Blakeleysmom said...
Anyway, my question is, that even though I feel for her situation and am doing her all I know to be a good caretaker, that constant statement is playing over and over. I usually respond with “I know. I am so sorry.” But that could be 20 times a day.
To those of you living this out, how should I respond to this? I sometimes ask her to describe it or say something encouraging to her but what is she needing to hear from me by constantly telling me “I don’t feel good.”
I know this is a lonely place to be. Any advice?
Supplements that ease the mind if she has anxiety, supplements that bring down inflammation if it's pain that's causing her to keep saying she doesn't feel good. Also supplements and things that help her to detox, whether it's drinking lots of water, drinking baking soda and water. Warm epsom salt bathes... Detoxing with alka seltzer/baking soda, which is what Dr. H says can instantly flush out both herxing toxins and antibiotics to help the patient instantly feel better. For the mind if she has anxiety, alpha lipoic acid, milk thistle, and magnesium glycinate or magnesium citrate can bring down the anxiety, especially magnesium for anxiety. We're starting to find out through studies that an imbalanced microbiome can cause anxiety in the mind as well, just taking probioitcs and eating kefir or yogurt may make her mind feel better. For pain, CBD oil worked the best for me. However, CBD also made my anxiety worse when my bartonella sprung up, so gotta be careful. Turmeric/Curcumin is good for pain.
Finding something to keep the mind busy is great too, reading a book, watching tv, even playing video games, but has to be things that are relaxing. Even just hanging outside, watching the birds, walking. Some of these things might sound so basic, but for a lot of us, basic becomes the norm when you can function in doing normal day things.
Just talking to her like you're doing, communicating, always trying to sooth her mind, never stop believing her symptoms and what she's telling you. For many, I mean many families get broken up because many family members start believing the symptoms are psychosomatic or it's just all in their head, even traditional uneducated Doctors will say this and convince people, always keep supporting her. For some parents, because they don't understand the science behind this chronic disease, how resistant coinfections like bartonella and babesia can be, as well as the role biofilms play and borrelia persister cells. Many just don't understand how treating an infection for 5 years, even 10 years can last so long for some patients.
Many marriages gets ruined because a husband doesn't believe an infection can last this long after her wife contracts lyme, even vise versa, Yolanda Foster and Shania Twain come to mind, both husbands basically started cheating on both of them. I know your daughter is 17 and not married, but it's the same thing with parents with a child who has lyme. Soon as family members stop being supportive, that's when bad stuff happens. From my experience and studying this disease for a decade, men are the worse for having empathy for others, understanding the science behind things like chronic lyme disease or even climate change. By no suprise to me, for a lot of these protests, whether it be for chronic lyme or global warming, it's the women out there marching and helping others. It's the reality of what's going on... I've read many cases where wives take their husbands to court, because the husbands don't believe in chronic lyme and longterm antibiotic treatment or don't want to put out the money for longterm antibiotic treatment, a lot of times the husbands just want to treat their daughter or son on xanax or some autoimmune drug. Just yesterday, a woman posted on one of the Facebook coinfection groups I'm in how she's battling her husband. Ya know luckily more states are passing laws to make sure longterm antibiotic treatment is ok at the legal level. I'm a man, been around plenty of alpa males my whole life, I also am one I guess, as most would probably say, so I know men. You have to be prepared for all of this...
Luckily there's new drugs and herbs we can use to combat these coinfections, along with the biofilm busters like stevia and xylitol, as well as persister cell drugs like dapsone, pyrazinamide, and disulfiram which can extremely shorten the length of treatment. Just like pyrazinamide does for drug resistant tuberculosis. Read up on Dr. H in New York, Dr. J in Washington DC, Dr. B who is retired, and even what Dr. Stephen Buhner and Dr. Rawls use herbs for particular coinfections. Because the shorter the treatment is for your daughter's lyme and she reaches remission, easier it will be for her mind, body, and overall well being, so she can get back to her normal life. Because most of the LLMDs in my home state of Michigan were uneducated in coinfections like babesia, they basically never used the proper antiparasitic drug or even long enough treatment to eradicate this coinfection Babesia for me, I suffered for many years. There's a lot more herbs and drugs out there now that LLMDs and Herbalists are using compared to when a lot of us veteran lyme members got bitten 8-10 years ago, please make use of them, like the Byron White formulas and CSA Formula, etc... Artensunate, Daraprim, Coartem, Alinia, Bactrim...
You have to read up on what herb works for what coinfection, as well as the antibiotics, maybe even combine antibiotics and herbs at times. 6 months just isn't a very long time if she has chronic lyme and part of the battle isn't just using herbs and antibiotics longterm, but also keeping a healthy mind through the years of depression, anxiety, and even rage. Herxing alone from each type of coinfection can bring on all these different cognitive symptoms, for bartonella, anxiety and rage can get really bad. Babesia, fatigue and depression are common.
However, everyone's different and some do get better in a shorter period time, especially if you caught lyme early. But many, I mean many lyme patients are also contracting coinfections, so it's making it much harder to treat.
And if your daughter has neurological lyme or bartonella, aka neuroborreliosis and neurobartonellosis, a lot of her cognitive problems, even if it's just anxiety, depression and brain fog won't get better until you start using the antibiotics that cross the blood brain barrier: minocycline, roxy, omnicef, rifampin, dapsone etc.. Know the antibiotics that do cross the blood brain barrier. And know that some antibiotics when taken in higher dosages like doxycycline, help increase the chances of more of the drug crossing the blood brain barrier, even Amoxy. Even taking antibiotics then sitting in a hot bath tub can increase the absorption rate, even walking/running can help circulate the antibiotics through the body. Some Doctors like Dr. B, believe unless you exercise, you'll never reach remisison. I know some are so disabled they can't do anything, but with time and treatment, you should get better to the point where you can, even if it's just walking. And exercise releases endorphins in your mind to fight depression and anxiety, as well as increase oxygen to kill borrelia. A lot of this stated by Dr. B, one of the top LLMDs in the country. Even though he's been retired for quite awhile, everything he says still applies to modern day chronic lyme.
https://www.prohealth.com/library/evergreen_pages/lyme-disease-exerciseDr. B on ProHealth.com said...
Exercise is an essential component of any Lyme disease treatment plan. Despite antibiotic treatments, patients will NOT return to normal unless they exercise, so therefore an aggressive rehab program is absolutely necessary,” states Lyme specialist Dr. Joseph Burrascano, Jr. “It is a fact that a properly executed exercise program can actually go beyond the antibiotics in helping to clear the symptoms and to maintain a remission.
Be sure and watch this video, as well as the Under Our Skin Documentaries. Tie your husband down with duck tape and have him watch Under Our Skin in order for him to understand, as some women might have to do this, lol.
https://vimeo.com/306846706The one thing your daughter has going for her very strongly is her age, for whatever reason, I've heard that teenagers and adults in their 20s seem to fight chronic lyme and its coinfections a lot easier, probably has a lot to do with the immune system, overall health and hormones, etc... And being on a healthy dies helps, many go gluten free, also low carbs, lots of vegetables, whole foods and meat, no processed foods, which overall helps mental health, body, and inflammation. You may have to cut out dairy too, I did in early stages of lyme treatment, know I eat plenty of kefir and yogurt.
Post Edited (Charlie55) : 9/9/2019 5:27:19 AM (GMT-6)