Hi Sue,
Yes, I was infected for that many years, and yes, I am doing much, much better now!! Here's a the quick version
:
I was first infected at the age of 7 (way back in 1970) with Rocky Mountain Spotted Fever and by the age of 9, I was showing the symptoms of late stage Lyme disease (Lyme arthritis), as well as chronic Bartonella symptoms. I may have had more tick-borne infections at that time, but no one was looking for them or their signs, so I learned to live with the ups and downs.
I had periods of my life where I was plagued with different symptoms (narcolepsy, extreme pain, and so on) and I was bed ridden for periods of time as well, then at the age of about
30 I realized that I could no longer work outside the home. IN 2002, I had a Neuro tell me that I had Bell's Palsy due to Lyme disease - but I wasn't ready to hear that - even though I had been looking into that possibility since 2000! LOL!!!
I was in denial.
It wasn't until 2007, when I was 44 years old, that I found a LLMD that agreed to treat me - the late, great Dr. Edwin Masters (RIP). I used antibiotics for a full 12 months and only got worse. I believe there were a number of reasons for this, not simply just because I was using antibiotics. I now know that my body was badly compromised and couldn't detox very well.
I stopped all treatments as I was beginning to have seizures and a ton of serious issues with cognitive function, my intestines shutting down and more. I quite honestly thought I was going home to die. I even called my kids to come up and we had "the talk" of what to do once I was gone.
Fortunately, my husband was not ready to give in just yet and he found a Holistic doctor not far from us that agreed to treat me, even though she said she knew nothing of these infections, but she was willing to learn. At first, after doing her intake of me, she said she wanted me to just go straight to the hospital due to my adrenals crashing - but I refused (LOL!) as I knew that I would have a fight on my hands keeping them from giving me steroids since Lyme isn't even recognized as a threat here.
As I said, My practitioner knew nothing of these infections, but since there was no one else in my state willing to treat those who had Lyme and other tick-borne infections, I decided to start treatments with her and help her learn all I could. I kind of felt like it was my one last chance.
The first 6 months all I did was detox and get my organs and systems in my body to balance back out using herbs and acupuncture. My adrenals were crashing, I had Hashimoto's Thyroiditis, serious issues with my digestive system along with all the symptoms of Lyme, Bartonella, Babesia, chronic Rocky Mountain Spotted Fever and more, so we had our work cut out for us.
After the first 6 months, we agreed I would start on the "Chronic Tonic" herbs that can be found on page 77 of this pdf:
/drive.google.com/file/d/0B20M_MOnUSWJdWNUeXRBSWpFeU0/view?usp=sharing Although my Practitioner had me make the medicinal tea differently, I used all the herbs listed and in the amounts listed. Here is the link to how I made the CT on my own:
www.healingwell.com/community/default.aspx?f=30&m=3244272 . It only took 2 months of using this medicinal tea before I started really feeling some decent improvements in my symptoms.I used this medicinal tea for a total of a full 12 months.
Three months after starting the 'Chronic Tonic', we added in Houttuynia - also made into a medicinal tea for my Bartonella infection. I used this medicinal tea for a total of 9 months and finished the same time as I finished my Lyme treatment. At this point I didn't seem to have many symptoms of either infection left, although it was obvious that my nerves hadn't healed yet.
We started treatment for Babesia, which proved to be quite stubborn for me. We used many herbs - often changing them every 2 weeks, tons of acupuncture and many changes in my diet to help me get through. This is also why it's taking me so long to put together what all I did for Babesia - there were so many herbs that were used to support the different organs I was having issues with, like my spleen, liver, (always) intestines, even my kidneys for a while. After treating for a full 12 months, we decided it was time to take that nerve racking 'trial run' without any treatments, only life had a way of really testing me.
My Father-in-law was doing quite poorly due to Alzheimer's disease. He had been living alone, and although family was just across the driveway, he was good at hiding how he was declining. Once it was discovered how poorly he was really doing, my husband and I set out and remodeled a bedroom (
) and moved him in - to my delight.
I had been hoping that he would come to live with us actually! It was only for 3 months, but it was the most intense 3 months that I have ever lived, as he deteriorated very quickly. The last 2 weeks, hubby and I slept in rotation, usually 2 or 3 hours at a time, as it quite literally took both of us to keep up with his care and my Father-in law passed here at our home. I had very little sleep during that time and was quite concerned that my infections would all come roaring back due to the stress. To my absolute delight and surprise, I did not relapse - although I did spend some time waiting for the 'other shoe to drop'!
The interesting thing was that my stress levels didn't end there. Both a blessing and a hard thing, one of our dairy goats delivered triplets the very same day that my Father-in-law passed - only she waited until late evening, so I was up until the wee hours. So chores started too! Feedings for the babies start at 5 times a day for the first week, plus having to milk the Doe twice a day - then 10 days later our other goat delivered twins......at 2 am!! I was pretty tired, but never like I had experienced with these infections. So while I was amazed and awed, I was also incredibly happy that I had managed to make it through all of that without any relapse!!
So now I'm just over a year after all of that and still doing well - despite menopause setting in this year as well.