When I was a kid, I think I remember there was a librarian that was born on leap year day. I vaguely remember teasing that she was only 10 years old. This is only the 2nd February 29th I've had since diagnosis.
So I have had good intentions the the 2 1/2 weeks. I have taken my medication and supplements exactly and mostly on time and then today happened. I woke up late, but not late enough to not take my first dose of Cortef. I wiped the sweat from my brow (more on that later) and took the 10 mg of Cortef. Then I began writing an essay for my class. I wrote and wrote and wrote some more. Okay it was more like typing and typing and typing some more and then I realized it was 2pm. Ahhhh I had typed through my 2nd dose and it was closer to my 3rd dose than to the my 2nd one. So I made the decision to just "skip it."
Then I was 1/2 way to my Dad's school when I realized I hadn't packed my 4pm Cortef. I nearly screamed out loud and then I realized, this day wouldn't have existed last year. No biggie. ;)
Back to the sweat. I don't know what's going on, but I'm sweating like crazy. It's ridiculous, seriously ridiculous. It is probably related to the new stuff I'm taking. I'm documenting so we'll see when I go for my follow up in April. Well I just wanted to make sure I had written something on a day that only comes around every four years.
Wednesday, February 29, 2012
Saturday, February 25, 2012
Medicinal Compliance
I'm sure that there must be others that understand the dilemma of medicinal compliance. It is so difficult to make sure that you take this one at 8, 12 and 4 and this one doesn't make my stomach hurt if I take it right before I go to bed. Then there's one that each day I have to add another one drop to my regiment. Example: Today I take the Detox stuff at 8 drops in the morning and 8 drops in the evening and the Borrelia drops 7 drops in the morning and 7 drops in the evening. Tomorrow ... it's 9 and 9 and 8 and 8. And the Cortef is 2 tablets at 8, 1 tablet at 12 and 1/2 tab at 4. It really is a lot to remember. Not to mention if the meds make you feel kind of puny and you herx, you don't wanna take anything at all. But, I have a goal to be 100% compliant for at least one month. I'm 2 weeks in and have done everything just right. How do I do it?
Well, I'm an excel spreadsheet lover.
On the left hand boxes, I type in every single supplement or medicine that I have to take. When necessary, I create the name three times and put next to it 8am, noon, 4pm. At the top of the spreadsheet, I type in the days of the week. So let's say that on Tuesday, I need to take 2 Vitamin B's. So I find the little box that corresponds with Tuesday and Vitamin B and type in 2. That way I always know what I need to take. Anything that I don't have to take that day, I mark it out in a grey color. An example of something I might not take today that I might take tomorrow would be if I were getting a B12 shot, I wouldn't be taking the B12 sublingualy. Another example is that I haven't started the drops for Babesia or Bartonella yet, so they are all in grey.
Underneath I add in anything else that is pertinent. This is if I got an IV or HBOT or something like that and what day. Another thing is if I added something to my regiment that day. For example if I felt a UTI coming on and took Mannose Powder. It's not something I'd normally use, but I would want to keep track that I used it. Last week I felt I was coming down with something so I took extra Vitamin C and a few days of Bio Chlor Dox.
The chart helps me stay compliant and it helps me know exactly what I've taken and what I need to take. I also use this same chart to help me keep track of symptoms. On the 2nd tab, I write down on the left hand side the symptoms I've been experiencing. Headaches, Chills, Sore Throat, Twitching, Difficulty Breathing, Fatigue, etc. I have about 20 symptoms on the list, but add if any new ones come up. At the top, I have the days of the week. I label each symptom daily whether it was 0 (never occurred) to 10 (unbearable). I use different colors for each number so I know at a glance whether I felt little, mild, moderate, severe or unbearable for the symptom. So if I see a "RED" box, I know that whatever symptom that was -- it was unbearable. If my box is teal, I know I had some mild symptoms of whatever is in teal. It sounds complicated, but it really has helped me track my symptoms.
It is easier for me to see --- Oh I had a stuffy nose for 7 days this week, but it was a "mild" symptom. As opposed to having a stuffy nose for 7 days that was unbearable. If I told you that I had lower back pain for 17 out of the last 21 days, you might winch. But if I told you that on average, that back pain was mild and I only had a couple of moderate pain days -- it doesn't sound as bad. One day I may have 15 to 20 symptoms that are mild to moderate and the next I may only have 5 to 7 symptoms but they are more severe. Which is more disturbing? I have yet to decide. What I do know is that to have two days in a row of unbearable fatigue is just that - unbearable - and I will crash.
Week 1: I had 5 symptoms that at least one day rated 6 or more. My worst problems that rated 6 or more were stuffy nose, chills, headache, lower back pain and nausea.
Week 2: I had 6 symptoms that at least one day rated 6 or more. My worst problems that rated 6 or more were ear pulsing, throat bumps, headaches, sore throat, jaw pain and fatigue.
To compare the two weeks: There were about the same number of problems although they were slightly different. Week 1 I had not started the detox drops. I also had not started the Cortef yet. Week 2, I had begun both Diflucan and the Detox drops. We attribute ALL of the symptoms to the Diflucan and yeast die off.
Week 3: I had 10 symptoms that at least one day rated 6 or more. My worst problems that rated 6 or more were itching, chills, headache, fatigue, sore throat, left knee pain, numbness, twitching, leg pain and difficulty breathing.
To compare the third week to the 1st two weeks: I had a lot more symptoms this third week that on at least one day rated 6 or higher. Most of those 6 or higher numbers were 6 to 8 in ranking. Fatigue kicked my butt two days in a row by ranking 9 and 10. During this third week, I started the borrelia drops AND the cortef. I was continuing the detox drops and the diflucan. It's hard to say which symptoms are correlated to which medicines, but if I had to guess ---
Itching, Headache, Sore Throat are Diflucan related
And the rest minus the fatigue are Detox and Borrelia drop related.
Fatigue is probably Cortef related.
Just my guess. Also on my chart I leave notes about sleep. I need to know how many interuptions I have during the night, how long was my sleep and how I felt when I woke up. Did I feel rested, tired, fatigued? Did I wake up only once or was it 5 or 10 times? Did I sleep less than 5 h ours or did I sleep for 10 plus hours? Last night for example: I was so fatigued that I collapsed in bed at 8pm (this was after taking a two hour nap on the couch between 2 and 4 unexpectedly).
I didn't wake up again until 4am, but I fell back to sleep and woke up again at 7:45 (and got out of the bed because I woke up feeling very rested). So I almost got 12 hours of sleep, with only one interruption and woke up feeling rested. Considering that yesterday's fatigue level was at a 10, I needed that essentially uninterrupted 12 hours of sleep. Yet a few nights ago, I couldn't fall asleep easily. My sleep interruptions were more than 8 and I only had about 4 hours total of sleep. How do you think I felt the next day? Terrible.
Well I've babbled on enough about my wonderful excel spreadsheet. It really is a wonderful tool to use for medicine compliance, symptom chart and sleep patterns.
Well, I'm an excel spreadsheet lover.
On the left hand boxes, I type in every single supplement or medicine that I have to take. When necessary, I create the name three times and put next to it 8am, noon, 4pm. At the top of the spreadsheet, I type in the days of the week. So let's say that on Tuesday, I need to take 2 Vitamin B's. So I find the little box that corresponds with Tuesday and Vitamin B and type in 2. That way I always know what I need to take. Anything that I don't have to take that day, I mark it out in a grey color. An example of something I might not take today that I might take tomorrow would be if I were getting a B12 shot, I wouldn't be taking the B12 sublingualy. Another example is that I haven't started the drops for Babesia or Bartonella yet, so they are all in grey.
Underneath I add in anything else that is pertinent. This is if I got an IV or HBOT or something like that and what day. Another thing is if I added something to my regiment that day. For example if I felt a UTI coming on and took Mannose Powder. It's not something I'd normally use, but I would want to keep track that I used it. Last week I felt I was coming down with something so I took extra Vitamin C and a few days of Bio Chlor Dox.
The chart helps me stay compliant and it helps me know exactly what I've taken and what I need to take. I also use this same chart to help me keep track of symptoms. On the 2nd tab, I write down on the left hand side the symptoms I've been experiencing. Headaches, Chills, Sore Throat, Twitching, Difficulty Breathing, Fatigue, etc. I have about 20 symptoms on the list, but add if any new ones come up. At the top, I have the days of the week. I label each symptom daily whether it was 0 (never occurred) to 10 (unbearable). I use different colors for each number so I know at a glance whether I felt little, mild, moderate, severe or unbearable for the symptom. So if I see a "RED" box, I know that whatever symptom that was -- it was unbearable. If my box is teal, I know I had some mild symptoms of whatever is in teal. It sounds complicated, but it really has helped me track my symptoms.
It is easier for me to see --- Oh I had a stuffy nose for 7 days this week, but it was a "mild" symptom. As opposed to having a stuffy nose for 7 days that was unbearable. If I told you that I had lower back pain for 17 out of the last 21 days, you might winch. But if I told you that on average, that back pain was mild and I only had a couple of moderate pain days -- it doesn't sound as bad. One day I may have 15 to 20 symptoms that are mild to moderate and the next I may only have 5 to 7 symptoms but they are more severe. Which is more disturbing? I have yet to decide. What I do know is that to have two days in a row of unbearable fatigue is just that - unbearable - and I will crash.
Week 1: I had 5 symptoms that at least one day rated 6 or more. My worst problems that rated 6 or more were stuffy nose, chills, headache, lower back pain and nausea.
Week 2: I had 6 symptoms that at least one day rated 6 or more. My worst problems that rated 6 or more were ear pulsing, throat bumps, headaches, sore throat, jaw pain and fatigue.
To compare the two weeks: There were about the same number of problems although they were slightly different. Week 1 I had not started the detox drops. I also had not started the Cortef yet. Week 2, I had begun both Diflucan and the Detox drops. We attribute ALL of the symptoms to the Diflucan and yeast die off.
Week 3: I had 10 symptoms that at least one day rated 6 or more. My worst problems that rated 6 or more were itching, chills, headache, fatigue, sore throat, left knee pain, numbness, twitching, leg pain and difficulty breathing.
To compare the third week to the 1st two weeks: I had a lot more symptoms this third week that on at least one day rated 6 or higher. Most of those 6 or higher numbers were 6 to 8 in ranking. Fatigue kicked my butt two days in a row by ranking 9 and 10. During this third week, I started the borrelia drops AND the cortef. I was continuing the detox drops and the diflucan. It's hard to say which symptoms are correlated to which medicines, but if I had to guess ---
Itching, Headache, Sore Throat are Diflucan related
And the rest minus the fatigue are Detox and Borrelia drop related.
Fatigue is probably Cortef related.
Just my guess. Also on my chart I leave notes about sleep. I need to know how many interuptions I have during the night, how long was my sleep and how I felt when I woke up. Did I feel rested, tired, fatigued? Did I wake up only once or was it 5 or 10 times? Did I sleep less than 5 h ours or did I sleep for 10 plus hours? Last night for example: I was so fatigued that I collapsed in bed at 8pm (this was after taking a two hour nap on the couch between 2 and 4 unexpectedly).
I didn't wake up again until 4am, but I fell back to sleep and woke up again at 7:45 (and got out of the bed because I woke up feeling very rested). So I almost got 12 hours of sleep, with only one interruption and woke up feeling rested. Considering that yesterday's fatigue level was at a 10, I needed that essentially uninterrupted 12 hours of sleep. Yet a few nights ago, I couldn't fall asleep easily. My sleep interruptions were more than 8 and I only had about 4 hours total of sleep. How do you think I felt the next day? Terrible.
Well I've babbled on enough about my wonderful excel spreadsheet. It really is a wonderful tool to use for medicine compliance, symptom chart and sleep patterns.
Friday, February 24, 2012
Itchy Itchy Scratchy Scratchy
The yeast must be dying because I'm itching terribly. It's not as bad as when I had the PICC line, but it is pretty annoying. My arms (my left one more than the right) and my side and my legs and my shoulder are bothering me today. This has been going on since I started taking Diflucan. I knew I had Candida, but I didn't realize how bad.
I feel a little better emotionally today. I don't know why it took so long for me to get out of the funk, but the funk seemed to have lifted when I woke this morning which is a blessing. I don't like being in a funk.
I feel a little better emotionally today. I don't know why it took so long for me to get out of the funk, but the funk seemed to have lifted when I woke this morning which is a blessing. I don't like being in a funk.
Wednesday, February 22, 2012
The New Treatment
It's going alright, which is better than terrible.
I'm having a really difficult time remembering to take it on time. I have to take it about 8, 12 and 4. Typically right before the time I have to take Cortef I think I better go take Cortef and then, I forget and remember 30 minutes later. Better 30 minutes late, than never I guess. Today is day 4 and I have taken all 12 doses. This is particularly good for me. I hate to admit that medicine compliance has never been a strong suit of mine. Typically when something makes me feel bad, I won't take it. So to feel a wave of nausea come over me, I hesitate to continue, but my goal is to be better this go around.
With the new herbal Lyme treatment, I'm on day 13 of the detox stuff and day 4 of the Bb1 bottle. I'm at 4 drops in the morning and 4 drops in the evening. Nothing terrible has happened yet so I keep on rising the drops. On Sunday, I will add in the "Bar" bottle (for Bartonella). So far so good. I've not had any particularly weird things happen yet other than the mouth blisters, but those happened after I started Diflucan and Detox bottle and not the new Cortef or the Bb1 bottle.
Yesterday, I had a really bad twitch of my hand. Now normally the twitches don't really bother me and I'm not doing anything that can cause any real damage, but yesterday tells a different story. I was unloading the dishwasher. We bought a new blender and the blades are sharp. I was being really careful because the blade was being washed. Well as I passed over the blade carefully, my hand twitched. I cut my thumb on the very sharp blade.
It didn't bleed at first, but I went to the bathroom so I could wash it and get a band-aid. As I got to the bathroom sink, it began to bleed and bleed and bleed. It took 30 minutes of direct pressure for the bleeding to stop. It stopped just in time because I almost got in the car to drive to the Fast Med Urgent Care. The cut seems to be healing nicely. I'm keeping it covered, but will uncover it tomorrow in the HBOT to stimulate more healing.
All in all, I'm doing okay even though I feel weak and have been having some headaches.
I'm having a really difficult time remembering to take it on time. I have to take it about 8, 12 and 4. Typically right before the time I have to take Cortef I think I better go take Cortef and then, I forget and remember 30 minutes later. Better 30 minutes late, than never I guess. Today is day 4 and I have taken all 12 doses. This is particularly good for me. I hate to admit that medicine compliance has never been a strong suit of mine. Typically when something makes me feel bad, I won't take it. So to feel a wave of nausea come over me, I hesitate to continue, but my goal is to be better this go around.
With the new herbal Lyme treatment, I'm on day 13 of the detox stuff and day 4 of the Bb1 bottle. I'm at 4 drops in the morning and 4 drops in the evening. Nothing terrible has happened yet so I keep on rising the drops. On Sunday, I will add in the "Bar" bottle (for Bartonella). So far so good. I've not had any particularly weird things happen yet other than the mouth blisters, but those happened after I started Diflucan and Detox bottle and not the new Cortef or the Bb1 bottle.
Yesterday, I had a really bad twitch of my hand. Now normally the twitches don't really bother me and I'm not doing anything that can cause any real damage, but yesterday tells a different story. I was unloading the dishwasher. We bought a new blender and the blades are sharp. I was being really careful because the blade was being washed. Well as I passed over the blade carefully, my hand twitched. I cut my thumb on the very sharp blade.
It didn't bleed at first, but I went to the bathroom so I could wash it and get a band-aid. As I got to the bathroom sink, it began to bleed and bleed and bleed. It took 30 minutes of direct pressure for the bleeding to stop. It stopped just in time because I almost got in the car to drive to the Fast Med Urgent Care. The cut seems to be healing nicely. I'm keeping it covered, but will uncover it tomorrow in the HBOT to stimulate more healing.
All in all, I'm doing okay even though I feel weak and have been having some headaches.
Monday, February 20, 2012
Response to comment
Hey there Christina! ;) I don't mind posting how I felt about the Borrelia Series. So the Borrelia series caused me a lot of herx reaction. If you're doing the Borrelia series in the little vials. The small box with 10 vials in it. I took all 10 and then started to go backwards with the second box, but it was just a little too "much" for my body at the time. So we switched to something else. Which honestly I can't remember the name of .. Tick Nosode or something like that. I was working on that, but this last visit we switched to something different. I've heard from a lot of people that they herx on Borrelia Series which obviously we're supposed to do --- but I couldn't tolerate it so we went in a different direction. If I had been at home instead of working full time, I would have probably continued it. I'm not sure how this new stuff will work because honestly I've only been on the 2nd bottle of stuff for a couple of days. I've been on the detox stuff for a week. We'll see. Plus throw in the new stuff for Cortisol and I don't really know what's doing what if that makes sense.
I was having trouble with my email, but didn't want your comment to go unnoticed. Hope this helps. :)
I was having trouble with my email, but didn't want your comment to go unnoticed. Hope this helps. :)
Sunday, February 19, 2012
Traffic Source
Every now and again I go look at traffic source just to see and I got found by someone looking up, "north Carolina basketball player white boy number 42." Haa haa!
We've had three players wearing number 42 who have their jerseys in the rafters. I could name 2 of them without looking. Sean May from the 2005 national championship team and Jerry Stackhouse - First Team all American played in the 90's. Then there was Daughtery, Brad Daughtery.
42 is a pretty awesome number. I'm sure we've had more players using the number 42, but none are using it this season.
We've had three players wearing number 42 who have their jerseys in the rafters. I could name 2 of them without looking. Sean May from the 2005 national championship team and Jerry Stackhouse - First Team all American played in the 90's. Then there was Daughtery, Brad Daughtery.
42 is a pretty awesome number. I'm sure we've had more players using the number 42, but none are using it this season.
Saturday, February 18, 2012
Sad little labs
I was so hopeful that my labs would look good, but I knew based on symptoms that something had to be off in my blood. We looked at several things, but mainly things that I've had borderline trouble or things that I have had trouble in the past that haven't been tested recently.
What did we test? Well we looked at the standard CBC. This test looks at everything from White Blood Cells to Platelet Counts. In the last five years, they have varied. However, they've always been within normal limits with the exception of Hemoglobin, Hematocrit and Platelets were off a couple of labs in 2010. There was no exception in these labs from February 8th. My CDC looked good. So I was very happy with them. They actually did CBC from two different labs. They looked very similar and were right in the perfect range for *most* of the things they looked at.
Then they tested my Comprehensive Metabolic Panel. These two tests are the most common blood tests out there. Mine were pretty unremarkable and have been but there are a couple of them that border on low. One is my sodium. Now what you may not realize is that Sodium is important. When it's on the lower end of normal, it concerns my doctor. It is a little indictor for him that things aren't quite where they should be health wise. My liver enzymes gave me a little "eye brow" raise as they were a little higher than they have been, but unless he specifically mentions them I won't worry. I bet they'll go down the next blood work.
My Vitamin D was perfect. I couldn't be happier regarding the Vitamin D numbers.
Then there are the CD tests. Now I will never really understand the CD numbers, but they are some that quite a few lyme doctors take stock in. Now remember how I was taking all that LDN -- or was trying to take the LDN ... it was for this number CD56. You won't believe this -- in fact, I am struggling to believe it, but it is within normal range and I'm not on that medicine for it. Not only is it in normal range, but it's in a really good portion of the normal range. I was shocked.
Well now for the sad part of these little labs. I have always bordered on the low end of Cortisol. He tests for it every now and again and typically he gives me some kind of natural support to help. Well yesterday I received a phone call from my LLMD's office. My labs were back and that some of the labs were low so he wrote a prescription for something to take care of it. Well my cortisol is so low that he felt it necessary to write a prescription. In addition, my CD57 is in the toilet. This is one that "they" say is the marker of how well your body is actually doing. The lowest normal number is 60. Mine was 19.
So I start a new medicine tomorrow. I'm VERY nervous about it. I have to be on it for four weeks and then get retested to see how the medicine helps my cortisol. I'm worried about what the results will mean in the end. I'm not *really* worried as I know it will all work out, but nerves are there.
What did we test? Well we looked at the standard CBC. This test looks at everything from White Blood Cells to Platelet Counts. In the last five years, they have varied. However, they've always been within normal limits with the exception of Hemoglobin, Hematocrit and Platelets were off a couple of labs in 2010. There was no exception in these labs from February 8th. My CDC looked good. So I was very happy with them. They actually did CBC from two different labs. They looked very similar and were right in the perfect range for *most* of the things they looked at.
Then they tested my Comprehensive Metabolic Panel. These two tests are the most common blood tests out there. Mine were pretty unremarkable and have been but there are a couple of them that border on low. One is my sodium. Now what you may not realize is that Sodium is important. When it's on the lower end of normal, it concerns my doctor. It is a little indictor for him that things aren't quite where they should be health wise. My liver enzymes gave me a little "eye brow" raise as they were a little higher than they have been, but unless he specifically mentions them I won't worry. I bet they'll go down the next blood work.
My Vitamin D was perfect. I couldn't be happier regarding the Vitamin D numbers.
Then there are the CD tests. Now I will never really understand the CD numbers, but they are some that quite a few lyme doctors take stock in. Now remember how I was taking all that LDN -- or was trying to take the LDN ... it was for this number CD56. You won't believe this -- in fact, I am struggling to believe it, but it is within normal range and I'm not on that medicine for it. Not only is it in normal range, but it's in a really good portion of the normal range. I was shocked.
Well now for the sad part of these little labs. I have always bordered on the low end of Cortisol. He tests for it every now and again and typically he gives me some kind of natural support to help. Well yesterday I received a phone call from my LLMD's office. My labs were back and that some of the labs were low so he wrote a prescription for something to take care of it. Well my cortisol is so low that he felt it necessary to write a prescription. In addition, my CD57 is in the toilet. This is one that "they" say is the marker of how well your body is actually doing. The lowest normal number is 60. Mine was 19.
So I start a new medicine tomorrow. I'm VERY nervous about it. I have to be on it for four weeks and then get retested to see how the medicine helps my cortisol. I'm worried about what the results will mean in the end. I'm not *really* worried as I know it will all work out, but nerves are there.
Friday, February 17, 2012
Little Tiny Car, you did good
So first, my husband is fine. He's walking, talking, laughing, joking and overall just fine.
He was in a car accident this morning. This huge yellow rental truck (you know the BIG trucks) side swiped the back panel of his car causing his little tiny car to do a 360 into the guard rail 4 times. The car is totaled. The airbags went off. But it's the little tiny car that could. It kept him safe and sound. He's got a couple of air bag burns on his face and his nose is a bit swollen, but he is safe and sound at home.
Little Tiny Car, you did good.
He was in a car accident this morning. This huge yellow rental truck (you know the BIG trucks) side swiped the back panel of his car causing his little tiny car to do a 360 into the guard rail 4 times. The car is totaled. The airbags went off. But it's the little tiny car that could. It kept him safe and sound. He's got a couple of air bag burns on his face and his nose is a bit swollen, but he is safe and sound at home.
Little Tiny Car, you did good.
Wednesday, February 15, 2012
HBOT
I have to admit that I really enjoy the HBOT treatments. The first few times it made me nervous, but after I got comfortable with the size of the machine and started watching movies in there instead of listening to music I really began to enjoy my time in the machine.
On my 4th treatment though, what I like to call the "Jennifer Jinx" happened. I got in and about 10 minutes in the oxygen wasn't coming out of the nasal cannula. They couldn't figure out what had happened and the guru wasn't there so they got me out of there and I came back the next week when it was fixed.
Off and on something would happen. Typically whatever the "Jennifer Jinx" was happened at the beginning of the dive (IE the oxygen wasn't coming out) and then a couple of times ago, in the middle of the treatment all the sudden the machine turned off. Well apparently when the maintenance people were changing a light bulb in the lobby, a breaker flipped causing the circuits that were powering the HBOT to shut off. So I got out of the machine while we waited for them to fix that and got to finish my treatment.
Last time I went in and there were no complications.
Then there was today. The Jennifer Jinx was in full force. I got into the machine and laid down. I plugged in my ear plugs, put on my oxygen mask and got ready to relax. The machine was turned on, the oxygen came out streaming and I was good to go. Gave the thumbs up and she left me to enjoy my 90 minutes in peace. Well about 5 minutes into it I began to have a really weird feeling that something wasn't right. The Oxygen was flowing, but something didn't feel right. So I looked around and realized that the machine wasn't inflated all the way. I made a quick phone call to the front office (because I knew I'd be able to explain better on the phone than through the machine window).
She came to check it out. Sure enough, something wasn't right. So I had to wait there while they fixed it. It was something about they changed out a part and there were now two switches to flip instead of just one. The person that put me in didn't realize it so they only flipped one switch. Or something like that. Anyways, they restarted the machine. I got my time in the machine. But still there is something about the Jennifer Jinx. It's almost to the point where I wanna say, "What's going to happen this time?" Good thing I'm not HBOT claustrophobic. For the record, I was safe and had oxygen the entire time.
OH, my blood tests came back. Or at least part of them. I couldn't see them though because my LLMD hasn't signed off on them yet, but --- they told me that it was all normal. and the tests that came back ... included vitamin d. It's been FOREVER since Vitamin D has been normal. I mean I can't remember the last time it wasn't severely deficient. They said it looked great, but of course I didn't see it myself. No telling what the other labs will look like. Hopefully I'll be able to pick them up next week when I go in for my HBOT.
On my 4th treatment though, what I like to call the "Jennifer Jinx" happened. I got in and about 10 minutes in the oxygen wasn't coming out of the nasal cannula. They couldn't figure out what had happened and the guru wasn't there so they got me out of there and I came back the next week when it was fixed.
Off and on something would happen. Typically whatever the "Jennifer Jinx" was happened at the beginning of the dive (IE the oxygen wasn't coming out) and then a couple of times ago, in the middle of the treatment all the sudden the machine turned off. Well apparently when the maintenance people were changing a light bulb in the lobby, a breaker flipped causing the circuits that were powering the HBOT to shut off. So I got out of the machine while we waited for them to fix that and got to finish my treatment.
Last time I went in and there were no complications.
Then there was today. The Jennifer Jinx was in full force. I got into the machine and laid down. I plugged in my ear plugs, put on my oxygen mask and got ready to relax. The machine was turned on, the oxygen came out streaming and I was good to go. Gave the thumbs up and she left me to enjoy my 90 minutes in peace. Well about 5 minutes into it I began to have a really weird feeling that something wasn't right. The Oxygen was flowing, but something didn't feel right. So I looked around and realized that the machine wasn't inflated all the way. I made a quick phone call to the front office (because I knew I'd be able to explain better on the phone than through the machine window).
She came to check it out. Sure enough, something wasn't right. So I had to wait there while they fixed it. It was something about they changed out a part and there were now two switches to flip instead of just one. The person that put me in didn't realize it so they only flipped one switch. Or something like that. Anyways, they restarted the machine. I got my time in the machine. But still there is something about the Jennifer Jinx. It's almost to the point where I wanna say, "What's going to happen this time?" Good thing I'm not HBOT claustrophobic. For the record, I was safe and had oxygen the entire time.
OH, my blood tests came back. Or at least part of them. I couldn't see them though because my LLMD hasn't signed off on them yet, but --- they told me that it was all normal. and the tests that came back ... included vitamin d. It's been FOREVER since Vitamin D has been normal. I mean I can't remember the last time it wasn't severely deficient. They said it looked great, but of course I didn't see it myself. No telling what the other labs will look like. Hopefully I'll be able to pick them up next week when I go in for my HBOT.
Tuesday, February 14, 2012
Weird Symptoms and Pretty Awesome
So the funny thing is that I have symptoms that to a "normal" person would sound weird, but to me there almost always there so they are no longer weird or unusual. I think , "Oh that's back. Hmmm." Then I go on about my day. Then there are symptoms that even I go, "okay that's weird."
I'd show you a picture except it's really impossible to get great pictures of "rashes" or "bumps." Co-incidentally about 10 minutes after taking my first new supplement that's supposed to Detox -- but really .. 10 minutes, I highly doubt they are related -- anywhoo -- what was I saying? Oh yeah, I got into bed and realized that my back was itching.
I've learned that when I itch that it is better to kind of "rub" the itches rather than to "scratch" the itches because when I scratch it leaves red welts on my skin which makes skin irritations look worse than they are so that when I finally look at whatever is itching that I'm surprised by the red raised mess that's there.
Where was I? Oh yeah, so I get into bed and realize my back is itching. I rub my right shoulder to ease the itching and feel tiny bumps. I rub my left shoulder and feel bumps. I ask my husband to get up and check my back and surely enough there is a rash on my back. I thought that was weird. The next morning the rash itself looked to be gone, but it was still a little bumpy by feel. I can't really feel it today.
So today I woke and my throat was hurting. This isn't all entirely unusual for me. Sometimes I wake up and it hurts for about 5 minutes and I'm good to go. I continue about my day and while we're out eating I get this kind of "clogged throat" feeling. It is a feeling I used to get all the time and I can't describe it anymore than I feel like my throat is closing up, but it's actually not swelling at all.
I think that maybe a little piece of food was stuck on the roof of my mouth so I start messing around up there with my tongue and feel a little bump. I get in the vehicle later and look and there are a bunch of little bumps towards the back of my throat including one little white one. *great*
So it's one of a few things that I think is going on.
A: I have some kind of virus that just has to pass.
B: I'm detoxing some kind of awful producing these toxins to release into my skin (and mouth).
C: The Yeast Overgrowth on the inside of my body has come out to play on the outside of my body.
D: A combination of any of the above.
For the record, I haven't had a fever. I don't think it's strep. Also, it's what I get for going out in public with a whole bunch of people yesterday! Should have known, but I had fun! Who can blame a girl for wanting to have fun?
Pretty awesome day even through all the weird symptoms.
I'd show you a picture except it's really impossible to get great pictures of "rashes" or "bumps." Co-incidentally about 10 minutes after taking my first new supplement that's supposed to Detox -- but really .. 10 minutes, I highly doubt they are related -- anywhoo -- what was I saying? Oh yeah, I got into bed and realized that my back was itching.
I've learned that when I itch that it is better to kind of "rub" the itches rather than to "scratch" the itches because when I scratch it leaves red welts on my skin which makes skin irritations look worse than they are so that when I finally look at whatever is itching that I'm surprised by the red raised mess that's there.
Where was I? Oh yeah, so I get into bed and realize my back is itching. I rub my right shoulder to ease the itching and feel tiny bumps. I rub my left shoulder and feel bumps. I ask my husband to get up and check my back and surely enough there is a rash on my back. I thought that was weird. The next morning the rash itself looked to be gone, but it was still a little bumpy by feel. I can't really feel it today.
So today I woke and my throat was hurting. This isn't all entirely unusual for me. Sometimes I wake up and it hurts for about 5 minutes and I'm good to go. I continue about my day and while we're out eating I get this kind of "clogged throat" feeling. It is a feeling I used to get all the time and I can't describe it anymore than I feel like my throat is closing up, but it's actually not swelling at all.
I think that maybe a little piece of food was stuck on the roof of my mouth so I start messing around up there with my tongue and feel a little bump. I get in the vehicle later and look and there are a bunch of little bumps towards the back of my throat including one little white one. *great*
So it's one of a few things that I think is going on.
A: I have some kind of virus that just has to pass.
B: I'm detoxing some kind of awful producing these toxins to release into my skin (and mouth).
C: The Yeast Overgrowth on the inside of my body has come out to play on the outside of my body.
D: A combination of any of the above.
For the record, I haven't had a fever. I don't think it's strep. Also, it's what I get for going out in public with a whole bunch of people yesterday! Should have known, but I had fun! Who can blame a girl for wanting to have fun?
Pretty awesome day even through all the weird symptoms.
Monday, February 13, 2012
Guard Show
So Saturday was the annual guard show near my home. I love this show even though it is one of the first shows to perform so the guard shows aren't ready completely. I know that most of my guard instructor friends will be at this show and I typically run into a few people I know. However, I had decided I was not going. First I had plans out of town and second I wasn't feeling my best.
I'll leave out the details of why I wasn't feeling well, but I wound up not feeling well enough to drive 3 hours to my friend's house. So I stuck close to home. While I was pursuing the "interwebs" (as my husband calls it), I came across the guard show and struck up a conversation with a friend I marched with 16 years ago. She was going to the show with her daughter. About 45 minutes before it started, I started feeling a little better. So I decided since it was close (15 minutes or less) that I would go ahead and go.
It was pretty cool that we haven't seen each other in about 16 years and we picked right up where we left off. Great friends are like that. I loved most of the guard's concepts even if some of them took me a little bit to "catch on" to the theme. I was in guard for a while with one lady that teachers several guards. So I always say hey to her when I go to shows. Not to mention, her family was so kind to us when we moved. I know this family needs prayers right now so if you could please lift them up that would be great. Then my best friend's sister works with another guard so I got to see both of his sisters and nephew. That's always fun.
OH and I got to meet another Lymie at the show! I was sitting in my spot (Yeah I'm like Sheldon in that way) and a guard came out and I said, "HEY that looks like Carey." So I strained my pretty little eyes and was about 99 % positive I was right so after the shows were over, I went over and said, "You recognize my face?" Seriously? That's the best I can do? I gotta come up with something better when I recognize someone I know online. So if you guys have any ideas since I tend to run into people pretty often, let me know. Seriously, my line was dumber than dumb. Of course, I was having an extreme Lyme moment so forming sentences was quite difficult. To Carey's credit, Carey knew exactly who I was.
I'll leave out the details of why I wasn't feeling well, but I wound up not feeling well enough to drive 3 hours to my friend's house. So I stuck close to home. While I was pursuing the "interwebs" (as my husband calls it), I came across the guard show and struck up a conversation with a friend I marched with 16 years ago. She was going to the show with her daughter. About 45 minutes before it started, I started feeling a little better. So I decided since it was close (15 minutes or less) that I would go ahead and go.
It was pretty cool that we haven't seen each other in about 16 years and we picked right up where we left off. Great friends are like that. I loved most of the guard's concepts even if some of them took me a little bit to "catch on" to the theme. I was in guard for a while with one lady that teachers several guards. So I always say hey to her when I go to shows. Not to mention, her family was so kind to us when we moved. I know this family needs prayers right now so if you could please lift them up that would be great. Then my best friend's sister works with another guard so I got to see both of his sisters and nephew. That's always fun.
OH and I got to meet another Lymie at the show! I was sitting in my spot (Yeah I'm like Sheldon in that way) and a guard came out and I said, "HEY that looks like Carey." So I strained my pretty little eyes and was about 99 % positive I was right so after the shows were over, I went over and said, "You recognize my face?" Seriously? That's the best I can do? I gotta come up with something better when I recognize someone I know online. So if you guys have any ideas since I tend to run into people pretty often, let me know. Seriously, my line was dumber than dumb. Of course, I was having an extreme Lyme moment so forming sentences was quite difficult. To Carey's credit, Carey knew exactly who I was.
Sunday, February 12, 2012
The one about Whitney Houston
I'm sure there will be a lot of blog posts about Whitney Houston. What an amazing singer and entertainer, but I want to focus on something else. I'll probably get a little "heat" for this post, but I'm gonna speak my mind and hope you all understand where I'm coming from today.
So you know how there are moments in your life where you say, "I'll always know where I was when ..." So I was sitting watching guard and this lady turned to me and said, "Whitney Houston Died." Her eyes were huge. My brilliant response? "Seriously?" (I had a total Grey's Anatomy moment). She said, "I wouldn't joke about something like that." My response, "She can't be that old. Do they know how she died?" As the lady is responding, my husband sends me a message and confirms her death.
Now I have to say there are fewer things that bother me more than when a celebrity dies. It's not that they died. It is that the media feels the need to talk about it over and over again and show pictures of grieving family members, friends and fans. Many people die in this country every day, every hour, every minute. I have family members that have lost best friends and I have friends that are losing or have lost parents. I have friends that have lost best friends. There are military dying every day. KIDS dying that shouldn't have even been with their parent to begin with if Social Services had done their job! (that's another post entirely!)
But I feel that media should just let grieving families and friends be. I understand that it is urgent that news needs to get out regarding these events, but must they repeat the same thing over and over again for weeks?
I don't know. It's just something that gets to me. I haven't even turned on the television since I received word because I don't want to see Whitney's 18 year old daughter grieving. (I googled her just to make sure I got her age correct and of course now they are reporting that she's at the hospital for stress -- no kidding, you guys probably helped put her there). Yes I am my soap box. And yes Iknow, they are celebrities .. they put themselves out there. BUT, there is a time and a place for privacy. I wish the media would respect their privacy.
I hope I didn't make anyone angry, but I just had to get it off my chest!
PS. Stay tuned the next two days, I have two posts schedule. One about my guard day yesterday and one about my weird symptoms.
So you know how there are moments in your life where you say, "I'll always know where I was when ..." So I was sitting watching guard and this lady turned to me and said, "Whitney Houston Died." Her eyes were huge. My brilliant response? "Seriously?" (I had a total Grey's Anatomy moment). She said, "I wouldn't joke about something like that." My response, "She can't be that old. Do they know how she died?" As the lady is responding, my husband sends me a message and confirms her death.
Now I have to say there are fewer things that bother me more than when a celebrity dies. It's not that they died. It is that the media feels the need to talk about it over and over again and show pictures of grieving family members, friends and fans. Many people die in this country every day, every hour, every minute. I have family members that have lost best friends and I have friends that are losing or have lost parents. I have friends that have lost best friends. There are military dying every day. KIDS dying that shouldn't have even been with their parent to begin with if Social Services had done their job! (that's another post entirely!)
But I feel that media should just let grieving families and friends be. I understand that it is urgent that news needs to get out regarding these events, but must they repeat the same thing over and over again for weeks?
I don't know. It's just something that gets to me. I haven't even turned on the television since I received word because I don't want to see Whitney's 18 year old daughter grieving. (I googled her just to make sure I got her age correct and of course now they are reporting that she's at the hospital for stress -- no kidding, you guys probably helped put her there). Yes I am my soap box. And yes Iknow, they are celebrities .. they put themselves out there. BUT, there is a time and a place for privacy. I wish the media would respect their privacy.
I hope I didn't make anyone angry, but I just had to get it off my chest!
PS. Stay tuned the next two days, I have two posts schedule. One about my guard day yesterday and one about my weird symptoms.
Saturday, February 11, 2012
My past week
My week was *curayzee* (crazy). Saturday evening I took my first dose of the detox supplement. I'm supposed to be on this detox supplement for a week before starting the bottle that targets Borrelia. So I opened up the bottle, pulled out the capsule and thought ... there is no way this is doable, but I'll try it. So I pulled out a small container of applesauce and began to pry open the capsule.
Now LDN capsules are hard to open, but this one ... I almost pulled out my husband's pocket knife to cut the sucker in 1/2. So I sprinkle that bad boy (well probably 1/4 of it because that sucker was huge!) in the applesauce and attempt to swallow. Let the gag reflex begin. Ugh. It was terrible. It took 20 minutes to take this ONE capsule. Twenty minutes later I was feeling really nauseated. I stayed nauseated the whole night. The next morning I got up and opened up the bottle. Just the smell knocked me over so I emailed my guru and said, "Look this ain't happening pal, give me the GL version." Okay I didn't say it that way, but bottom line was my guru ordered one in a dropper form so that I could do "one drop" at a time. I picked that up yesterday and started my first dose last night. We'll see. I did the 3 drops and wasn't gagging. WEIRD thing was that I got a rash on my back. I don't know if it's related or not. Probably not, but just a major coincidence.
So the rest of the week. I'm exhausted just thinking about it!
I had my class on Tuesday. I have no idea how I'm doing in that class because we're more than 5 weeks in and we have only received one grade. Hopefully that one grade is indicative of how I'm doing in the rest of the assignments. Turned in the assignment early since I knew I wouldn't be feeling up to it on the rest of the week.
I had my treatments on Wednesday. My LLMD wanted me to get some blood work and I was scheduled for an IV. So, they are kind of enough to always try to get the blood from the IV insertion site so it doesn't take multiple sticks. They look and finally go back to the one in my left hand. This little vein isn't going to hold up much longer. I'd say I don't' know what I'd have to do if I got the IVs more than once a month, but I do know what would happen. I would get another line.
So she inserts it and tries to get blood out. One tube came out "ok," but the second tube started hemolyzing. So they made a rash decision to use the first tube for my "fasting" blood work and go ahead and start my IV. I went back to my chair and warmed up my right arm. I was hoping they would find something and I wouldn't have to come back next week for another try. After warming up for about 20 minutes, she came over and got me. They drew no less than 12 vials. I really don't know how many were up there ... but it seemed like quite a lot. They drew "extra" just in case one vial hemolyzed and they also had to draw two tubes extra to throw away since I was getting an IV during the blood draw. I went in yesterday and they said my blood work was fine -- should get back next week one day. I finished up my IV and on a whim asked if I could get 60 minutes in the HBOT. They approved it and I enjoyed my rest in the chamber. By the time I left the chamber, I had energy. More energy than I've had in a month! Not sure if there was something regarding mixing the IV and the HBOT right after, but I'm telling you ... I felt wonderful!
On Thursday, I had planned an "easy & restful" day. I got my hair done. That was my plan, but ... we also needed to take our "puppy" (aka over 10 years old) to the vet to get rabies vaccination. I asked for Saturday, but they were booked the next two. This was kind of urgent so they squeezed us in on Thursday afternoon so we could just get the one shot. And by us, I mean Dexter & me. Husband was dutifully working. :) We'll take him back in a few weeks to get the rest of the stuff he needs. Then after bringing back the dog, I went to eat dinner with my best friend. Now I'm telling you --- I do not know where I would be if it weren't for this person. I remember a time before he was in my life, but life became significantly better once we were friends.
Friendship is like wine (or so I've been told ... never drank the stuff personally -- tried to once .. spat it out ... yuck) -- it only gets better with age. The best friend isn't the one you go out and do things with all the time. A best friend isn't the one you have the most in common with ... A best friend is the person that you can sit in the car and talk for hours without realizing hours have passed. *oops* I have always said that you should never take your best friend for granted. You just never know what could happen. My Mom recently lost hers. I know it's tough. I thank God every day for sending me mine.
That brings us to yesterday. Yesterday was the day the assignment was due. Can you see how I never would have finished it if I had waited? Don't wait for tomorrow when you can do it today --- Oh don't get me wrong, I'm the queen of procrastination (ask that of the laundry that has been sitting waiting for me for weeks), but that's not the important stuff. Yesterday I called up to the LLMD to find out of my new formula for the supplement had arrived. It had. So I went and picked it up. None of the blood work was back, but I hadn't expected it to be. Our lab called the big lab to make sure my blood was good for testing. It was.
Does anyone remember the day the lightning struck our house? Anyone that knows me knows that I don't spend a whole lot of time in the kitchen, but one day this week I got a hankering for a "shake." So I decided to throw a whole bunch of ingredients together into the blender and blend. I pre-froze yogurt into cubes so I wouldn't have to "just use ice." This took 3 or 4 hours you see. SO by the time I got to the blender part, I was really kind of excited to taste this concoction. I threw in blueberries, a little bit of water, a little bit of vanilla flavored powder and the frozen cubes into the blender. Can you see where this is going? I pressed power. *nothing* The blender stared at me in stunned silence. I thought maybe it wasn't plugged in. So I unplug everything and find the blender cord and plug it in. I press power. *nothing* The blender just stared at me taunting me with my ingredients sitting in it. So, I look at the switch and wonder if something is wrong with it. I reset the switch and try again. *nothing* I move the blender to another switch. Can you say desperate? The blender looks at me and laughs. I scratch my head and say bump it. I pull out a hand mixer ... AN ELECTRICAL HAND MIXER YA'LL and I blend ... and I blend and I blend ... I was desperate for this shake and I wasn't about to go to Wendy's!
So last night, my husband and I go to get a new one, a new blender. Why get a 30 dollar blender when you can get a 130 dollar one?
I'll be blending like a Ninja baby! Okay maybe not, but it works .. and is very sharp. Don't touch it. I won't tell you how I know (ok if you insist ... amazon reviewers). *no injuries of the wife or the husband occurred while making a smoothie, but that smoothie did not taste good .. didn't have any bananas and bananas make a smoothie.
Now LDN capsules are hard to open, but this one ... I almost pulled out my husband's pocket knife to cut the sucker in 1/2. So I sprinkle that bad boy (well probably 1/4 of it because that sucker was huge!) in the applesauce and attempt to swallow. Let the gag reflex begin. Ugh. It was terrible. It took 20 minutes to take this ONE capsule. Twenty minutes later I was feeling really nauseated. I stayed nauseated the whole night. The next morning I got up and opened up the bottle. Just the smell knocked me over so I emailed my guru and said, "Look this ain't happening pal, give me the GL version." Okay I didn't say it that way, but bottom line was my guru ordered one in a dropper form so that I could do "one drop" at a time. I picked that up yesterday and started my first dose last night. We'll see. I did the 3 drops and wasn't gagging. WEIRD thing was that I got a rash on my back. I don't know if it's related or not. Probably not, but just a major coincidence.
So the rest of the week. I'm exhausted just thinking about it!
I had my class on Tuesday. I have no idea how I'm doing in that class because we're more than 5 weeks in and we have only received one grade. Hopefully that one grade is indicative of how I'm doing in the rest of the assignments. Turned in the assignment early since I knew I wouldn't be feeling up to it on the rest of the week.
I had my treatments on Wednesday. My LLMD wanted me to get some blood work and I was scheduled for an IV. So, they are kind of enough to always try to get the blood from the IV insertion site so it doesn't take multiple sticks. They look and finally go back to the one in my left hand. This little vein isn't going to hold up much longer. I'd say I don't' know what I'd have to do if I got the IVs more than once a month, but I do know what would happen. I would get another line.
So she inserts it and tries to get blood out. One tube came out "ok," but the second tube started hemolyzing. So they made a rash decision to use the first tube for my "fasting" blood work and go ahead and start my IV. I went back to my chair and warmed up my right arm. I was hoping they would find something and I wouldn't have to come back next week for another try. After warming up for about 20 minutes, she came over and got me. They drew no less than 12 vials. I really don't know how many were up there ... but it seemed like quite a lot. They drew "extra" just in case one vial hemolyzed and they also had to draw two tubes extra to throw away since I was getting an IV during the blood draw. I went in yesterday and they said my blood work was fine -- should get back next week one day. I finished up my IV and on a whim asked if I could get 60 minutes in the HBOT. They approved it and I enjoyed my rest in the chamber. By the time I left the chamber, I had energy. More energy than I've had in a month! Not sure if there was something regarding mixing the IV and the HBOT right after, but I'm telling you ... I felt wonderful!
On Thursday, I had planned an "easy & restful" day. I got my hair done. That was my plan, but ... we also needed to take our "puppy" (aka over 10 years old) to the vet to get rabies vaccination. I asked for Saturday, but they were booked the next two. This was kind of urgent so they squeezed us in on Thursday afternoon so we could just get the one shot. And by us, I mean Dexter & me. Husband was dutifully working. :) We'll take him back in a few weeks to get the rest of the stuff he needs. Then after bringing back the dog, I went to eat dinner with my best friend. Now I'm telling you --- I do not know where I would be if it weren't for this person. I remember a time before he was in my life, but life became significantly better once we were friends.
Friendship is like wine (or so I've been told ... never drank the stuff personally -- tried to once .. spat it out ... yuck) -- it only gets better with age. The best friend isn't the one you go out and do things with all the time. A best friend isn't the one you have the most in common with ... A best friend is the person that you can sit in the car and talk for hours without realizing hours have passed. *oops* I have always said that you should never take your best friend for granted. You just never know what could happen. My Mom recently lost hers. I know it's tough. I thank God every day for sending me mine.
That brings us to yesterday. Yesterday was the day the assignment was due. Can you see how I never would have finished it if I had waited? Don't wait for tomorrow when you can do it today --- Oh don't get me wrong, I'm the queen of procrastination (ask that of the laundry that has been sitting waiting for me for weeks), but that's not the important stuff. Yesterday I called up to the LLMD to find out of my new formula for the supplement had arrived. It had. So I went and picked it up. None of the blood work was back, but I hadn't expected it to be. Our lab called the big lab to make sure my blood was good for testing. It was.
Does anyone remember the day the lightning struck our house? Anyone that knows me knows that I don't spend a whole lot of time in the kitchen, but one day this week I got a hankering for a "shake." So I decided to throw a whole bunch of ingredients together into the blender and blend. I pre-froze yogurt into cubes so I wouldn't have to "just use ice." This took 3 or 4 hours you see. SO by the time I got to the blender part, I was really kind of excited to taste this concoction. I threw in blueberries, a little bit of water, a little bit of vanilla flavored powder and the frozen cubes into the blender. Can you see where this is going? I pressed power. *nothing* The blender stared at me in stunned silence. I thought maybe it wasn't plugged in. So I unplug everything and find the blender cord and plug it in. I press power. *nothing* The blender just stared at me taunting me with my ingredients sitting in it. So, I look at the switch and wonder if something is wrong with it. I reset the switch and try again. *nothing* I move the blender to another switch. Can you say desperate? The blender looks at me and laughs. I scratch my head and say bump it. I pull out a hand mixer ... AN ELECTRICAL HAND MIXER YA'LL and I blend ... and I blend and I blend ... I was desperate for this shake and I wasn't about to go to Wendy's!
So last night, my husband and I go to get a new one, a new blender. Why get a 30 dollar blender when you can get a 130 dollar one?
I'll be blending like a Ninja baby! Okay maybe not, but it works .. and is very sharp. Don't touch it. I won't tell you how I know (ok if you insist ... amazon reviewers). *no injuries of the wife or the husband occurred while making a smoothie, but that smoothie did not taste good .. didn't have any bananas and bananas make a smoothie.
Wednesday, February 8, 2012
Overachiever does it again
... and again. I now have 6 perfect scores out of 6. Way to go me!
My other professor called me an overachiever yesterday. I turned in an assignment that wasn't due until Friday on Tuesday. I had to because I wasn't sure after my treatments today if I would be in the right mind to be able to complete the assignment. So I finished it early and took it to her early. I told her I had a lot of stuff going on this week and wasn't sure if I'd complete it and get it to her on time if I didn't get it in early.
Carolina Duke game is on. If you live in North Carolina, you know what kind of game that is! BIG ONE! Back to the game!
My other professor called me an overachiever yesterday. I turned in an assignment that wasn't due until Friday on Tuesday. I had to because I wasn't sure after my treatments today if I would be in the right mind to be able to complete the assignment. So I finished it early and took it to her early. I told her I had a lot of stuff going on this week and wasn't sure if I'd complete it and get it to her on time if I didn't get it in early.
Carolina Duke game is on. If you live in North Carolina, you know what kind of game that is! BIG ONE! Back to the game!
Sunday, February 5, 2012
Follow up appointment 2/4/12
I had an interesting appointment. We had a new form to fill out. That's always interesting because it takes me a lot longer than normal to figure out exactly what the form wants. However, that wasn't the interesting part. The interesting part was that it really alarmed us. I answered honestly the questions to my symptoms. There was a list of different areas and it had me circle between 0 and 4 (0 being never, 1 being occasionally not severe, 2 being occasionally severe, 3 being often not severe 4 being often and severe -- something like that). What stood out to us was the area surrounding joints and muscles. It was very high in numbers.
In any case, we discussed his last ILADS training. We discussed it last night I was there, but I was so cognitively out of it and was so fatigued I didn't remember and important part he said. He said the most interesting (and shocking) thing he learned was that they tested the lymph nodes of "Well" Lyme patients and their Lymph nodes still had the bacteria in them. So even though they had no symptoms, they still had the bacteria. *crazy*
Then we talked (and by we I mean he) talked about different protocols. We (again ... HE) talked about Antibiotics. He talked about Cowden. He talked about Buhner's. Then he started putting it all together. He said that Cowden was really a promising treatment, but that it was practically impossible in regards to how many pills there were in the day. A doctor and naturpath have gotten together to combine different aspects of (lyme fog moment here --- can't remember the name of the kinds of treatments) herbal remedies compacted into an easier formula.
So here we go again. I am going to be a guinea. Maybe I should rename the blog to "Living the Guinea's Life." I always feel that I'm on the cutting edge of treatments. I feel it's worked out pretty well for me in the past (especially that one "unmentionable" treatment that I did that I feel got me into remission for well over a year and ... believe you me, if I could get that "unmentionable" treatment again ... I WOULD!).
I am always a little reluctant to talk about my specific treatment protocols. So, I will tell you this much. I was given a bottle of capsules and 3 bottles of herbal drops. Each bottle is supposed to target a different thing. The capsules are supposed to help with detox and is supposed to help my body get ready for the 2nd bottle. I will continue with the capsules all the way through each of the other bottles. The 2nd bottle targets Borrelia. So with the 2nd bottle, I will start off with one drop twice a day. Each day I will go up one drop each dose. So by the 7th day, I will be on 7 drops in the morning and 7 drops at night. Then I will start the 3rd bottle. This one targets Bartonella. I will start it just like the Borrelia. I will continue going up on both bottles until I get to 14 x 2 and 7 x 2. Then I will start the 4th bottle. You may have guessed by now that the 4th bottle targets Babesia. The "most" drops I can do is 25 x 2 for each bottle. However knowing my body, I won't be able to handle that much.
Once I herx and it's uncomfortable, I begin backing off on bottle 2 ... if after a few days of backing off, I'm still herxing -- I will back off on the bottle 3 ... and then with bottle 4, but theory is that the one I'm on the most of will cause me to herx. So theoretically I should be able to cut back on only one bottle and my herxing should stop.
I have a follow up in about 2 months. I have blood work and IV this week. So pray for my nurse to be able to get my blood and IV.
I won't share publicly specifics regarding exactly what this is until later (maybe never --), but will keep you up to date on how I'm doing.
In any case, we discussed his last ILADS training. We discussed it last night I was there, but I was so cognitively out of it and was so fatigued I didn't remember and important part he said. He said the most interesting (and shocking) thing he learned was that they tested the lymph nodes of "Well" Lyme patients and their Lymph nodes still had the bacteria in them. So even though they had no symptoms, they still had the bacteria. *crazy*
Then we talked (and by we I mean he) talked about different protocols. We (again ... HE) talked about Antibiotics. He talked about Cowden. He talked about Buhner's. Then he started putting it all together. He said that Cowden was really a promising treatment, but that it was practically impossible in regards to how many pills there were in the day. A doctor and naturpath have gotten together to combine different aspects of (lyme fog moment here --- can't remember the name of the kinds of treatments) herbal remedies compacted into an easier formula.
So here we go again. I am going to be a guinea. Maybe I should rename the blog to "Living the Guinea's Life." I always feel that I'm on the cutting edge of treatments. I feel it's worked out pretty well for me in the past (especially that one "unmentionable" treatment that I did that I feel got me into remission for well over a year and ... believe you me, if I could get that "unmentionable" treatment again ... I WOULD!).
I am always a little reluctant to talk about my specific treatment protocols. So, I will tell you this much. I was given a bottle of capsules and 3 bottles of herbal drops. Each bottle is supposed to target a different thing. The capsules are supposed to help with detox and is supposed to help my body get ready for the 2nd bottle. I will continue with the capsules all the way through each of the other bottles. The 2nd bottle targets Borrelia. So with the 2nd bottle, I will start off with one drop twice a day. Each day I will go up one drop each dose. So by the 7th day, I will be on 7 drops in the morning and 7 drops at night. Then I will start the 3rd bottle. This one targets Bartonella. I will start it just like the Borrelia. I will continue going up on both bottles until I get to 14 x 2 and 7 x 2. Then I will start the 4th bottle. You may have guessed by now that the 4th bottle targets Babesia. The "most" drops I can do is 25 x 2 for each bottle. However knowing my body, I won't be able to handle that much.
Once I herx and it's uncomfortable, I begin backing off on bottle 2 ... if after a few days of backing off, I'm still herxing -- I will back off on the bottle 3 ... and then with bottle 4, but theory is that the one I'm on the most of will cause me to herx. So theoretically I should be able to cut back on only one bottle and my herxing should stop.
I have a follow up in about 2 months. I have blood work and IV this week. So pray for my nurse to be able to get my blood and IV.
I won't share publicly specifics regarding exactly what this is until later (maybe never --), but will keep you up to date on how I'm doing.
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