treatment: week one

Week One:

Hyperbaric chamber use prior to week one:

6 hours (6 sessions- 1 hr. each)

Nov 6, Sunday: got really sick after eating food over a weekend away that I usually doesn’t eat, (my fault).  Vomited through the night and was close to losing consciousness every time I stood.  Had intense jerking of the body (I could not control it) but coherent for all of it.  Was able to keep fluids down by morning and use of the bionic (without a nosode) aimed at my abdomen where the twitching seemed to be originating from eased symptoms.  9.77 hz, 630 seconds on abdomen, then five points: right/left wrist, right/left ear, forehead.

Nov 7, Monday:  I was able to stand and walk, feeling better.  spent one hour in the Hyperbaric chamber to prep for the week.

Nov 8, Tuesday:  First day of treatment. 

IV fluids:

600 mg Glutathione (push at the end of IV)

1000 mg Vitamin C

1,000 mg magnesium

Trace minerals combination of zinc, copper, manganese, chromium

Nov 9, Wednesday:

Took an enzyme test to verify our bodies can process high dose vitamin C. 

OZONE:

60 cc rectal insufflation followed by 1 hour in the hyperbaric chamber

BIONIC: used with lyme nosode-  10 points, 11.77 hz, 330 seconds each point

Supplements: Detox protocol and also added in Alpha Lipoic Acid 200 mg/ 3 times day

Symptoms: I sweated through one shirt this night and woke with knee pain several times that night. 

Nov 10, Thursday

IV Treatment #2-  I am tired after treatment this morning.  Battling a low grade headache

Dr. has ordered in Lymphostat made by HEEL, a German brand that helps detox.  We will add that in on IV days, although German protocol uses it on ozone/bionic days via IV. 

Symptoms: irregular heartbeat, fast then skips.  Lethargy, mild head-ache, feel angry, eyes hurt, sweaty

Nov 11, Friday

I sweated through two shirts overnight and changed twice- a cold sweat.  Still sweating today and not feeling well due to intense cramping.  Used Aleve all day.

Nov 12, Sat

Liz- 1 hour Hyperbaric Chamber

Symptoms: Exhausted and achy 

the donkey trot

November 18, 2016

At the start of a training run, I have a goal.  I set the distance, and usually I decide I will run it at my normal pace…an 8:30 minute mile.  Not the fastest, but I can run like a sturdy donkey at this speed (smile)…I know my body can keep on keeping on if I keep this pace.  So I begin.  But something happens in the first mile or two as my muscles get cranking (I like to just start running and I always nix any warm up).  I think I need to quit.  I think maybe my lungs aren’t up for it and “why does it feel so much harder today?!” But I tell myself, “just a little longer.  Don’t stop yet.”  Because I know what is coming.  I will break through that wall, my body will pace itself and mile three goal could turn into mile five.  I will get in a steady rhythm of breathing and my legs will find their stride as they take me yard after yard down the road.  I love that feeling, like I could run for days and come back home, tired but soul refreshed as I listen to praise music and enjoy the beauty that God as gifted me with all around. 

So, I think I am in the first 400 yard stretch.  We are two weeks into IV’s and it takes my breath away that we have only come that far.  I am not sure I can do it.  My body is so tired, my veins are not healed before I am back in for another treatment.   I am gasping for air but I am only 400 yards into my three mile race!  I know we can do it- we have to do it.  We will do the only thing we can do…take another step.  We will take each miserable, terrible step filled with desire to turn back around and side-step the other runners.  I know they are out there…I know a few of them myself.  We are all in a race that we didn’t sign up for and each one is desperate to find a way out.  If only we could cross the finish line without all the painful miles we will have to show for it.  If only our coach could tell us definitively that all these miles will prove worth it because the finish line is really there- complete healing.  But each “coach” defines victory a different way, and most would call remission a “victory.”  But it is only a victory for how long? A month?  A year?  Two?  Until the race is back on and you didn’t even know you were running again.  And what about those of us who run our race and drag others along with us?  Willing them to have the strength to keep up- our children, our family, our loved ones too precious to leave behind. 

Yes, we will run this race.  It is worth every step forward, because it is one more step you are choosing not to take backward.  It is sometimes more important to do something to keep you in the FIGHT than it is to make sure that you are moving forward.  We must not give up hope, and not let apathy become a companion.  We cannot see the finish line when we are not even clocked in at mile one yet.  But that doesn’t mean the finish line isn’t there.  Keep on keeping on.  One step at a time.

October 5, 2009
My man and I after the Portland marathon.  He is the unsung hero in much of my story, past and present.  He was so supportive of all the hours I spent training (he even rode my pink bike beside me on multiple long runs, LOL) and was so sweet on race day! Thanks, baby- I am so blessed by you.

journal entry from November 3

Nov 3, 2016

So, our treatment starts in less than a week.  It is Gods precious kindness to us…a miracle.  I should be excited and absolutely silence-struck with how all this has come together.  And I am, in a quiet and deep way, like the quiet of deep waters.  But in my heart, I am conflicted.  Because this is where it gets real- where I either sink or swim. 

I am terrified.  All these months I have held out hope for treatment, knowing it was the best chance of having our family back and having hope back.  Now we go through treatment and it either works...or it doesn’t.  My heart cannot take any more ache, my body cannot process any more trauma.  My brain refuses to work, yet I will be in charge of my many pills, treatment protocol, and trying to hold it all together. 

I cannot imagine feeling the way I do on my “bad days” for six weeks.  Or even most days of those six weeks.  I am terrified that I won’t be able to function, and I long to hold on to control- hold on to my pride of being able to do things my way, by myself.  On my bad days, I am incapable of doing much except surviving until I wake up a new day.  I feel like we are in a prison with chains others cannot see, but they hold us taut every single day and affect every single aspect of our lives.  Our diet, our energy, our ability, our finances, our fellowship, our daily schedule and it constantly struggles for dominance over our attitude.  These waves feel like they will swallow me whole.  Every day I fight an invisible battle that I cannot possibly put into words for anyone else to understand.  The shadows are too dark and too vague to outline- they overlap each other until they are not individual shadows, but one big ominous sky overhead.  I struggle to let God’s light shine…he holds my hand and walks me through the dark, but he does not part the clouds and overcome the shadows.  They remain.  He tells me to walk on.  I cry and tell him I can’t.  He can’t possibly expect me to.  And yet I live another day- His sun rises on a new morning with new mercies…and I am still here.  

So I walk, praising my creator as the storm presses on. 

it all started in 2012

I began to get sick in the summer of 2012.  We had just gone through a very stressful season in our family and by the fall of 2014 we had moved 4 times in 3 years.  At the end of this post, I will share a symptoms list- it  is long.  This is a cumulative list that piled up over the years.  I am posting everything that I had noticed but had chalked it up to low adrenal function and passing the age of thirty.  (haha.)  Although I experience a lot of these symptoms on a daily basis, I do not experience all of them every day or every week.  That’s a large part of the reason why it took me so long to test for Lyme, even though I was beginning to be aware of the symptoms.  Lyme is so vague and tricky.  If you research online, it is called “the great imitator” for a reason.  I could feel absolutely sick one day and then be out running hills the next.  I could never quite put a finger on what was wrong with me, but I told my husband quite often with tears running down my face that “they” are missing something, “something is not right.”  That went on for four years, while I went on to be in treatment for adrenal fatigue and a thyroid that kept sinking lower as my medication climbed higher.  The final straw that convinced me to get tested was when I started having symptoms of deep and unrelenting pain in my hand and my once capable arm could no longer open a twist can of jam.  I would never have answers had I not just watched my sister-in-law who happens to be one of my best friends, travel the Lyme road with her son, Ryan.  I was honored to be in Germany with them and see the treatment facility he was at.  So, when it was time for me to get tested here in the states, she graciously walked us through every step and is still walking in those dark shadows with us, helping us find our way out.  Lyme people need that…someone to champion them along and tell them that recovery is possible.  I hope and pray to be that person to others someday.  We are giving it all we’ve got and expecting blessed healing.

So, here is the symptom list.  (Maybe some will sound familiar to you.) I am not breaking it into categories, I am just writing it down straight from my note sheet that I had to bring with me to the doctor’s office as I tried to recall what I was supposed to say when she asked me “why I was here.”

(This is the blood panel that was ordered after that doctor appointment)

Extreme fatigue

Sweaty at random times

Anxiety

Drenching night sweats

Nausea, especially at night

Ear ringing

Hot flashes

Vision flashes

Achy- constant and worse at night,( like a case of the flu) migrating from hand to leg then other leg etc.

Occasional deep stabbing pains in random body parts lasting for seconds, then leaving

Hand pain in joints, burning at times

Weakness with grip

Heart flutters

“Shaky” all over

Neck stiffness

Headache, tightness

Struggle with feeling hopeless

Feel overwhelmed

Have to fight off confusion, don’t know why

Loss of consistent thought ability

Inability to multi-task

Heavy arms and legs- feels like I am walking through mud, lifting 50 pound weights

Decreased exercise stamina, get dizzy and faint

Arms go numb while driving or trying to hold my arms up to read a book in bed
Memory loss- short and long term

Must use calendar and lists to remember anything

Need for sleep, even after a full night’s sleep

Feel like I am losing my mind

Sad and unexplainably overwhelmed by life

Sudden bouts of needing more oxygen while laying down, but breathing fine (called "air-hunger")Anxiety over more than one event in a day

“barely hanging on”
Consistent knee pain that throbs and aches deep (has felt like a sports injury from running hills, but consistently gets worse even with rest)

Low thyroid (keeps dipping)

Low cortisol (keeps dipping)

Increased bruising, possibly due to clumsiness

Eyes feel heavy, have to close them sometimes

Highly light sensitive
Thought I needed glasses, vision is blurred at times but vision screening is normal

Dairy intolerance (one week of deep stabbing pain in intestines if ingested)

Low blood sugar (blood tested at 51 mg/dl in 2014 and 78 mg/dl in 2016)

Occasional brief confusion while driving (forget where I am supposed to be headed next)

Can’t make fast decisions, have to work hard to “think”

Loud noises make me angry and anxious- like everything in me is on high alert

Problems with face recognition after meeting new people

Can’t hold conversation: processing information and talking especially at a fast pace confuses me…this makes me a bit socially awkward (LOL)

Have episodes of feeling that I might lose consciousness

Very low vitamin D levels

Very Low iron levels (iron infusions were recommended)

Various UTI infections (previously have never had any)

Kidney pain, consistent even after we confirmed that there is no infection

Body pain upon standing after sitting on floor or criss-cross style, I limp until my joints get moving again

Sometimes with loud noise/chaos coming at me I have to cover my ears and close my eyes- feel crazy

At times I am unable to verbalize simple things.  Words get caught as I can’t dredge up what to call “that thing in your hand…(a cup)” as I am trying to instruct my children

Greater difficulty at math…scratch that- impossibility. Haha.

Bouts of anger that I later feel was a complete over-reaction

My words don’t always match what I am trying to say, like it’s a bit disconnected

Also sometimes feel disconnected from reality- recalling memories feels like recalling a dream

Head-ache’s that feel like sinus pressure

Twitching, ranging from minor muscle spasms (I can see my muscles twitch in my leg) to convulsive movements that move my whole core/legs/arms mimicking a small seizure but I am coherent the entire time…this is a more recent symptom

Emotionally usually either “low” or “numb”

Swollen glands by thyroid, swallowing is strained (two year symptom, sometimes worse or better)

Sore throat often, often have to clear throat

Decreased hearing ability, fluid in ear drums

I had all these symptoms but thought it was just adrenal fatigue and a period of stress in my life.  I figured that every mom is tired, and I just had to press on and keep taking my supplements.  So many symptoms became so normal, it was not even on my radar anymore.  I was under a physicians care and cancer tests came back normal, so I thought I was checking every box I needed to worry about.  Lyme imitates many different conditions that doctors can diagnose, yet the underlying cause - or "root" of the issue does not get confronted.  I am so relieved to know the root of my symptoms and work toward true healing.  Once Lyme had really taken hold and took my immune system down (Spring of 2016),  I declined really fast.  For anyone who has symptoms similar to Lyme symptoms (do a search online), I always recommend a preliminary screening for Lyme.  Check out the link here.

 

At the treatment center in Germany with my nephew, Ryan, while he went through treatment for Lyme Disease
A shout out to my dear friend, Michelle, who traveled to Germany with me

the mostly german protocol

(A big part of this treatment protocol was put together by several who have traveled to Germany to receive treatment for Lyme Disease.  The other part of the treatment protocol was put together by a local Naturopathic Dr. who also practices Homeopathy.  I chose this protocol because of it's proven success rate)

Detox Phase:

Breakfast:

       Herbal Heplaclenz -two tablets, (Professional Formulas)

       Whole Body Liquesence, 15 drops under tongue (Professional Formulas)

       Chicory Ginger Digestive Bitters with food, 10 drops (Uriel) plus 5-6 drops of Stevia

       Probiotic - one tablet (Prescript Assist)
       Alpha Lipoic Acid -  one 200 mg capsule (natural factors,)
       Nordic Naturals Complete Omega-D3's - two capsules
       Whole Leaf Cilantro - one dropperful ( Herb Pharm)
       ProFerrin ES (one capsule)
       Stevia- Nutramedix brand, five drops in tea or water

After breakfast:

       Lymph/spleen Complex, 1 capsule (Professional Formulas)

Lunch

      Chicory Ginger Digestive Bitters, 10 drops
      Alpha Lipoic Acid -  one 200 mg capsule (Natural Factors)

Dinner

       Chicory Ginger Digestive Bitters, 10 drops

       Whole Body Detox Liquesence, 15 drops under the tongue

       Probiotic - one tablet (Prescript Assist)

        Alpha Lipoic Acid -  one 200 mg capsule (Natural Factors)

Dietary:

No dairy, gluten and only natural sugars.  I did food sensitivity testing and am off of all chicken and eggs, along with a few other misc. food allergens I avoid.  I limit sugar, but do have maple syrup, some honey and also tea with nutramedix brand liquid stevia. 

I was on the Detox supplements for about three weeks before starting Lyme Treatment. 

Lyme Treatment:

I continue to take all the detox supplements every day of the week.  (Except one supplement; please refer to the notes below regarding Ozone days).  I have also added:

                  - 25,000 IU vitamin A once a week (THORNE brand)

                  - ozone sauna (with or without ozone) is available to detox on ozone days (Cure Health Spa is offering a 20% discount on all ozone sauna sessions if you mention that you heard about them from this post)

IV DAYS: TWO DAYS A WEEK
IV Formulation

                  -600 mg Glutathione push

                  -1000 mg Vitamin C (will increase to 15 grams after enzyme test comes back)

                  -1000 mg magnesium

                  -Multi-trace minerals mix

                                    5 mg zinc

                                    1 mg copper

                                    0.5 mg manganese

                                    10 mcg chromium

                                    60 mcg Selenium

                  -methylated B complex, called B100

                  -sodium bicarbonate
                  -Lymphostat by HEEL (a German homeopathic detox- This is usually done in Germany via IV on the ozone days, but we will add it to the Vitamin C IV days.)

Ozone/Bionic Days: Two days a week

          -up to 400cc ozone via rectal insufflation

                  - 1 scoop SANUM Pleo Alkala Antacid powder (or 1/2 tsp baking soda)

                  -one hour in Hyperbaric Oxygen chamber immediately following RI and alkala

(Cure Health Spa is offering a 20% discount on all Hyperbaric Oxygen Chamber sessions if you mention that you heard about them from this post)

-Bionic 880: 10 points at 11.77 Hz, 100% power, 330 seconds (borellia burdorferi nosode taped to solar plexus)

On Ozone days I do not take any supplements that have Vitamin C in them, because it will render the ozone ineffective.  Recommendations are to avoid it within an hour of ozone treatment, but because I am getting such high doses of Vitamin C on IV days, I avoid it completely on ozone days.  This means I ELIMINATE THE LYMPH/SPLEEN COMPLEX FROM MY PILL REGIMEN THAT I USUALLY TAKE AFTER BREAKFAST ON OZONE DAYS.

I have German nosodes on order (Bartonella, Babesia, Mycoplasma pneumonia and Rocky Mountian Spotted Fever.)  I know I have more co-infections than that, namely Colorado Tick Fever, Erlichia and EBV, etc., but I will address those after I take care of Lyme and the main co-infections I believe affecting my health, if they are not already gone after treatment.

NOTES:

• Want to note the recommendation from Dr. Woitzel in Germany: "Finally, all of my patients receive a detoxification treatment, which includes an intravenous infusion of magnesium, zinc, Hepar comp (a homeopathic liver decontaminant), Solidago comp (a homeopathic kidney support remedy), Lymphomyosot (a homeopathic remedy to support the lymphatic system) and 100 ml of sodium bicarbonate (NaHCO3 8.4 %)."

Bionic informational website: http://lymebook.com/bionic-880-photon-woitzel-germany-pe1

 

A picture of what the Bionic 880 looks like

 

A German Nosode that you tape to your Solar plexus (stomach area) during Bionic treatment