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.