Friends/things Ive learned from my dogs.

So Ive come to realize even though you (I ) may admire someone that does not mean they are a friend or someone you should always follow. Which has got me to thinking, besides select family members, who I relate to most are my dogs. They have taught me so much and are still teaching me today.

Things I have learned from my dogs:
Daizey and Pandora have taught me to never give up, even when you've been beaten down and no one thinks you will get up again.

Tinker, even though most think she is too barky, happens to be the BEST judge of character- shes taught me to be wary and trust slowly, but that when you trust- to trust fully.

Pandora has taught me that even though our bodies may not be the best, we can always do our best with them.

Also to not be sorry for yourself, she doesnt care her back legs dont work as long as she gets to play with the other dogs.

Brewster has taught me to be nice to everyone even if they bite you in the face... eventually they will come around and be your friend.

Daizey taught me boundaries. With her it was her feet and food. There are some places you just dont ever let people in to.

And all 4 of them (r.i.p. my sweet old love) have taught me when a friend is sick, sad, or sore you dont abandon them but you dont smother them. You stay by their side and you stay quiet with love.

My family or my "friends" are never fully aware of what is going on. Thats just the way it is with people. Some people are open books and wear their hearts on their sleeves, others have layers and layers. We/I tend to have different layers with different people, some I let into the deep layers but for whatever reason they dont keep up with the superficial ones. Its easy to keep people up top on the first few and I think those are the good friends, ones that keep up with you, ask how the day to day is, act INTERESTED even when it doesn't benefit them.
Which is why I know I can always talk with the dogs, captive audience if you will, lol. I know they won't judge and I know they are here everyday.

Where Im at.

Well, physically Im feeling really good these days. Been killing it at the gym and my thyroid, *I think*, has leveled out and so Im not feeling fainty much at all anymore. My joints aren't getting swollen and Ive been doing my own little strength training before some of my classes at the gym since I don't work out wih anyone anymore. Its a nice quiet 30-45 minutes of me time and I must say I can kick my butt :0) I think Im in remission again as far as lyme goes, I haven't had any of the crazy unbearable pain, Im able to focus on what Im doing, and almost all my twitches are gone again except Ive noticed when I stress out my shoulder does this annoying shrug thing- the same shoulder that "froze" about 6 months back and a couple of weeks ago was getting sluggish to move so I put myself on doxycycline for about a week and it came back to normal.
It occurs to me as Im writing this, that us with lyme refer to parts of our bodies as if they are seperate entities. As if they have their own agenda and mission. A main thread I see, especially with those newly diagnosed ( and I still get into this thought) is that our bodies are working against us, they hold us back. Im here to say that only we hold ourselves back. Not just those of us with lyme, but the ones with body image issues (Im guilty here as well), or with mental or physical handicaps. Only YOU limit your potential. There are things I have failed at, plenty of them. Currently with Protandim I feel like Ive failed a lot of people by going about getting them the info the wrong way and now they refuse to listen and that could cost them dearly. I failed at being the perfect big sister to Nick and Delayna either by doing too much for them or too little. I failed Daizey, oh did I fail her... but you know what? Its not the amount of times you fall but the number of times you stand back up.
 Im getting up again, it's hard. It's killing me. But in a lot of people I see inspiration. My grandma/ grandpa and mom and dad are big ones for what they've accomplished in their lives- for being active politically and investing so much love into our family and fighting so hard for us. In my friend G who overcame breastcancer and is working diligently everyday to help others suffering with maladies, and Jess who is helping her do that. To Juliana who I have never met but am friends with online and has had a very bad time of late with the progression of lyme but still continues to push for her rights to treatment and to be a great mom to a gorgeous little boy even when its excruciating for her to hold him. To Leslie and Tracy and Tamara and Erin who are some of the best moms I know and also (3/4 of them) some of the best business partners one could have. To my longest/ unnexpected friend Michelle who has gone through so much in the last couple of years but keeps plucking along and I KNOW good things are going to happen for her if she just keeps trying. There are tons more but as I type this free-written thats what comes to mind and it's not what I originally intended to write about tonight.
No matter where Im at mentally I know I can think of these special people and draw solace in the fact that if they can strive and push forward, so can I. No matter if Im having a bad day which lately has been more mental than physical or if I were to become disabled due to this disease, I think of them. I <3 you guys.

Post Daizey Day (D-Day?)

So... yesterday was hell. I got off work and did some running around before coming home and spending it with Daizey. I tried to get a plaster of paris pawprint (because I couldn't find clay anywhere) and Daizey said NOPE. So I didn't get one. I spent the last few hours giving her treats and brushing her-she loved that, and I got everything ready for her trip. We left early so Mom and I could get her situated and give her the special treats we brought (a wet food thats compressed so I cut it into peices and gave them to her) we got her in and set her on the blanket on the floor and fed her the yummys. She ate til she couldn't anymore- the dog with the insatiable appetite, finally satisfied- she napped for a minute or so and then ate a little more. Doc got her I.V. in with little trouble and she took a few more mouthfuls, when she was done he gave her the sedative and then the euthanasia solution. She honestly looked like any second her head would pop back up for any treat around. I thought that she would look different but it was like I was watching it from outside myself. I still can't believe its been 24 hours. I've never hurt so much. 

I have so many stories about her. From when we first got her at less than 6 wks old from the pound and she'd make little puppy barks (and poops) all night in her storage container lol. Then when she got older and CHEWED through her fence pen or when we noticed that she was jumping on the swing on the backporch to chew the armrests and rock (we still have the swing...and the teethmarks). The time she was beaten, the acute kidney failure/the only time she wouldn't eat. The back surgery, the mouth surgery, countless xrays on her heart and lungs because of problems. Going to the park and her favorite spot (pictured). The last time we went we had to stop so many times, what used to be a 10 min walked turned into well over an hr and me carrying her back to the car. Oh, the time she went to pee out front and got lost for an hr while we hunted for her... Im going to miss her so much even though I know it was the right thing to do. Like Ive said- She's not a purebred or ever saved anyone from a well, but she was my dog and I loved her.

Daizey

Well this post has almost nothing to do with lyme (I'll get to it first and over with) but will mostly be about Daizey.
As far as the whole lyme issue goes, I'm just getting over a small flare. I also just found out my thyroid has gone haywire, my level is supposed to be less than 35 and it's 941. It's why the doctor thinks Ive been having issues going out in the heat and why I think Ive been feeling crappy and missing the gym some lately. So I'm supposed to have another ultrasound (which the doc didn't write in my chart and so I had to cancel today's appointment) and see if the nodules we found last year have grown and are causing this and I am to see an endocrinologist.

As for Daizey, it's time to let her go. She's my best friend and has been a part of my life for such a long time now that it's going to be surreal not having her around. As she's gotten older, much like an older person, she's required a lot more care but I truly don't think she's happy anymore. She's gotten quite senile and we have been finding her in odd places like under chairs or the sofa (and for those that know her, she's not a small dog) and she's gone blind recently and fully deaf. I think sometimes it scares her. She has severe arthritis in her back and hips that we've been managing with pain medicine but her muscles have atrophied to where when she does stand her legs crisscross and she falls again. She can't walk more than a few feet and when she does walk she gets so out of breath. I was watching her last night and she'd wake up and walk a few feet, fall over, and head head would droop and she's sleep for 5 minutes then start the process over again. Her body is so tired.
Her favorite thing to do (besides eat lol which she still has energy to do with a little gusto) was to wiggle on her back on the carpet. I think she liked the feeling. But she hasn't been able to do that in the last year.
She's had a long eventful life.
When she was a young dog (no more than a yr or two old) she would "eat" the water from the hose while mom was spraying. She would jump all around and knock us down because it excited her so much but it also caused her to get pneumonia. She was sick on the back porch (she lived outside when she was young) and ate mom up one side and down the other when she put her in the car to take her to the vet.
She also ATE the little pen we kept her in when the neighbor kids came over, she wanted to play lol. Except for the one time she dug under the fence to play with the neighbor dogs and got stuck under their shed and tried to bite the lady. She came running out though when she saw me and didn't dig out a single time after that.
 When she was about 7 yrs old I started my 1st job as a kennel tech. and a few months into working there I noticed Daizey was coughing a lot so I took her in. Doc said she had heart worms and that we needed to treat her or she'd die. So of course we treated her, she got sick in between the treatments and stayed in the hospital for a month. The day of her last treatment I came in to work from school and saw blood all over the kennel area and when I went to get Daizey she was in the back of her cage, covered in blood, and limp. Doc said she got nippy when he gave her the shot and so he pulled her up by the leash til she passed out (like what he did with the pit bulls that came in from the place behind us) but she bit the table and broke her canine teeth so he stepped on her head and pulled them out with pliers. I quit right then, got Daizey and called mom. We had to take her to another vet who fixed what he could of her mouth a few days later once the swelling went down and she lost a canine tooth, broke another in half and lost 3 premolars. Also he ruined her nasal cavity from stepping on it and to this day she's always had a snotty nose no matter the amount of antibiotics she's on.
A few years later we discovered a lump at the base of her thoracic spine. Because her lungs were clear I decided to go ahead with surgery and we assumed it would be cancer. She is one lucky dog because once we sent it out for biopsy it ended up being necrotic tissue from , we assume, her heart worm treatment!
She also, pulmonary hypertension from the heart worms and went into acute renal failure after her surgery (OK, maybe not so lucky dog...) and was hospitalized on fluids and I had to force feed her- she was SO bad! But she made it out OK and made a new best friend, an english bulldog by the name of Brutus.
I ended up losing that job a few yrs later and Daizey was in maintenance mode with her kidneys doing OK and just panting from the P.H. She's gone downhill slowly with arthritis, but the hypertension is gone because of protandim and her heart looks good. Her calcium level has steadily creeped up and we thought lymphoma. Well her lymph nodes in her neck began to swell 2years ago, prednisone helped for awhle, but I took her to my old place of employment after she had a few seizures, her temp was over 106- we gave her I.V. fluids, put alcohol on her feet pads and gave her Valium, she finally came out of it and we biopsied her neck with just  needle and finally confirmed that it was a salivary gland adenoma probably caused by lymphoma. My baby has cancer.
After the high temp and seizures, we think her brain "fried" a little. She got stuck in the corner of my closet a few times and her senility has gone on an all time high. She once even got stuck behind out refrigerator! We made a ramp last yr for her to get in and out since she cant go down the 2 inch drop to the backyard anymore. She feel off the side of it into a shelving unit. Now she just doesn't even go outside, we are constantly cleaning up after her, finding her stuck in places (and she bites when we get her out because she's confused/hurts) bringing her food and water, washing the pee off her when she goes and then falls in it, and medicating her without getting bit (shes sees movement and always thinks its food so we have to be careful when first petting her). She takes up so much time and energy and I wouldn't change it for the world- if she were happy or had any quality of life. My sweet girl who we've done so much for, can no longer handle being alive. The cancer and arthritis have taken so much of her body away that no matter how much she eats we can feel the bones in her body. No medicine can fix this. No matter how many extra years we've gotten with protandim and pain medicine it's still too soon for my heart to let her go. Tuesday will be Daizeys last day here with us.

My newest accomplishments

So, to get right into it- I've always had bad lungs. I think it's because I was born too early (and was jaundiced) and even when my brother was born, all the pictures I was wearing a surgical mask because even then I was fighting pneumonia.

My lungs have been so scarred up due to the bouts of pneumonia and bronchitis, 2 yrs ago a ct scan found sever inflammation and "ground glass like infitltrates" in the bottom lobe of each lung (scarring and unusable lobes). I began seeing my pulmonologist regularly, a few times I was a mere 2 points away from being put on oxygen. That is a scary thing to be told when you've just turned 22. I was already going to the gym regularly and thought that that would've helped but it didn't. No matter what I did- more cardio classes, more cycling, less classes- it stayed the same. My lung capacity just plain sucked. It didn't cause me too many problems, I didn't really notice how bad they had become because it was such a gradual deterioration.

Also around this time I had bloodwork done and discovered I was severely vit. D and B12 deficient. Which is what I thought would explain my severe fatigue and joint pain all over since I was 18. My thyroid was also on the low side of normal, but I've been hyporthyoid since I was 11 and whenever I go to a new doctor or get bloodwork done I just like them to check and see where it is.

Well, I started prescription Vit D for a few weeks and was told that it would be what it would be when I finished- my level was 12. Normal range is 20-100. Low D can cause a lot of different issues and again that's where I was told my pain was coming from.

So a good friend of mine and I were talking. She's a personal trainer now and has helped me quite a bit, I asked her- is there something that you think would help me? She told me about a nutriceutical that sounded really promising and had 5 studies published where I knew was very important, the National institute of health. We look on there all the time for the newest animal studies and human doctors use that as their guide.

Well I started taking this pill and honestly didn't notice a whole lot of difference. A few weeks into being on the product I went to my doctor in severe pain, once again. I was so tired of hurting and I didn't want to complain to anyone for fear they think I was either making it up or causing it myself because of the gym. At this point my entire shoulder was frozen, I couldn't move it and trying to would bring tears to my eyes. I was at the point of sleeping in the living room in a straight backed chair because even the recliner hurt when I went to sit up... I told the LPN to check me for anything that could be causing this (x rays showed some arthritis in both shoulders) and I was told my bloodwork came back normal.

I always request a copy, and when it came in the mail I saw that I had a high titer for lyme disease but when they did a test for the bands I needed four to be positive and I had three, and needed 2 positive on the second and only had one. So I was just barely negative according to the IDSA. Researching the disease I found that the testing is highly innaccurate and political and that I also had MANY of the symptoms.

I decided to take my healthcare into my own hands and saw an infectious disease doctor who, based on secondary blood tests and symptoms, finally doagnosed me with lyme disease. THIS TOOK 5 YEARS from start to finish. This doctors "solution" was to give me 14 days of an antibiotic. 14 days is not going to kill 5 yrs of spirochetes in my blood stream and the cyst forms that are in my organs. So at that point I had reached a dead end. I was about 6 months into taking the nutriceutical...

I noticed that my flares of what I now knew was lyme disease get further apart, so I didn't pursue the correctlyme treatment another doctor wanted to perform of placing a port either in my chest or securing a PICC line from my arm to my heart and giving my IV antibiotics 4 hrs everyday.

By 8 months on the product I had my final flare.

I am now 15 months on. I haven't flared in 7 months, my Vit D is at 30, My b12 level is within normal range and climbing, my thyroid is WORKING and NORMAL, my lungs have 0 inflammation the scarring is down 50% and the bottom lobes are spasming and trying to work again! I do have asthma like symptoms constantly now due to this but I know in a few months time my lungs will have remembered how to work and will be healed.

I was a skeptic. I hear all the time that people want to try this for just a month or two. I can't imagine where I would be healthwise had I not stuck with it. You never know what health crisis is going on in your body and it's ridiculous to think you know what every cells intention is.

My two Whys

I've been asked what my "why" is many times in this business. At first I thought my why, of course, was to help people and to make money doing it. Well, that's a, OK reason. I've always been conscious of other people, I always have taken people at face value and it's hard for me to keep secrets about myself when I connect with a person, but I've always connected better with animals. Daizey is my oldest dog, she is well into her teens and she has been the shoulder I could cry on since I was 7. Anything I felt too embarassed to tell another person, Daizey wouldn't chastise me for whatever happened. So my thinking about my "why" turned into wanting to help the animal community, children and breast cancer survivors have so many fighting for them- animals just have crazy PETA nuts. My heart goes to the senior and handicapped ones (I own one of each lol), the ones that are 15 yrs old in a shelter because their families couldn't take care of them anymore...or just didn't care. The ones wagging thier whole body because their legs don't work- and I used to have to euthanize them.
1-That was the most heartbreaking and rewarding volunteer work I have ever done. I was in the euthanasia room taking the place of the poor person that had to do that everyday. We worked 8am-4pm, taking a break every 2 hrs to wipe the tears and breath. When we started again it was to go to another cage of puppies/ kittens, old/ young, not cute enough to be adopted in the allotted time, pregnant, heartworm positive...and to take them up to the exam table slide a needle into their vein and end their life while they were still trying to kiss me.The solace I got was that even though we were ending their lives, atleast I could show them love before the end not knowing if they ever recieved any before that point. Atleast I could pet them and hold them til they fell asleep and fell down onto the table.
I want to help them, I want to alteast be able to provide a sanctuary or hospice home to the old or handicapped ones so the younger ones can be placed from the shelter.
My second "why"
I want a home of my own, I want babies. Since being diagnosed that second dream, out of conscienceness, Ive decided to take away. I don't want a child being born with this because of my selfishness. I've seen a few studies saying it can be transmitted in utero but it really hit home when a friend I've made in the support group tested her kids and 3/5 are positive. Knowing and being ignorant are 2 completely different things, now that I know I have made my own choices. I have put away some money each week into my "adoption account". As I progress in this company, I am so excited to know that, that account is going to grow so much faster than I originally intended- I'm going to be able to buy my own home much quicker which means I can start adoption proceedings that much sooner. I am SO ready for that chapter of my life to begin, I want to do it the right way and provide a loving home (with a lot of disabled pets : ) to some great kid.
I realized in order to help others, I have to help myself first.
I am so thankful to be given this opportunity, I am so excited to share it with those that will listen and for those that don't- Your "why" must not be big enough.

Happy Lyme awareness month!

Since Ive posted last, physically not much has changed other than Im working out HARDER and it's paying off and I also am loving my new job, it's overnights at the animal clinic but it's nice being able to stop a few minutes when I hurt and not have to rush to another appointment that's waiting. Ive also found a group of people on facebook called central florida lyme league. WOW. It's so great being able to talk to people near me about my fears with this disease (and there are many!) that I can't talk to the rest of you about/ you don't seem to care. There are some people have been friends with for years that just don't seem to give a flip about me with this disease or even act interested when a new study comes out linking other diseases to it, such as lou gerhigs disease, and won't even take my advice on precautions to NOT GET IT! That's ridiculous!  "Gee, it's not going to happen to me" well, it happened to me when I was 18 and took 5 YEARS to diagnose me and I am still fighting to get treatment for it! I'm sorry, someone my age shouldn't be having these problems.
There's a little girl I'm friends with that is 12 and she's way worse than me- that's not fair! This is such a lingering painful illness and it just adds insult to injury when your friends aren't there to support you. Thankfully I'm am feeling good, I think I am on the right track to being in remission- what I am doing must be working. Sadly, I've lost 3 friends to this illness in the past month and a half and I grieve for their families but I rejoice in thier passing because now they don't hurt anymore. It's an odd feeling watching someone deteriorate and die with a disease that you have. Is that going to be me in 5 yrs? 10 yrs? ...next week?
Heres an "excerpt" from a new lyme friends blog that I thought was very well written-

"Today is May 1st.  The beginning of Lyme Awareness Month.  It is an odd day for me; one filled with deep emotion. When I got out of bed, I wasn't feeling particularly sad or moody. Then, as I took in everything on line:  people asking how I'm doing, pleas from strangers looking for help, videos designed to help people understand this disease, Facebook photos filled with green...something snapped.
"Pray for me..." one person writes.
"Feel like no one understands..." cries another.
"Anyone else worried about dying?" questions a third.
Lyme related deaths, new treatment protocols, doctor's appointments, strange symptoms, politics, and pain fill my lyme colored world.  Hope's a rare commodity...even among those of us who generate it.
Tomorrow is my fifth doctor's appointment to treat a disease noone can prove I have.  It also marks my 9th month of living existing with undiagnosed chronic illness; a fate I wouldn't wish on my worst enemy.
No doubt, you have your own dragons to slay: kids to feed, money to find, promises to keep.  Still, if you can, I hope you'll take a moment to understand mine.  If not for me, maybe for you.  It could end up mattering more than you know"

Her blogsite is http://www.altereverything.com/ and she is very wellwritten.

So, I guess what I am hoping for is understanding. Some empathy. Some HOPE.

Dont want to jinx it but...

Im feeling good! I think this is the longest Ive had without a flareup! *knock on wood* I upped my Protandim to twice a day since I have a few bottles still that came with my autoship when I signed up and it so instead of about every 5-6 wks Ive now been a little over 2 months without a serious flare. I did have some pretty bad hip/lower back pain a 2 wks ago but I think it was from a Pilates class I took because it wasn't the crazy-drive-your-head-through-a-wall pain that usually comes. Met a lady at last nights Lifevantage meeting that's been taking it for 3 months now and she had been in quite a few car accidents rendering her in constan pain, and having to use a wheelchair. She started on it, graduated to a cane and last night she walked about freely, albeit it slowly... I have no doubt if I hadn't started this last year I'd be like all the other chronic lymies- bedbound for days every couple of weeks... I was heading that way... I think I'll stay on the 2-a-day for awhile. It's working so far. Maybe I'll go into remission like some of the lymies that have used antibiotics for years? I don't want to have to go that route and even though all the lyme forums are trying to push for longterm antibiotic use to treat us, I don't think that's a good idea AND I haven't read where any of them have come OFF, the ones that can afford it after insurance stops paying have all been doing it YEARS and have PICC lines in. Im sorry but it seems like they are beating a dead horse and destroying their immune systems worse then what we already have. Im hoping that since it seems to be working on me, more of us will get on it and have a solution that more people can afford and not kill off their cells in the process.

Confirmed!

So, even though Ive been doing a lot of research lately, I've really dived head in since I've found a doctor that's finally labeled me. Funny how we try to not be "labeled" most the time, I am finding comfort in it. Being labelled- labeled? sp?- means I am not crazy! For so long I thought everything was in my head, or that I had worked out to hard, or was just being lazy (well, sometimes those are true, lol) but it's such a DEEP ache when I am flaring. Nothing like an overworked muscle. No amount of sleep can touch the fatigue and sometimes the insomnia is unbearable. Oh and one of the saddest things, for me anyway since I'd always been quite the donor before getting sick, was that Im no longer ALLOWED to donate blood for fear of infecting another person. They are only able to filter 97% of pathogens out of the blood at the banks.

I've known for months and months now, myself, that I have Lyme but the nurse (the doctor NEVER saw me at this medical facility in the 2 yrs Ive been going there now) said my tests came back fine. What I didn't know right then was that the testing for Lyme is extremely innacurate and has been altered to produce more false results! No this isn't something in my head- they really did take off multiple bands they test for because "too many" people were positive. The insurance companies do not want to pay for so many peoples weeks and weeks of antibiotics, for the research that needs to be done on this disease, and for the aftercare for people like me with chronic lyme disease and all that ensues. I've seen many others blogs and other activists liken it to the "new age HIV/AIDS" fight.

The infectious disease society of america says there is no such thing as chronic lyme disease because it can go into remission. However, studies show most people are only in "remission" for 4-5 weeks. The hold very tightly to the literal term of it being a period without symptoms- but we are still positive for the disease and when it cycles again in our systems we are either termed as relapsed or reinfected. Which is why their guidelines say not to treat with longterm antibiotics- that it won't do any good... however, it could save our joints cardiovascular and nervous systems!

Anyhow, I've been on a search for what "we" term as a lyme literate medical doctor. The closest Ive been able to come with my insurance is an infectious disease specialist in Tampa. He seems like a nice guy though he didn't listen very well... BUT he did have the knowledge to test me for any co-infections that are common from tickbites especially when Lyme is involved. He also started me on a high dose of doxycycline..which reminds me I still have to take tonights dose lol.

I went Tuesday and had my blood drawn (after almost a 2 hr wait) for ehrlichia, babesia, and bartonella.
I figured I would call when the office opens Monday and see if they have the results in...

Other than the nausea and really bad prickly/itchy skin when working out (Im assuming from the doxycyline) I'm doing pretty good right now. My joints- which it's usually my shoulder and hips- don't hurt. Yay! I've been getting naps in so I think that's making the insomnia worse- I seem to only be able to sleep 5am/pm-8am/pm  so it totals up to 6 hrs a day lol.

 My friends/ personal trainer and instructor went away last weekend for our network marketing meeting. I really wanted to go but it didn't work out that I was able- no one to room with, my family thought they could go then couldn't, and honestly I don't think I could've handled such a long time sitting ona plane/tarmac and sitting for the meetings. Hopefully next time will work out. It did give me opportunity though to just RELAX without "having" to go to the gym. I love going, it makes me feel good (usually), I love hanging out with my gym friends but sometimes it's too much of a strain and I feel Like I still have to go in order to keep up appearances.

So I slept- I took them to the airport thursday early evening, went home and slept til friday midday... then went back to bed and slept some more! I felt like such a lazy louse but I NEVER allow myself to tap out like that. I try to be in the middle of as much as possible in my circles of friends, I'm afraid that if I use this to start missing gym classes/ girls night outs/ect. that they'll stop asking but last weekend was me and the sandmans time. No one could ask me to be anywhere because they were all across country! well, most of them anyway, I did meet up for a movie with a small group of the girls at my friend nicoles house and we had sandwiches and chatted- then it was back to sleep : )

Anyhow, I do feel better now that I have been officially diagnosed.

Getting onto the subject of Lyme

About 5 yrs ago I became sick, had very achy hips and shoulders, gained weight ( though I've always been chunky), was very fatigued and experiencing some pretty bad headaches and memory loss.

My then-doctor, ran a blood panel and all that came back was epstein-barr positive and she concluded I "must" be getting over a mono. infection and for me to lose wieght. We assumed I had gained due to no longer being in high school marching band and starting college (im around 19 at this specific point in time 2006)
So a few months go by, I got a little better, then got a little worse...  One thing that stands out it I had a major migraine episode while at work that turned into my mom having to come pick me up and being stuck in bed with flu-like symptoms again for around a week.

Again, Doc does nothing except test for lupus and rheumatoid arthritis which both come back negative ( actually the ANA for RA came back borderline, then normal).
More time goes by, more visits (averaging about 1 every 2-3months, which for me was A LOT as Id never really been sick) Somewhere in all this time however, we did re-discover that I have hashimotos hypothyroidism which is now regulated, Ive been hypothyroid since 14 yrs old but went off meds for awhile due to a quack doctor.

On to a new doctor in 2010 and after 2-3 visits to her (one of which was for the most excruciating shoulder pain in my life!) she tests for lyme- elisa is positive western blot igg negative (though 2 strains were reactive) and igm negative (1 strain reactive) she tells me I have Lyme but there is nothing to do for it.

Since then Ive read some blogs on people that have done extended periods of i.v./ oral antibiotics... I haven't read any that says they've been "cured" but they seem to have fewer flares and longer periods between. I'm currently looking for an infectious disease specialist that will do this protocol on me. It calls for I.v. antibiotics for a few months then a regimine of rotating oral antibiotics (though there is no timeframe for this part of treatment, most people have been taking them for quite a few yrs now)

Just to clarify-
I am epstein-barr positive
Elisa test pos. for lyme
Hashimotos Hypothyroid


I am able to go to the gym most of the time and have a very high pain tolerance and I do work (though I am only getting around 5 hrs a week due to economy- so I spend my free time at the gym) I have a wonderful friend and now my personal trainer (Jess) and an inspirational woman that pushes everyone to be their best in the multitude of classes she teaches, and I take (G. ) and I honestly contribute most of the health I have left to them. I can't imagine where I would be had I not met Jess and she not persuaded to join the gym and then subsequently meeting G. I know I would not feel nearly as good, would definetly be much heavier, and wouldn't have an outlet for getting rid of the frustrations I deal with.

The only medicine I am routinely taking is my thyroid medicine and a nutriceutical I believe is helping immensely.

First blog!

So, in this first blog let me tell you a little about myself. I have Lyme disease, Hashimotos hypothyroidism, epstein-barr virus and somehow in this mixture of things I've scarred the bottom lobes of my lungs up causing a few bouts of pneumonia (lyme spirochetes? but I get ahead of myself...) and was in an accident May '09 that herniated the disc in my thoracic spine.

Lucky aren't I?

On to other areas of my life besides medical- I am a veterinary technician ( just a few classes away from being able to be certified- as a technician, not insane : ) I've always wanted to be around animals. My first dog was a cocker named Angel who gave birth to my next 2 dogs Scooby and Butch but, alas, Angel was hit by a car, Scooby ran away, and we moved so Butch found a new family.

Now I have Daizey my 16 yr old chow mix and who I consider my furry sister (not to be confused with my less furry, human sister DeLayna) Daizey is your typical old dog, severe arthritis that makes getting up/down difficult and some heart and lungs problems but she's still  bright eyed, loves her food, and occasionally rols onto her back and wiggles.
Tinker is my very neurotic bichon that I rescued from the first animal clinic I worked in, she was found wrapped up in a farmers fence. We guess the barb wire got stuck to her mats and she panicked. Since having her we've learned about seperation anxiety, how to fix french doors when she's tried to chew through them, and taught her to walk on a leash (she had a severe fear of anything aound her neck) She's pretty much DeLaynas dog and tries to be touching her at any given time.
Pandora is the newest child. She is around 1-2 yrs old, a shih-tzu, and paralyzed from her hips down. She was found as a stray, already paralyzed for some time and was on her way to animal services. Well, I know Daizey is on her way out of this world and so Pandora has come home to be the bridge for our family and Tinker for when the time comes that Daizey is no longer here. Pandora is the sweetest, funniest little mop I've ever had the pleasure of meeting.

So, wrapping this up, I'm hoping this blog will be therapeutic for me. With my medical issues (which I will go into in the next blog) coming to a head and trying to find a doctor to treat me, with Daizey not doing so well, and just my life in general... I hope to either help someone else out who may be in the same boat or at the very least help myself out by writing and getting it off my chest.
Be safe!