Wow, thanks guys and gals for sharing about depression etc.. Our son, Dave, has had lyme for 17 years and the last 2 years he has been so depressed and we just couldn't understand what was going on with him. He said he was not interested in staying on this earth any longer. This last year has been especially bad for him. Of course, loosing his job of 18 years didn't help and I am sure this is what has caused the severe relapse of his symptoms.
He would have terrible bouts of crying and anger and this so confused his wife and child as well as us, his parents and I am sure, him also. I guess none of us can really understand what you are all going through with this disease. My heart goes out to each and every one of you!
We finally invested in a coil machine since it is an electronic device and thought this might interest our son as he is an Electronics Engineer and it was something he could understand and build and really take part in. Most of you are trying supplements, antibiotic etc., however, this does not appeal to our son as he has tried them in the past without much success. If I gave him something to take he would take it but his heart just was not in it. He doesn't want to talk about lyme disease or symptoms, he just wants to be well or gone from this earth and is very tired of the whole lyme process. He adores his wife and son and this attitude was so confusing to us. How could he even think of leaving them behind?
So, we decided to purchase a coil kit in May, 2010 and Dave promptly got it built and he started to rife on June 6th of this year. He called me over as the machine was now all built and he was getting ready to hook it up. When he finished hooking it up and turned it on, it worked just like it was supposed to. He was all smiles at this point and very proud of himself. However, when he turned on the machine to rife he didn't feel a thing and had no reaction or herxs, like you are supposed to get. We found out later we weren't using the machine correctly and when he tried it and got no reactions or herxs, I knew something was wrong. When I mentioned this to him he got so angry at being told that something else he had been so hyped about, now was also not working. This was the last straw and He really lost it and I wanted to disown him at that point as I just couldn't understand his attitude. When we were finally able to find out how to properly work the machine he began getting the herxs he was supposed to get, everything settled down. We were also warned that he had lyme in his brain that was causing the terrible depression and confusion and that we needed to be so very careful with him at this time. We shared this with his young son and he began his process of not reacting to his Dad's anger when directed at him. Instead, he began hugging and trying to help his Dad every chance he could and especially when he could see he was hurting, especially after rifing. We were also told that we would see a different person emerge after several months of using the machine as lyme rage is very common. And, We can say with such gratitude that this is happening. He is actually laughing and taking part in life and he is really reacting with all people once again. He claims he is getting much more sleep, which hasn't been the case in a long time. He has had this disease so long that we all forgot what the real him was really like. He has weeks at a time with none or very little lyme symptoms. When he rifes though, the symptoms do hit him for several days. He gets the strong heart palpations and migrating joint pain and headaches. It is so nice to see he and his wife getting close, once again. She was telling us of something interesting that took place several weeks ago. She went to pick up their son at a new school and he was nowhere to be found and she began loosing it. She called Dave, several times as she was trying to locate their son without success and she said he calmly reassured her that she would find him and he was there someplace. The past 17 years it has been she that has to do the calming. One of the things she was also worried about was that Dave had invited an old work friend over to dinner and she needed to be there to help with that project and that was also making her very nervous. Eventually the son was found and she rushed home to help with the dinner as she knew her husband would not be in a happy state. She said "when I came through the door, expecting to see a very unhappy husband, he, instead, was just sitting calmly on the sofa. He had the table all set and had cooked the whole dinner all by himself". "Wow", she said "I thought to myself, I can really get used to this new attitude".
We have no idea if this improvement will continue or if this is all a fluke, but for now, anyway we are so grateful for the good times we are having at this point. Since Dave doesn't like to talk about disease, we are very careful about asking him about this and that so we just have to see the difference in him for ourselves and notice when after he rifes he looks like a person with lyme that doesn't feel well. He has those sad dog eyes and you can see his pain in them. He also does not take antidepressants or anti anxiety pills.
Thanks again, your sharing helps us understand what is going on with these people we love with "lyme".