Lyme vs female issues vs stress...

Im trying to get to the root cause of this sudden Lyme flare. As I mentioned, I have had Lyme for years and most of the time it is under control with my meds and just something that's a minor inconvienence. Lately I can't control the symptoms.

I guess the flaring started a couple of months ago. I got it under control and it was followed by the start of my woman cycle which was too early, too heavy and wouldn't go away. I had to call my obgyn who put me on birth control pills to stop the bleeding. It did stop within a day but after a week or so I had these side effects that I had no idea were happening but after realizing it was coming from these pills I had to stop. It was extreme nausea, insomnia and a very bad mood all the time.

This month I am having a bad flare and my cycle just happens to be now. I know I had bad flare ups a few weeks after having my last two babies. Does anyone know the exact correlation with the Lyme and hormones? Does the Lyme affect the hormones or hormones affect the Lyme?

And I just had to hear a lecture from my mom because she thinks I do too much and that's the reason my body is breaking down. While I'm feeling well I am, taking care of the 4 kids, I homeschool, I teach dance classes 3 nights a week for just one hour but there is lots of preparation and choreography and getting back to parents that I do from home. I make the dresses that my girls wear at dance. I make a lot of my own kids' clothing. I was supposed to make several clothing gifts for family for Christmas, that's going to have to be out the window. I keep our little mobile home very clean and neat and am always sweeping, wiping, etc. It's so hard to keep it clean with 4 kids under 10. I have a dog and chickens to take care of too. Sometimes road trips to RI to see family, so that's 3 hours away. Does this sound like a huge amount of things? My mother said I need to shave anything extra off. I had plans to do a lot of holiday baking that sounds out the window too. At dance for holidays I was going to take one week vacation from classes, maybe I should do almost two. I do feel the need to be everything and do everything for everybody. I like to make things. It's hard to not be able to do things....

ETA: It's not like I don't have downtime, I do. I watch movies, I sit online, I take long baths where I read or watch a movie on my phone. I will admit that even during downtime I am worried about something else that needs to be done.

Awww, 4 kids under 10? That right there is exhausting.

Stress and hormones both can affect lyme. Gosh the moon and weather can effect lyme.

This time of year can especially affect those of us with lyme.

I can suggest a fun craft that your kids can do to help out making gifts. Salt dough ornaments. I made those with a 3 year old and she did fine. Just salt dough and a cookie cutter, paint and a ribbon through a hole. You will have to cook them in the oven and make sure they dry or they will mold if not dried sufficiently.

Kids love making things and they can paint the baked product with non-toxic paints.

Samantha whipped out about 20 ornaments in no time. It was a good project and those ornaments last. My favorite is her little hand print.... precious and it went to her grandma.

Thank you PeteZa!

They would love that, my oldest, the only girl loves crafts and she's very helpful. She keeps asking if I'm better.

I want to be able to do all kinds of fun Christmas things with them.

One other thing we're not worrying about all of December is the homeschool. We're taking over a month long holiday break, we do this every year and they do double days of schoolwork in the fall to prepare for a break.

I do have some holiday performances coming up for my dance classes and I'm definitely not feeling it. There's so much to do and I'm totally blah over here.

So good to talk to all of you...my husband is sometimes sympathetic or helpful but I know a lot of times he doesn't truly understand. You don't get it unless you get it.

Off topic but that happened with my mom. She thought I was just depressed the first time or being a hypochondriac and when I was finally diagnosed I was telling my parents and my mom actually left the room. She just didn't care. Then a couple years later she became incredibly sick with Lyme. I heard she was crying and saying, "I can't believe I didn't listen to Holly" because she felt like she was dying and losing her mind.

And my best friend also got Lyme after me. But the difference was she was the only one listening and sympathetic to me before she caught it.

From my own experiences and from what I've read, Lyme loves weak areas - so scar tissue is evidence of a weakened area in the body - and scar tissue is harder for things of the body to penetrate, but not these bacteria due to their corkscrew shape, so yes, scar tissue is one of the favored places for the bacteria.

The stabbing pains in my abdomen have been from intestinal issues mainly - but I know this for sure because I had a hysto at an early age (24), so there's been no uterus to have pains! See if you can connect the stabbing pains to something else, like bowel issues, or only just before your period or something like that. It will help you identify what's hurting and if it needs to be checked out.

Been busy might be a bad thing or a good thing... depending if you get a solid rest after that. Make sure that you go to sleep early, so you catch as much deep sleep as possible.

Stress affects methylation cycle and deprives the body of the micro-nutrients which is never a good thing especially when Lyme is around. It's a good idea to check Mg, D and B levels to supplement where's needed and find a time to mediate once or twice each day. Even 10 minutes goes very far in reducing stress.