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Thank you for the welcome. How I overcame it is probably similar to a lot of people. I began to feel very tired and worn out in early 2002. I started by going to a few regular doctors who misdiagnose you after taking several useless tests. I then started looking on the internet for information on CFS (chronic fatigue syndrome) and found some holistic approaches. I then was told about a few natural/holistic doctors that were good and began seeing a few her for help. I continued to see other doctors in and effort to search for answers anywhere I could get them. Eventually I had to narrow my doctors to only 2 or 3 due to limited funds and because certain doctors will keep seeing you even though they are no longer helping you or able to help you. You have to determine on your own when this is and just stop seeing them. I spent over $25K of my own money, mostly put on credit cards; because that's the only way I could pay for it at the time. I did have an HMO health plan but it didn't pay for my out of network doctors. A year later I switched to a PPO health plan through my job but I still had to pay for 40% of the costs. After being very sick for over year and a half my holistic doctor finally realized I probably had lymes disease and had me tested again but through a different testing company. I did have it. Previous to this I had no idea what Lymes was or ever thought about it. After I found out that I had lymes a lot of things started to make since, such as the arthritic like aching in my hips, knees and shoulders, my big toe being numb and having no feeling in it, as well as my foggy head and memory, my inability to sleep well even though I felt exhausted all the time, the irritable bowel syndrome, loss of appetite, inability to drink small portions of alcohol with out feeling dizzy (and not a good dizzy like before!) etc. etc. etc. Before finding this out I had changed my diet, was juicing mounds, large piles of raw, organic vegetables every day, was taking $800 of pharmaceutical grade supplements per month, colloidal silver, having ultraviolet blood irradiation treatments, H202 (hydrogen peroxide) intravenously and Vitamin C intravenously, as well as regular B12 shots and taking Samento (TOA free Cats Claw). I also had allergy tests done via blood tests, cutting my hair and the "prick" tests where they stick you with small needles with egg on it to see if your skin reacts to eggs...and I tried very hard to change my diet for almost every test result I got. I also tried things such as colonics, multiple coffee enemas and intestinal cleanses. I did successfully go from 205 lbs of solid muscle down to 179 lbs of sickly me, not from all the intestinal cleansing but mostly because I lost my appetite, felt like hell and just didn't feel like eating as before. I won't say that none of these things helped. They can or may have to varying extents. They did not heal me though. I believe that they aided in my recovery somewhat. Detoxing is important to almost everyone at some point in life so I don't think these things hurt, but again they didn't heal me. However, they cost a lot and did hurt me financially. The thing that helped me finally beat lymes disease was taking antibiotics in cycles for 9 months straight. I took a different antibiotic every month for 9 months, three weeks on the antibiotic and 2 weeks off. You change antibiotics each month so that the spirochetes can not adapt to the antibiotics. There is of course a die off period, where the spirochetes die and you are full of toxins from the die off and it makes you feel as sick as you've felt from the beginning but you will have days or hours where you feel healed and really good again. This is when I knew something was working or healing me. At first I was doing so many things it was hard to determine what was helping. I didn't care as long as I was getting better though. I must state that I am completely against taking antibiotics for many things such as colds, the flu, sore throats and even when having surgery or having work done on your teeth. I feel that the health of your bowels and good bacteria in your bowels is essential to a healthy person and randomly taking antibiotics every time you get sick is very detrimental to your health and immune system. Pro-biotics should be taken even when you feel fine. I take them to this day. I'm also against big drug companies and have some strong opinions about the harm they've done to people's health. I won't go into that now though. However, when you are sick with lymes disease you often feel like your dying slowly, I feel that this is a good time for someone to take antibiotics if they will help you! After 9 months of cycling different antibiotics I had another 9 to 12 months of feeling good and bad, that was on and off. I continued to take the Samento, which is similar to an antibiotic in that it helps kill the spirochetes (but isn't as detrimental to the good bacteria in your gut and bowels), for about 5 or 6 months or more. I was sick for over 2.5 years. By late 2004 I finally felt as though my trial was over. By 2005 I was about 92% if not better. I did experience all of the psychological stress, depression, difficulty that comes from your friends and family thinking you've turned into a hypochondriac, etc. It is very, very challenging but perseverance is a key trait you have to have despite how tired and haggard you may feel. Faith and trust in God helped me along the way greatly and I have to give thanks to God for helping me survive all of this. This is my story and I hope it can help anyone that reads it.  |
"MDJunction to me is somewhere i feel safe i feel i can be myself and not be judged. I love the fact that i get to see that im not alone in what i am going through and i also get the chance to help others on their journey through guidance and communication.
