Hi Clsrmsa!
Welcome to our community!! I'm so glad you found us.
If you haven't yet, it would be helpful for you to start with reading through the thread at the top of the forum titled,"New to Lyme?...Start here!!", as it is packed full of important information, symptom lists, helpful links and pdf's, how to detox when one has these infections, information on probiotics and much more. And this is another good list of possible detoxing routines:
www.tiredoflyme.com/detox-methods.html I'm another one that was misdiagnosed with MS before finally finding a doctor that recognized Lyme symptoms for what they were. I went 37 yrs undiagnosed and 40 yrs without effective treatment. The LLMD that I saw diagnosed me with every tick-borne infection out there. That was one rough day to get through!
While everyone is very different, no one can tell if you will need to take time off from your studies. It depends on what infections you have, how well your body detoxes, and how well it responds to the specific meds used.
With the experience that I had personally, and what I've watched others go through, here is what I believe needs to happen for many of us to heal:
a)Detoxing - gene mutations, mold exposure and multiple tick-borne infections can all prevent us from detoxing well, but we must be able to get those toxins out of our bodies. We need to detox by several means daily, as detoxing has a cumulative effect - the more you do, the better your body is at keeping those toxins flowing.
I have not had any of the gene mutation testing done, although I do seem to have the same kind of issues as those that do - so I figured it was best for me to assume that I did and work to get my body to detox much better. It took a lot of diet changes as things with my body changed,
I use a foot soak,
dry skin brushing,
Lymph massages as needed,
making sure my bowels moved at least once a day (sorry if it's TMI!)
pushing myself to drink at least 64 ounces of lemon water each and every day,
liver/gall bladder flushes (all natural) as needed,
Apple cider vinegar,
Quercetin,
oil pulling with coconut oil and a few drops of tea tree oil,
using Yogi brand detox tea,
taking activated charcoal (when necessary),
and keeping the amount of stress in my life at a bare minimum.
But, there is such a thing as over detoxing, which can bring on a herx as well. Most of our toxins are in our tissues/organs, not in our bloodstream, so we have to do methods that will help 'release them' and move them into our bloodstream so they can be detoxed out. Over detoxing is when we move more toxins into the bloodstream than can easily be detoxed out by our body. So there's a careful balance that we must maintain between killing bacteria (which creates more toxins) and detoxing so that we can still be functional.This is why we suggest adding in more detoxing methods slowly (no more than 1 new routine every 3 - 5 days), and stop adding in more when you seem to be feeling okay or good.
b)Supporting the body functions/systems. We have to have the body working at it's peak performance to heal from something as devastating as these infections. Supporting any gland, organ, body system that is struggling will allow the body to switch it's 'concentration' from just trying to function over to healing.
c) Raise the immune function. Many legitimate Lyme researchers now believe that it's the lowered immune function that determines who gets chronic Lyme and who heals right away. We already know that Lyme lowers the immune function and when a person has Bartonella and/or Babesia, the immune function is further compromised, so to heal we must raise our immune function.
d) Lastly, oddly enough, are anti-infective treatments. Many of us have experienced treatment failures or set backs, so we can see that the treatments aren't the only thing we need to have - there has to be more to the equation, but anti-infective treatments are very important!! Lyme bacteria are one of the most complicated bacteria! Although it takes only hours or days for most bacteria to replicate, Lyme bacteria only replicates in the body every few weeks.
As Yancync said, lesions on your brain and spine are not uncommon at all with Lyme - but a doctor that is not up on the more recent findings with these infections rarely ever suspect them, no matter how much evidence is shown for the person having them - even if they have a fully CDC positive test in their hands.
These infections can make us incredibly ill (I was bed ridden for periods of time, as well as many other issues), but we don't belong in a hospital usually, as they won't give the necessary treatments and often give meds like steroids or other immunosuppressive drugs that actually work against our healing.