I am in a moment of transition. I promised myself that I would only use the coil machine for five years. It wasn’t a random number. Someone told me that I’d be “better,” as in “free of tick-borne infections” if I coiled for five years. The end of the fifth year is right around the corner. Five years also seemed like a long time (though I’d been out of work […]
Last week, I donated blood to a research study. Despite all my frustrations with antibiotics and traditional medicine, I want to participate in finding a cure for chronic Lyme Disease and other tick-borne infections. The study is at Stanford University, part of a group that looks at chronic illness. I’m not sure what they expect to find, but I know that part of what I agreed to is to use […]
Over the past several weeks, I’ve been eating whatever I want, or rather, whatever I’ve wished I could eat for the past six years. It seems like a dream, and it seems like a nightmare. What I’ve learned so far is that eating many of the foods that I had “sensitivities” to triggers Lyme and Bartonella flares. I had clues that this was the case before I began this most […]
After the last post, when I was writing about reducing the amount of supplements I take, I started to get excited about the possibility of not having to take pills with every meal. What a difference that would be. With that in mind, I’m reviewing the supplements I’m currently taking and considering what to stop and when. The current list is much smaller than the one I was taking last […]
It’s been a rough week. Yet again. This is the hard part, I remind myself, but not the hardest part. I’ve already made it through the hardest part back before I had a diagnosis or a way past this illness. Now is hard because I want to do the things I could do last month instead of suffering through a Bartonella flare. There are a few things going on. First, […]
On Friday, we welcomed my newest family member, a niece named Rose Beatrix! It was a day of excitement. Both Rose and Helen, my sister, are healthy and content. I am super happy, too! My only regret was that she decided to be born after I returned home from my stay at my sister’s house. Still, I’ve had the opportunity to skype with my sister’s family, see my nephew and […]
I went to a new gynecologist last week for my annual exam. We talked a little about my menstrual cycle, including the extended PMS I’ve been suffering from the past few months. Her solution was to give me birth control pills so I won’t ovulate anymore. I resisted. She insisted. I resisted some more. She told me to think about it and call her if I changed my mind. She […]
I’m writing tonight with jello-arms. My exhaustion level has reached new heights. Yet I feel proud to have worked out in a concentrated way for the first time. Not just the first time since I got sick. More like the first time ever. My previous exercise activities were: swimming in middle school, gym class in high school, an aerobics video that I did on and off in college, occasional softball […]
As I was walking along the beach near Sunset Beach in Watsonville, CA, earlier today, I started thinking about my relationship with the act of walking. Stopped in my tracks From 2000-2005, I used to walk to work. It was a bit more than a mile each way. I loved to walk. Once I moved to NYC and took the train to work, I made an effort to find ways […]
As the aches in my joints started increasing today, I knew it was time to start coiling for Lyme again. The plan is the same as I did for my first Lyme coiling season this fall: 5 days a week, weekends off, full-body head-to-toe, 3 minutes in each location. (Here is the full protocol.) Babesia, dormant? Last Lyme season, I was simultaneously working on Babesia, since it had the most […]
Coiling for Lyme 