are you happy every single day despite being sick?

LOL!! Well, thank you for the giggles, IHL!! And thank you so much for your kind words.

Looking back and testing my Mom's memory (LOL!), we determined that I had RMSF (the spotless variety!) at the age of 7, late stage Bartonella at the age of 8, and Lyme arthritis (a late stage symptom) at the age of 9. Although I had 1 full year of abx in 2007 - I didn't get effective treatments until 2010 - so that means that I was 47 when I got effective treatments. I'm 51 now, turning 52 next summer.

LOL! Yes, in many ways I've always been very giving, others - not so much!! I've learned a lot, been humbled by many things in my life - which hasn't been the easiest, but definitely not the hardest.

Thank you for the compliment of appearing to be an old soul!! I've been told that a handful of times. I see it as a very large compliment.

But what keeps me here is that this is the first place I found that I felt comfortable and then I started making friends through this forum - there are two wonderful friends that I still am in pretty close contact with that I met here - one is Deejavu (my detoxing guru! She helped me get started with detoxing and we had to get really creative because my body wouldn't detox!). The other person is no longer on here, as she started a support group in her area and now helps in other places.

When I landed here, I was scared, very ill and had no clue about any of this! I was so very compromise cognitively that I had to have someone explain every little detail of things, and many times it still took days for me to understand. I got so bad that I couldn't figure out how to post for almost a year. So I have a 'soft spot' for newbies and for those that are really sick and/or really scared. I was once one of them and someone took my hand - well actually several someone's - and walked me through this stuff.

I actually can't sleep if I see a post from a new member and they don't understand what's going on or how to deal with it. One reason why I have to sign off early evening - I have to decompress in a way, or I'd be on here day and night, doing all I could to help.

What it's taught me is that I really do love to help people all I can. I get taken advantage of sometimes, but mostly I get lots of 'rewards', like your so very kind words, that keep me going and wanting to help more people.

NO. I am not happy every day despite being sick!! I had some really bad days for about 2 weeks just recently as I was dealing with increasing depression, but no one here needs or deserves to deal with my nasty moods, so if I can't play well with others that day, I try not to post much.

Everyone here needs compassion, not a Mod with a nasty attitude! LOL!

There are more details about my treatment in the thread that the link in my signature line if you are interested.

And what has humbled me the most? Words of gratitude for me being here, doing what little I can to help from members like you.

I am new here to this forum, 2 weeks actually.
I immediately recognized traveler as a incredible soul and someone I would take refuge with!

On a side note but related subject........I Thank God that I found this Website!!

I to would like to thank you, for your kindness.

Traveler,

What do you think the most important thing for healing is? It's not antibiotics or supplements is it...?

I don't know why the detoxing stuff isn't working for me. I think I need to work on my diet. I can't get in the car and drive myself to the grocery store.. The rest of my family doesn't want to eat that way either..

I feel swollen and blocked up. I feel like I need iv fluids to flush my system out.

I pee maybe 40 times a day, no joke! It's not uncommon for me to go no. 2 four to six times a day. I don't think my body is absorbing anything. I'm taking dgl which is supposed to help.. The throwing up all the time too makes me think my body just doesn't have the energy to deal with nutrients. I feel like I'm too far gone and I'm never going to make any progress. I've lost 13 pounds since july. I'm only 92 pounds and my attitude sucks.

I need help....!!!!

Traveler-Thanks for all the great advice on here, your positive outlook and inspirational messages are a truly a blessing.

IHL-I never threw up while I've been sick, but during my worst Herxes I've been nauseous all day, and didn't feel like I could eat. On the worst days I was able to eat soup, heated on the stove, not the microwave.

For some reason, making it extra spicy with Cayenne and Habanero pepper sauces helped the nausea for a little while too. I also would add in some Lyme

healthy herbs/spices like garlic, turmeric, cumin, and oregano, even some saffron at times, although I don't know if that's good for Lyme and co-infections, but its

supposed to be great for your health overall. On the worst days I would eat nothing but soup, 2 or 3 a day.

I've also found that drastically changing my diet on my better days has helped me to detox and not Herx as badly. I've eliminated as much gluten as possible, cut way back on other carbs, started eating freshly cooked meat and less frozen

foods, and more veggies and vegetable juice, and every once in a while some fruit or fruit juice, but seriously limiting my sugar intake, especially refined sugars.

I've eliminated all dairy, except for Plain Greek Yogurt or cottage cheese. I still have coffee, which doesn't seem to affect me, but I have it with coconut or almond milk.

I would think that trying as many detox methods as possible will help too, til you find something that seems to really help and stick with it.

I hope you feel better soon.

By blocked up I mean.... I feel swollen and slow. Like it's taking my body forever to do anything. I feel aloof

For those w/ constant urination issues: this used to be me for years!
I don't have this problem anymore; it's a miracle, really.

Here's what I did for the kidneys & bladder:
AZO Cranberry Supplements also works for people who get recurrent
UTIs
Nettle Tea, Dandelion Root tea, Ginger tea
Juniper berry tincture added to my Buhner tinctures
If not doing Buhner's lyme protocol,
you could still take the juniper berry tincture with bidens pilosa tincture.

For feeling slow & sluggish: perhaps you need a good lymph stimulant.
Some herbals for this are: Calendula, Poke Root

For overall immune help: ashwagandha, siberian ginseng, rhodiola
Root, cordyceps & reishi (viruses). You don't have to take all of them. I take ash, sib gin - I've taken the others in the past.

Motherwort tincture is AMAZING for worry & helps me sleep at night.

The edema, or feeling of swolleness, has only improved for me since adding IV Rocephin 5 weeks ago (after 1 1/2 years of multiple abx & 10 months of added herbal tinctures not healing me, not even close)
IV Rocephin was the only thing that helped that for me.
For me, it may have been swelling from the lyme & lyme arthritis.
But, others do skin brushing, epsom baths- these didn't control my slow, swollen, heaviness at all.

For throwing up:
I had this terribly during my acute attack last year to the point of starvation & anorexia, so I can relate to the misery:
There is a pink liquid that saved my life that is an rx from the doctor-
CARAFATE.
This rx saved my life.

And Traveler, you are an AMAZING SUPPORT!

Post Edited (Usedtogarden) : 11/10/2014 6:31:22 PM (GMT-7)

IHL have you tried bone broth at all? The name sounds gross but essentially it's broth or stock. I make mine with either organic chicken or grass fed beef soup bones. I put all sorts of herbs and veggies in with the bones and cook it in my slow cooker for at least 24 hours, strain it and the drink it like a tea. Good way to get easy to digest minerals and good stuff into your body. Just a thought. I hope you start to feel better soon.

That is an awesome idea greenblue! It does sound gross but it's really good. Thanks!

LOL! Thank you all for your kind words. I'm here to learn and to get through this just like you - it's just this "old soul" is getting old!! LOL! I've been here since 2007, I'm now over 15,000 posts and past the age of 50 now! You know that old saying? If I had known I was going to live this long, I'd have taken better care of my body? LOL! I wish I could have!!


Cairn - On over doing the detoxing - I discovered that I could do just that, especially when I was just starting to detox - both times I was infected! There is a "sweet spot" to detoxing, when you are detoxing enough to allow healing, yet not so much that you have more toxins in your blood stream that it makes you herx again! But the hard part is that it will be different for each of us.

Herxing lets us know that our bodies have a high toxin load and that it's really struggling with it. The more severe the herx, the more toxins you have - but the little buggars are mostly hiding out in our tissues, joints, organs. Only a certain amount will be found in the blood stream, unless you start detoxing.

This "releases" the toxins from their 'holding places' in our tissues/joints/organs and moves them into the blood stream so that the body can process them (starting with the lymph nodes, which is why the get 'clogged' & need help too sometimes) out of the blood and into our liver, kidney's or skin to be pushed out of the body from there.

So if we ramp up our detoxing efforts too quickly, we will be releasing a larger amount of toxins into our blood stream than our bodies can process out fast enough. For those with very high toxin loads, this can mean seizures or worse - so do be careful. This is known as a cytokine storm.

For most of us though, it just means that we will feel even worse if we detox too fast. For me it meant a 3 day migraine!! Bad enough for me! I got just one this time when I had to restart my treatments - and I backed down on my detoxing. I stayed in the herx for 3 weeks as I slowly ramped up my detoxing until my symptoms were down to a low roar. More time in treatment (3 months now for me) and continued detoxing, and my symptoms are down to a nuisance most of the time now- except the depression - I had to do something about that as it was ramping up too fast. So I backed down on the detoxing I'm doing (not doing it all every single day, but multiple times a week), and I've found my "sweet spot" for now. If I have stress, don't get enough sleep or something else happens, then I will raise my detoxing back up until my symptoms are down again.

I hope that sheds some light on something that I've learned the hard way - - like most of what we have to learn to heal!

Lyme Pickle - LOL! Some days though..... I don't function well at all!! I didn't sleep well one night last weekend, and you would have thought I was really in bad shape!! LOL! I have to keep everything in balance.

Yes, I took Minocycline - either 600 or 900 mgs a day. I don't remember if it was 200 mgs or 300 mgs, but I do remember taking it three times a day and everyone on here telling me it was much too much - but I was seeing a very highly regarded LLMD - Dr. Edwin Masters - RIP (of whom STARI was renamed to Master's Disease for) - he has passed away due to complications of Diabetes though, so I can mention him by name on here.

Okay, so now I"m the only one in the room, but I'm quite literally blushing!! I'm very happy - and feel somewhat useful - that my posts have helped anyone, much less so many. Thank you all for your kind words. It really helps me to deal with what I went through for so many years when I know that it's helping others. So thank you. But - I am only one of the people that make this a wonderful forum!!

We do have great Mods here though!! They are always here to help!! And never forget that this forum wouldn't be what it is without it's members - all of you!!! You all help each other discover what it going on and how to get around it or fix it. I've learned numerous lessons and too many things to mention.

So thank you to each and every one of you for being willing to share with all of us what you have gone through and how you have healed and what you did!! Without you, this forum would be very lonely, let me tell you!! LOL!!!