I finished my sixth and last package of CHIM, an Alfons Ven remedy. It was a complicated month because I had my seasonal Lyme flare early. I guess I expected it to be less intense than last year after 6 more months of coiling and six months of CHIM. But it was uglier than the past few years. I’ve spent the past week unpacking what happened (and unpacking my coil machine to start using it again).

As usual, I’ll start with an run-down of my symptoms during the treatment. The next topic is supplements, which I spent a lot of time tinkering with during the first two weeks of the package. From there, I’ll go on to explain why I think the seasonal flare was worse, though I can’t explain why it was early. (Climate change? The effects of the Ven remedy on my body? I don’t know. In fact, if you’re experiencing a seasonal Lyme flare now, or started to feel your symptoms get worse in the past 2-3 weeks, please comment below or send me a message telling me the date the flare started.)

The Sixth Package of CHIM

I started the sixth package of CHIM, 1 dose each nigh, along with two morning doses of FLUOX, spaced 2 hours apart, on July 31. That night I had insomnia and lots of twitching (which I wrote about in the previous post). Something about the experience made me realize that in addition to whatever else was going on, I might be inundated with unprocessed toxins from the previous five months. The next day I had a lot of rib pain (Lyme symptom) and kidney pain (Bartonella herx symptom) and I knew something had to change. I started by taking extra detox agents (an extra dose of chanca piedra and some dandelion root tea). It helped with those sympoms, but I still spent a big chunk of the day feeling unable to focus on anything and with a big headache. The next day, I added in N-acetylcysteine (1200mg in the morning). This helped, but not enough. I still had lots of  twitching, pain in my sacrum, muscle spasms, night sweats, insomnia, etc. The next day I doubled my NAC to twice a day, and increased the magnesium dose I was already taking to 1200mg per day. I stayed on this dosage for the rest of the package.

The supplements were helpful. Although I spent the day with aches and pains everywhere, the kidney pain calmed down. I was able to sleep at night and I had no night sweat. The kidney pain came back the next day, and I was able to work a little, but I got very tired very quickly. I was done for the day by 5pm, and just rested until bedtime. I had a light night sweat that night, as well as waking up overheated.

I moved into possible PMS with two days of fatigue, loose bowels, big night sweats, kidney pain, and back pain. Then my menstrual cycle started with mild to moderate cramps, no appetite, a severe headache, and more night sweats. This ended my first week of the CHIM package.

Although I have a note from day 14 of CHIM that says “feels like autumn Lyme flare is starting early,” the week leading up to that statement was very symptomatic. The daily issues included loose bowels, fatigue, slow thinking and difficulty getting started doing anything, twitching, insomnia and night sweats. Each day, I managed to do one thing, maybe a walk or some cooking or an hour on the computer. Mostly I sat, I knitted a bit, and the days marched on.

August 12 (that night I took CHIM dose 13) was a culmination. I woke up with itchy eyes, then I had a few things to do. At 4pm, I lay down for a moment which immediately turned into a three hour nap. When I woke up, my pain level was very, very high. Everything hurt: all muscles, all joints, head, neck, abdomen. I had a hard time going to sleep that night and woke up repeatedly. The next day, everything hurt all over my body, again, only now, my spine was terribly stiff. I had loose bowels and a bad mood.

By August 14, my heart was in on the action. I had palpitations and pain in my chest, climbing up into the left side of my neck and throat. When I listened to my heart (with a stethoscope), my heart was galloping on the second beat and very irregular. I had tingling in my arms when I lay down to rest. Some of the other aches and pains were less, but I still felt out of sorts.

For the next several days, I felt like I was slogging through my daily activities (and inactivities). The chest pain was persistent, though it varied in intensity. My bowels were loose and urgent, multiple times a day (even when I reduced the magnesium dose for a day or two). I had twitching intermittently. I woke up hot at night, sometimes sweaty, sometimes not. And I had very little appetite.

Doesn’t that sound like the perfect time to go camping? My husband, Joe, had arranged for us to go camping for our wedding anniversary. I decided that if I had to feel crappy, I’d rather do it in a beautiful natural environment than moping at home. On the trip, I was tired much of the time. The best part of it was sitting at the campsite, watching osprey and bald eagle pairs fish for trout in a lake.

On the trip, I continued to have loose stools, low appetite, heart pain, kidney pain, back pain, and rib pain. One of the driving days, I had a mild vagal response while in the car, waiting to get to a place where I could use a toilet. (Urgent bowel movements have previously triggered vagal responses, from mild to syncope.) My feet swelled up, and by day 19 of CHIM, I had “plum pit chi,” a feeling like there is something stuck in my throat when there is nothing there. On day 20 of CHIM, I took a nap and was overwhelmed when I woke up by how much pain I was in all over my body, just like had happened a week earlier. (Maybe the moral of the story is no more naps?)

Back home, the situation was the same: heart pain, loose stools, headaches, extreme fatigue, feeling achy all over, night heats or sweats. Now I had a new daily problems, air hunger (or shortness of breath) and tingling, buzzing feelings in my limbs, bronchial irritation, and stiffness in my back and hips. What had at first felt like a Lyme flare had blossomed into a Babesia flare and a Bartonella flare. At least, that’s how it felt. The twitching continued, usually at night, and for a few days, I had yellow mucus coming out of my sinuses.

By the time I got to day 27, Bartonella seemed to be ascending, with pain in my ear canals and a switch to difficult, hard bowel movements, and abdominal swelling. I felt too hot or too cold all the time. After the last dose, I woke up with pain on the right side of my body. It is a dull ache that hasn’t yet gone away (and is noticeably absent from the left side of my body, where the pain has focal points).

The entire month, I had abdominal swelling after almost every meal.

I’ve continued the FLUOX, three times a day for the three days following the end of the CHIM package, and 2 doses a day since then.

Combining Alfons Ven remedies with other supplements

One of the things I hoped was that the Alfons Ven remedies would provide a complete detox action, and that no other supplements would be necessary. This turned out not to be the case. A major issue I have with anything that attacks Bartonella is that I get severe pain in my kidneys. From the first package, I realized that I needed to continue to take herbs that help the kidneys and liver survive big detoxes. For me those include milk thistle, chanca piedra, and dandelion root. For most of the months those were sufficient. At the end of the fifth month, the kidney pain was getting worse again. I felt like the toxins from herxing both Bartonella and Lyme was accumulating faster than my body could flush. I wanted to be careful not to add lots of other supplements willy-nilly, so I went through my old list of what helps and read up on my options.

N-acetylcysteine (NAC) and coenzyme Q-10 were my choices. NAC helps the body produce more glutathione, a master antioxidant that protects the liver. Coenzyme Q-10 is also synthesized by the body. I chose it primarily because it helps with the heart, and I was having heart trouble.

My general understanding of the Alfons Ven remedies is that CHIM’s microbicidal action can be blocked by antibiotics as well as antimicrobial herbs and supplements. Thus, I avoided those kinds of supplements. FLUOX works to help the body move toxins through the detox channels, and at higher doses, to move stored toxins back into the blood stream to be processed and removed. However, it doesn’t make the detox process more efficient or protect the organs from an overload of toxins. Thus, it seemed okay to me to take some supplements in support of detoxing.

Also this month, I ended up increasing the dose of magnesium I was taking. Between the twitching (which I wrote about in the previous post) and the increasing heart pain, I knew my body was blowing through magnesium. Since this mineral doesn’t kill or stress any of the infections, I felt is was safe to take.

Seasonal Lyme Flare

I didn’t realize that the seasonal Lyme flare would be the big test for the Alfons Ven remedies. I had fantasized for five months that I would somehow miss the seasonal flare, and that’s how I would know I was at the end. Alas, that fantasy proved to be no more than wishful thinking.

This seasonal Lyme flare was much worse, MUCH WORSE, than other seasonal flares for the past few years. There are a few reason for the difference:

1. Usually during a Lyme flare, I stop all treatment except for Lyme coiling. I coil a lot (like 3 hours a day) for Lyme for about 5 days. At the end of the five days, I’m usually down to barely noticeable symptoms. Then I can get back to whatever other infections I was coiling, while putting Lyme back into the rotation every other or every third day. Within a few weeks, the Lyme is usually back in remission or at least at very low levels.
2. When I don’t get a Lyme flare under control right away, Babesia wakes up. This time, since I wanted to see how the Ven remedies handled the Lyme flare, I didn’t coil for Lyme. The CHIM did not get the Lyme under control. Soon I was dealing with a flare in symptoms from both Lyme and Babesia. (Nothing like light triggered headaches and an extreme desire to be horizontal to make a Lyme flare worse.)
3. Once both the Lyme and Babesia were awake, Bartonella got worse. The CHIM did not get either of the first two infections to calm down. I was having Bartonella herxes, but I was also having more frequent Bartonella symptoms, including the pain on the right side of my body and tingling in my extremities.

By the time I finished the last package of CHIM, I was no longer impressed with the Ven remedies. At first I figured I hadn’t lost ground, even if they didn’t get me as far as I was hoping they would. Now I’m less certain that I haven’t gotten worse by taking them.

In the future, if I ever consider the Alfons Ven remedies again, I will coil while I’m taking them.

Disclaimer

• The Fifth Package: Renewed Challenges
• Alfons Ven Lyme Package Redux

Categories: Alfons Ven Lyme Package, detoxification support, healing process, Herx reactions

Tags: babesia, bartonella, lyme

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