SHAKING HANDS WITH LYME A Vision Quest - through the Wilderness of Lyme Disease “Blessed are the souls - who having solved the paradox of pain, come through to joy again“. On United Nations Day, as I showered, I felt what I thought to be a skin tag from a scratch high up on the inside of my thigh,. I looked down and saw a big red spot with a darker spot in the middle. This discovery was to lead me on a frightening and challenging journey. In fact I started this blog a bit too early. I had no idea of the confusion and lack of focus which would come over me both from the reactivated lyme which doctors told me I’d probably had most of my life, and from the 10 week antibiotic treatment which many lyme patients told me was not long enough. I am still en route…unsure of my final destination but mostly full of hope and a deep commitment to reclaiming my health & my life. I recently stated to myself first, and increasingly to others: “I may come out of this with better health than I had before !” 2/19/12 The Doxycycline, antibiotic of choice for lyme treatment - caused me to feel really dizzy and queasy after a while. A very long standing Digestive problem did clear up while I was on the it though. When I stopped the doxy I quickly scrambled to set up a program to hold the infiltration of the lyme disease into my body at bay. I knew I’d have to fine hone it in time. I envisioned that my 2 doctors: allopathic, and naturopathic & I would arrive at a plan in time, but I felt a need to hold back the invasion as well as I could until I researched enough to know what I was dealing with. Beginning with childhood I’d had a lot of health challenges. I almost died when I was 8 (in Italy) from a “virus”. I developed an incredibly high fever, shakes, headache and convulsions , which resulted on my being rushed to the hospital where the prognosis was not good. My father was told I might die. When I came to this country at age 8, I was vaccinated before departure from Genoa, Italy. In NYC for some reason (perhaps papers were misplaced), I was given the vaccines all over again. Most health conscious people are by now aware of the dangers of vaccines. Throughout my childhood I suffered many sore throats and cold viruses and was frequently put on antibiotics, a way many begin a downward spiral as their beneficial bacterias are diminished right along with the harmful ones. Fortunately my insistence on keeping my tonsils was honored. This was not due to fear but to a deep feeling that my tonsils were guardians at the gate, an important part of my immune system. I still have them. My life was full of change, insecurity and traumatic experiences from childhood on. Childhood traumatic experiences can deeply affect how our immune system responds to threat and attack. When I was 2 my parents made an arrangement to leave me with my babysitter as they began to emigrate the family (2 parents and 6 children) to the U.S. I was not to see my mother and some of my siblings again for another 6 years. Once in this country and reunited the family was hopeful and excited to be together again. Several months later my brother and sister 19 & 20 were at someone else’s house when a fire took their lives as they tried to rescue the children of the house. This pattern of what seemed to me and anyone familiar with my life to be excessive shocks, difficult circumstances and tough luck persevered and continued throughout the rest of my life, with among the difficult times: a house fire of our own where we lost everything, a miscarriage, a cancer diagnosis while pregnant with my middle child, the severe illness of one of my children, the premature death of my brother from misperceived medication, a divorce, and more than I feel like continuing to list. In spite of this I see my life as having been a great gift and view it as a joyous life, even now as I‘m shaking hands with lyme. Over the years as I continued through life, I was diagnosed with a variety of syndromes, viruses and conditions, among them were: Epstein Barr virus, Chronic Fatigue Syndrome, Fybromyalgia, severe Candidiatis, Hypothyroidism, which was untreated despite my pleas for many years for more specific tests - and so turned into Hashimoto’s Disease. I also was diagnosed with cervical cancer while pregnant with my second child. I mentioned this in my about me segment of my blog but not everyone reads those. Although my 4th opinion, a prestigious medical center’s oncology/(cancer) clinic recommended aborting the fetus and giving me a radical hysterectomy followed by radiation & chemo I accepted no procedures or treatment. The doctor’s prognosis was that the fetus which I so foolishly insisted on calling the baby (I was 4 and a half months pregnant by then, would have no mother because I would die. Too many doctors view the letters of their degree MD as really meaning medical deity. They then deliver medical prophecies. I said Sayonara went home and created a plan to heal and save myself & my baby. This included spiritual, mental, emotional, vibrational & physical aspects. Six weeks after my son Ben was born, I was given a deep cone biopsy and no cancer was found. I am as of this date in proud posession of all my female body parts and still cancer free. The ‘fetus’ is now over 30 and has a brother. Back to the Lyme: When my naturopath told me she wanted to put me on the Cowden Protocol at first I was relieved. There was a PROTOCOL !!! That sounded very official & sure. When she told me that it would cost 600 $ a month I was devastated and said sadly that my family budget couldn’t accommodate such an expensive treatment. Being the compassionate and caring soul she is, she consulted with the head of her pharmacy/apothecary offered me a very generous discount. This was still expensive for our budget. I’m 62 and took early retirement due to my various diagnosis. I said I’d have to go home and talk to my husband. I went home and researched and was suspicious to find that the Cowden Protocol was comprised of time tested and honored botanicals which had attracted the attention of Big Pharma for years and which had been altered by nutramedix, in my opinion in order to allow the company to patent a natural substance. Stephen Buhner one of the first pioneers in acknowledging researching and treating lyme, has this to say in answer to a question about Samento on his website : “Stephen’s response: “… some people don’t respond well to samento. I personally believe that TOA-free cat’s claw does create more side effects than the whole herb does and I have seen this before. Just stop using it.” Stephen Nutramedix, the company which sells the Cowden Protocol (among other health products) is a Filipino owned company founded in 1993 . It’s reported (by their own website ) to be owned by a variety of investors; in their own words: “ a group of dedicated, professional and value-based Filipino entrepreneurs.” They cite their principals(owners) to be : “DUOPHARMA PHILIPPINES, INC. was organized on December 12, 1988 by a group of dedicated, professional and value-based Filipino entrepreneurs of high quality injectables ranging from antibiotics, anesthetics, analgesics, gastrointestinals, neuroleptics, corticosteroids, diuretics, vitamins, oxytocics and other hormones. PNF PHARMACEUTICALS INC. Founded on July 24, 1985. We at PNF PHARMA had one vision which is to combine high quality of standard of branded medicines and the cost effectiveness every Filipino longs for. We believe that quality should never be compromised. ROTEX PHARMA, established on January 31, 2006 by Filipino entrepreneurs. With a dynamic management team with its global strategy, our products became widely known among medical professionals, clinics, hospitals, medical centers as well as sanitariums in both governments and in the private sector. “ Just as I suspected the Cowden Protocol is designed by Big Pharma. The studies mentioned to me by enthusiastic proponents of the Cowden Principle are funded by Nutramedix and are all in vitro (in test tube) . That does not impress or convince me of their efficiency as I’ve read over and over that lyme disease affects everyone differently and in my opinion the course and impact of bacteria, microbes, viruses and disease in a human body can’t be duplicated in a test tube. My research has validated my decision. I have full confidence in my decision to pass on the Cowden Protocol and I keep finding more and more validation to support that decision. 4/10/12 The treatment plan I’ve designed for myself is keeping me from sliding further down the lyme rabbit hole. In fact it’s helping me to emerge, and as I hoped & predicted I feel as if I’m doing so with the result of better health than I had before ! I do have knee and hip and hand & back pain but it’s not new and my protocol has caused it to greatly improve over time. I do have some vagueness and brain fog but it too has improved significantly. Good days and bad days and in between days. Lately I feel as if I did a surface dive, while swimming - into some very dark unknown waters, and I am now re-surfacing, seeing the light and enjoying better health than before. I have designated every day in my life as healing day, And everything I think, do or engage in has to contribute and/or conform to my single minded purpose to be as well as possible in all areas of my life: spiritual, emotional, mental & physical. If you didn’t read the “about me” info, I’ve been a hypnotist since 1990. I first became acquainted with self - hypnosis at the suggestion of my former husband when he found out about my cancer diagnosis. He sent me a book on it. It was a huge help to my mental & emotional outlook and as I became adept at guided imagery and visualization I believe it saved my life and that of my son and is an integral part of my everyday life. My First Protocol : In the A.M. I drink Chai tea and take my thyroid med for Hashimoto’s, an autoimmune disease which I developed due to my allopathic doctor's refusal to give me more specific tests for the thyroid condition I intuited I had. I live in the backwoods of Vermont and wake up early , between 5 and 7 most mornings. Immediately after making my Carrying my cup pf tea I take my dogs out and often watch the sun come up while drinking it in my beautiful back yard. This sometimes feels like a hardship in below freezing weather, but it’s one of my blessings as well. It gets me up and out into the fresh air, wakes me up better than coffee and allows me a meditative waking up in tandem with the waking up of my world. If the sun is coming up when I go out I receive it’s rays in my eyes which stops melatonin output for the day and increases melatonin production for sleep for that night. When I come in I put on healing music by Dr. Steven HAlpern or any of the healing music composers I resonate to. I believe strongly in vibrational healing. Later in the morning I switch to the energizing music from my high school days. I once read a report about research done by a Harvard psychologists which supported the healing influence of listening to music from our younger healthier days. I have a vita light full spectrum light which I used to use when I was injured and couldn’t go out. Helps with seasonal depression. I should bring it out for rainy April days - although I love to walk in the rain, I need the light every day and ought to return to supplementing myself with that. Before I go out I take my DLPA which is an amino acid which I take for a variety of reasons, pain reduction being the primary one. It also helps depression and the building of muscle and diminishes appetite. I then take a glucosamine for repairing tendons & ligaments and a Serrapeptase and a nittokanese, proalytic enzymes which are said to be very efficient in dissolving the biofilm of the spirochetes. A half hour to an hour later I take grapefruit seed extract, 1,000 to 2,000 mgs of vitamin C with Rose hips and bioflavonoid, a Tbsp. of coconut oil, 1 Tbsp of liquid chlorophyll a tsp of pumpkin seed oil. Later I drink Puehr tea, detox tea or Pau D’Arco tea throughout the morning. A friend gave me Essiac tonic so I add a squirt of that to the tea. As I explained I address the destroying of the spirochetes protective skin, and then destroy them. I’m more concerned though with building up my system and my health in order to create an inhospitable terrain for the spirochetes and lyme co-infections. After the supplements, I make a good breakfast to build up my system. As someone visiting me once said I rarely put anything in my mouth which will not contribute to my health. I also rarely eat anything I don’t want or like very much. Everything I eat is multigrain. I really don’t like white bread & rice & pasta. I eat 2 eggs from a farm every morning with facon which if I ate a lot wouldn’t be good for me as it’s made of soy which depresses the thyroid. But I love the taste and I don’t deny myself. A slice of multigrain bread and one cup of black coffee lately after the chai tea. I then take a multi, a zinc, and a drop of vitamin D oil. Before my daily morning shower I use a practice called dry brushing, said to stimulate the lymph system. Here’s a good link to an explanation of it. Dr. Andrew Weil isn’t into it. I’m not into Weil anyway, having found some writings of his which I totally disagree with. Dr. Klein In my shower I use a liquid castile soap to which I’ve added aromatherapy herbs which influence various issues vibrationally: to help mefocus, relieve the depression this new challenge of lyme activated in me at first, and to diminish nervousness which lyme seemed to each initiate in a big way but which has now abated. I use lavender, grapefruit, neroli, peppermint orange chamomile & vetiver. It smells great ! I’ve also practiced hydrotherapy since I was 14 or 15. For me it’s a meditative practice and a health practice. I never knew that submitting oneself to cold water was a part of a Japanese meditative practice called misogi. My mother’s mother was Japanese so it tickled me that I had unwittingly adopted a practice of my ancestors. After my shower I diminish the hot water and augment the cold. I only do it in the morning as cold water lowers, interrupts or stops melatonin production.