bottled water.
  • Anti-fungal and biofilm busting treatment of protomyxzoa rheumatica (formerly known as FL 1953).
  • Continued mold/sugar/sweetener/dairy/gluten-free, low oxalate and glutamate diet.
  • Mineral baths and celtic sea salt supplementation.
  • Detoxification via far-infrared sauna, nutritional binding compounds, and periodic colon hydrotherapy.
  • A fabulous support system.
  • Rest.  Gardening when possible.  Rest.

Unfortunately the bills are piling up as Steve and I go along.  At some point we will need to decide how comprehensive of a plan is really needed long term due to the significant expense when insurance covers virtually nothing.  For now all I can say is that I continue to move in a direction of recovery and we will figure out the rest as the Lord leads.  Our prayers, your prayers are being answered.  Thank you for praying.  Praise the Lord!

 

Thank you Jesus for the hope we have in you and that I can see in my life.  And please bless my faithful husband, Steve!  Lord willing, I am going to get well!  :JJ

Psalm 20:7 (NIV)

Some trust in chariots and some in horses,
    but we trust in the name of the Lord our God.

Alternative Health Technologies for Sale

Looking to improve your health with some alternative health technologies?  I am selling an Ionic Foot Bath and a Full Spectrum Bright Light therapy lamp with details noted below.  Just leave a comment and we will figure out things from there.  Prices are US dollars and shipping is provided to the US only!

Ionic Foot Bath

Start your detox with this ionic foot bath! Includes unit, instructions, and a new array. Generic brand used about 12 times. Add your own basin of warm water and 1 t non-iodized salt. $75 USD price includes shipping. Purchase via Pay Pal. Works great but hey, sold as-is, no warranty. Cross posted!

Northern Light Technologies Full Spectrum Lamp

Enjoy the benefits of sunlight at your convenience with this full spectrum light therapy lamp from Northern Light Technologies. 10,000 LUX. New price is $230; asking $95 for Pay Pal purchase plus $20 shipping and special packaging = $105 USD. Unit is in excellent condition. Used about 20 times for less than 30 minutes total over a few years. Note slight paint chip near the on/off switch. Works great but hey, sold as is, no warranty! Will mail to street address. Cross posted. Link to the company provided for comparison: Northern Light Technologies.

 

So much to consider

Phil 1:12, Philippians, trials, suffering, endurance, Christian, crisis, long term, illness, chronic, humor, gallows12 But I want you to know, brethren, that the things which happened to me have actually turned out for the furtherance of the gospel.”  Phil 1:12

Just as this picture and this scripture present two extremes of perspective for the activities of life, they are united in one theme:  we shall rejoice with Christ as our guide!  Yeah, I know that is a stretch . . . but we do know that the God of the universe has a sense of humor too, right?  I mean he created aardvarks, zebras, and tse tse flies!  What’s up with that?  Oh I know that the Original Adam named them all but just how did he do that?  They were all such weird creatures!  So it follows then that humor can help us endure many kinds of extremes, even the ones you and I are facing today.

Take for another example the thieves that attempted to steal gasoline from an RV.  This is a true story:  instead of tapping off the gas line they ended up tapping off the septic line instead!  When the fluid started flowing it was not fuel it was the polar opposite:  stool!  So sad.  Such a righteous punishment I must admit!  And as a grateful owner of a travel trailer all I can say is:  Tee hee with a smirk.  ;}

I cannot say that I can relate to the paradoxical themes of life with much right now with much lightness of spirit right now, however.  I’ll just keep it simple:  there’s some good and there’s some that is not.

On a good note I am grateful to report a widening of social contacts of late.  I’ve reached out to some old friends and some newer gals have jumped back into my world from my local church.  I appreciate the friends that I’ve met online (and you know who you angels of mercy are) and hope we can extend our fellowship.  All of this is good.  It’s amazing how all believers in Jesus Christ share a common unity even when the circumstances of our lives can be so different.  We all have our daily wants and needs; our Lord cares for the desires of our hearts tenderly and for these we can pray in earnest for one another.

On a less good note, new I.V. antibiotic treatments for chronic Lyme disease are going quite roughly.  Yup, revisiting Lyme since the persistent seizure attacks sure look like the episodes of others dealing with the neurological complications that can happen long after the acute infection has come and gone.  It was 4 years ago that I first started treatment for Lyme when things got sidetracked for treatment of mold and mercury toxicity, dental issues, Candida, parasites, and a possible oxalate burden exacerbating fibromyalgia pain.  Use of a Rife machine brought daily seizure attack episodes and treatment of Candida escalated them from 2 to 5 hours of convulsive episodes per day!  I was bedridden the better part of about 4 days each week this past Spring, Summer, and Fall.  So beginning in January I was started on high doses of IV Rocephin (antibiotic) and I remain sickly but out of bed more of the time.  This treatment coupled with the wintry temperatures below freezing have brought incredible pain.  However, the days that I am up until daybreak every night of the week has cut down; tinnitus, brain fog, and other executive functioning skills are sloooooowly shifting for the good.  Sometimes even the pattern of convulsive episodes shift as well (thank you liposomal melatonin!).  Just maybe these past 4 years have not been wasted after all!  It appears that each new treatment has prepared me for such a time as this:  we just might be able to treat this remaining beastly diagnosis and its co-infections to get well . . .

There is so much to consider.  Will I continue on antibiotics long term?  Will my health insurances help us out or cut us off next week?  Will I be able to get a port to spare my aching skin and forearms from repeated pokes and dressings that trigger more wretched episodes?  When would I transition back to more herbal-with-pharm-grade supplemental interventions?  Will the reactivity to mold and fragrances ever come down or do I have to go live in a pristine environment somewhere for a few months later on to fully detox?  How much more stress can my beloved husband, Steve, be expected to bear?  And how will we pay for all of this?

As the frigid Winter temperatures of the Midwest bring more of a sense of retreat than charging forth into the unknown, we are choosing to press on anyways with my treatment for chronic Lyme disease.  I just wear long underwear everyday to keep warm!  We are starting where we are with a local, Lyme-Literate Medical Doctor who has treated dozens and dozens of cases successfully.  I know that to be true.  I have met many of them when we had a local Lyme disease support group.  I noticed that each of us facing this dreadful disease had chosen a somewhat unique path to his or her recovery based upon the damage the infection caused to our bodies and our individual resources.  (See this link for more info on chronic Lyme.)  Perhaps my case was one of the more severe.  Perhaps the Lord had more than “recovery” in mind when He allowed this serious illness into my life.  There is so much to consider that simply was not on my radar over 4 years ago.

If you have found this blog by way of your own journey through chronic Lyme disease or some other serious illness, know that I am praying for you.  There is hope!  You are not alone, Gentle Reader.  Please comment below and allow me, if you like, to connect you with a larger community of those finding meaning beyond his or her diagnosis.  Our Lord, Jesus Christ, grieves for your suffering, your fear, your broken heartedness.  He sees you and will see you through what you are facing as He has done so for me and Steve.  He loves you more than anyone (including the furry pup above who has found his prize squirrel in the sunshine of a better day).

May we both smile some day in the arms of our Heavenly Father for having connected this day, for His glory.  And, um, when we get our prized prey I’ll just say, “please pass the catsup.”  Squirrel on the Bar-B-Que anyone?  Ewwwwww!  :JJ

Mercury Toxicity Resource

Sierra Exif JPEGGentle Readers:

If blog posts here have peaked your interest in mercury detoxification and chelation, you are invited to join a new Facebook group.  This closed group specifically covers the Quicksilver Scientific protocol and related issues.  We are simply fellow sojourners sharing our experience, strength and hope; we are not experts.  Check it out at:

Quicksilver Mercury Detox Group

This is by no means an official Facebook group of the company Quicksilver Scientific!

The official company Facebook page is:

Quicksilver Scientific

The company’s product-oriented Facebook page is:

Quicksilver Scientific International Distributor

While there are many protocols for mercury chelation, detoxification, and ridding ourselves of toxic heavy metals, this is the lab I have chosen for testing and remediation.  Godspeed to all on the path for wellness and may your journey ultimately lead you to the person of Jesus Christ.  He is our true hope!

With love,

Just Julie

Numb but Hopeful

I love Patrick Klein’s words from the Vision Beyond Borders newsletter this week:

Psalm 143:10-12 says, “Teach me to do your will, for you are my God; may your good Spirit lead me on level ground. For your name’s sake, O Lord, preserve my life; in your righteousness, bring me out of trouble. In your unfailing love, silence my enemies; destroy all my foes, for I am your servant.” Doing God’s will does not come naturally; our natural tendency is to satisfy our fleshly and worldly desires. We must be taught and transformed by God to do His will. When His Spirit leads us, it is on level ground. He alone can make crooked paths straight. Our duty is to remember that what we do is for His name’s sake. It is not about us. He alone can best determine how He desires for us to bring glory to His name. It is not for us to determine. Despite hardships, trials or persecution that may be allowed in our lives, God can preserve us and bring us out of our trouble. 

Our only responsibility in all of this is to simply remember our role. We are to be servants of Christ. Often we grow weary because we are trying to do His part. We are trying to figure out where He is taking us rather than allowing Him to lead us. We are trying to figure out how to preserve our lives and bring ourselves out of trouble rather than allowing Him to bring us out. We are trying to silence our enemies and destroy our foes when that is not our work. We are not made for those things, and it is exhausting. Our duty is simply to look to God and serve Him, allowing Him to do these things for His servants! We don’t have to strive, we simply have to come to Him. His yoke is easy and His burden is light; we will find rest for our souls. May we faithfully seek Him, serve Him and remain completely in Him, trusting Him to show us each step! 

Thank you Patrick.  Last night I started using yet another binding agent (Zeolite) to try to encapsulate and detox mercury from my weakened frame.  Afterwards I felt very weird!  We were Skyping with my husband’s daughter in Thailand and it was all I could do to chat a bit, smile a bit, and keep my shoulders from hiking up to my ears!  The nightly seizure attack episode was significantly shorter and I fell asleep at a more reasonable time, around 1:30 a.m.  Hell was waiting for me this morning and returned with more violence a couple of hours later.  Can you say “mad as a hatter?”  Well if you were a hatmaker in the 19th century you might be more familiar with mercury poisoning than the current medical profession.   So let’s see if we can figure this one out, eh?

#1  Trust in the Lord and lean not on our own understanding.  (Proverbs 3:5-6)

#2  Follow the clues and think about how chelation works for mercury and heavy metals.  Most protocols require regular treatments for a given interval of time, sometimes as often as every 4 hours.  (See the Cutler protocol.)  The rebound occurred about 12 hours after the first dose of a true chelating agent.

#3  Consider a repeat, low level dose at regular intervals to bind and remove the newly circulating toxins.

#4  Relief came within minutes when the detox agent was consumed with lots of water.

And after resting, eating, sitting out in the lovely Fall sunshine, I am upright.  This is good.  I am also extraordinarily humbled by some incredible blessings this week and will end with four to match the points enumerated above:

#1  Unfailing love in the eyes of my intended beloved, Steve.  When I am in his arms no matter what the circumstances, I feel the love, care, and compassion of my Heavenly Husband too.  Thank you Jesus for Steve.  Please love and bless Him.  Cover our marriage with your grace.  May others see a good work in all of this for your glory Lord.

#2  Treatment options that provide some relief.  I believe that the pattern of suffering is about to change for the better and we are exceedingly grateful.

#3  Wisdom that ultimately comes from the Lord.  I have learned so much these past 3 years and have received blessings, gained new skills, met new people, cleared out some excess baggage, and found a voice that I pray will glorify you here.

#4  Hope.  No matter what the burden may be (and we both need not look far to see horrific burdens that our brothers and sisters in Christ must bear for their belief in Him), He will prevail.  As a new friend, Karan Gleddie, brought to light this week we are to “set (our) minds on things above, not on earthly things.”  (Col. 3:2)  Therein we too will find our hope, our peace, our happiness.  And as Patrick reminded me, we are to serve with the strength of Christ for His namesake.  With our eyes on Christ all things are possible.

Gentle Reader, how may I pray for you today?

Colossians 3:2
Colossians 3:2