Dance On!

I saw my doc two weeks ago and although it was a day when I was having an episode of Malaria/Babesia (we’ve decide to call it that since no test so far has been conclusive of either, but I never had these symptoms until I came home from India in 2005), he was greatly encouraged. In fact he said something that nearly blew my socks right off …..he told me that I was his healthiest patient!!!! Wow. That’s incredible news. He loves it when I come in. I’m just not your typical patient. I’ve thought through everything clearly and I’ve taken notes to bring with me. I go over my blood work with a fine tooth comb…at least as much as I can understand. I ask questions and have logical discussions. I’m always thinking outside the box. I’m telling you, I’m the kind of person who asks, “what do I have to do to be healed”, and I do it!

I’m going to digress here for something that has been near to my heart on this journey to healing. It’s the story of the crippled man from Bethesda as chronicled in the Bible.

Jesus asked him “What is it you want me to do for you?” Seems pretty obvious, huh? The man said, “Heal me.” What Jesus wanted to know was if the man really wanted to be healed. Or did he enjoy the sympathy and attention that being crippled got him. I had to face this exact question one day back in 2006. The Lord really confronted me with the question, “What is it you want me to do for you?” That’s when I made the decision to do whatever it takes. To live well and not cheat. To practice what I preached. To listen to His leading. To ask for His leading. And that’s what you have to do. I can tell you everything I’ve done to get where I am, but you have to decide what it is God has for you. We are not all the same, so my supplement regime wouldn’t necessarily be yours. My infections and symptoms are surely different than yours, so you have to gear your regime to fit you. I can tell you that diet is vital. And that Dr Zhang’s herbs work! Listen to the Lord and listen to your body. Stop feeling sorry for yourself and take a step of faith on this road of healing.

Now back to my other thoughts.

We don’t know if one of my infections is Malaria or Babesia. Either way they are treated the same. My natural choice has been Dr Zhang’s Artemisea. My doc offers me choices. Then I always steal his thunder by saying the right thing. Like I told him I didn’t think it was wise to take Malarone or any other Rx for the Malaria/Babesia, due to the fact that my liver enzymes are still elevated. That’s where he was going with it, but he wanted to know what I wanted. Then he asked if I was ready for something really different. I said sure.

He went over all my supp’s and herbs and said that I couldn’t be doing a better job at killing the infections and supporting my body. He told me that I couldn’t be living a better lifestyle with diet and environmental issues. We went through my history again from age 20.

He’s been trying a new therapy for a while and thought we ought to go a new direction in our approach. My doc believes that anyone of us can carry Lyme and it’s co-infections or even cancer for that matter, around in our bodies for a very, very long time with no symptoms. Then BAM! Something happens like the birth of a child. A job loss. A death. An accident or a surgery. Something stressful or traumatic. Something that may leave a scar, both literal and figuratively. And it, the infections becomes active. For myself, I’ve gone in and out of the symptoms for years. The most recent in 2005 being the most severe ever.

My doc is also a licensed acupuncturist. And I’ve had him give me a few treatments for back pain and foot pain. It works like magic every time. I understand the principles behind acupuncture. And I understand in a limited way that our bodies are full of energy. Thus we have nerves and energy flowing through us constantly. And they can get blocked by scar tissue. A nerve that is cut or cut close to can take yrs and yrs to recover. AND suppose it’s scarring that is keeping me from reaching that next level of healing.

That new therapy he’s been working with is, Scar Therapy. See I have a ton of scars. The first, on my chin when I cut it open on barbed wire when I was two. The next came in 1984 & 1988 from episiotomies when having my two children. Then I had 8 surgeries in 6 yrs on my arms and hands from an auto accident in 1993. I think that’s it. (One doc told me never to stop taking 1,000 mg of Vit C daily due to all the x-rays I’ve had in my lifetime. X-rays have been proven to be a link to cancer.) The strange thing my doc has seen is that sometimes a scarring incident can be all it takes to send you into a spiral. It did with me. After my second child and consequently my second episiotomy I crashed. After 8 surgeries on my arms and hands I crashed.

I’m not saying I understand it all. I’m just willing to try something new. I’ve already made tremendous progress so why not see if I can improve even more.

I started taking a homeopathic treatment to dissolve scar tissue, which still ridals me. Now I’ll chart everything and see if anything changes. The idea is to open pathways of healing so I can rise further above this mess. (I’m back after starting this a few weeks ago.) I’ve been taking the Scar Therapy for two weeks. It’s amazing, I squirt 8 sprays in my mouth 3 times a day. The scar on my chin from when I was 2 yrs old is itching for the first time ever. The scars on my hands are itching like crazy. This stuff is working. After the first week I experienced a lot of pain in my hands which are covered in scars from all the surgeries and investigative surgeries. I have no less than 6 little X’s on the top of my hands and wrists from the telescopic surgery to find the problem. Then I have a incision that is about 8-10″ long on each arm where my ulna’s were shortened. Each opened multiple times.

So for now, I know that something is breaking loose from the inside. I’ll let you know how it goes.

We also talked about the the moon and it’s cycles. A lot of Lyme patients believe they see a worsening of symptoms when there is a full moon. I’m not sure. But interestingly enough I did have two very bad Malaria/Babesia episodes at the first quarter of the moon just in the last few months. So, it’s just another thing to chart and keep track of. This month I saw an entire week of on again and off again issues during the week from the 1st quarter to the full moon. AND this full moon was one of the closest we’ve had in years. Do you remember it? It was so close to the earth, it looked like you could touch it. After the night of the full moon, nothing. I’ve been fine.

I’m sharing this so that you can be aware of new approaches to healing. Step out of the box! And allow Jesus to ask you, “What is it you want me to do for you?” Can you say, “I REALLY WANT TO BE HEALED!” That means taking full responsibility and making no more excuses. Dancing to your hearts content!

Photo Credit:Flickr.com

Really Good News!

If you’ve been following this blog, you know I was probably reinfected at least with Babesia in June.  You can read about my really good news on my Peaceful Acres blog.

Placebo?

I think I’d make a great test trial person. Especially if they gave me the placebo. I’m always a little leary, because I think for any of us, if we think that we’re being helped by something then is it mind over matter???

I don’t know. But I’ve been taking the Artemisiae again from Dr Zhang’s for 4 days and today I had the energy that I had in May. My doc thinks I’ve been reinfected with Babesia and it’s causing Hemolytic Anemia.

I finally cut the grass (nope never got to it the other day-ran out of energy)…I’m hoping this is the last time! 5 acres is getting burdensome after 22 yrs…we need some animals! I dug up my sweet potatoes since we’ve had a couple good heavy frosts. I sprayed the crush and run that my husband put down, and sprayed the car clean. I took a second shower and now I’m roasting sweet red peppers to put up for the winter. My day hasn’t been this full since early summer. And I still have energy to do whatever else I can think of, maybe fix dinner! I need to go to my garden and cut lettuce and cover my plants for the frosty night and Tim our Amish chicken farmer is stopping by with our order of chickens.

So is it the Artemisiae or is it my mind? I don’t really care. I’m glad that I’m feeling a bit better. The blood work will tell us a lot. I do think it’s the Artemisiae though. Because for those of us suffering from Babesia, it doesnt’ matter what you do, you can’t make yourself feel better. You either are or you’re not.

One thing I learned from Jerry Brunneti, if you watched those wonderful videos, is that Artemisiae is a scavenger and eats up the “free iron” which is necessary for the neoplastic cells & microbes to grow wild. It also releases oxygen and destroys the neoplastic cells and microbes, like H2O2.

I think that’s wonderful news. It’s not recommended to take Artemisiae for too long without a break. It can be hard on the liver at the high doses prescribed for Babesia and Malaria. Dr Zhang suggests 60-90 days. The alternative to Artemisiae is taking strong anti-malaria drugs which do even more damage to the liver and cost a small fortune! This is another good reason to make sure you are detoxing.

A Diagnosis

Red Blood Cells

I saw my doc today for the low down on my labs. It’s not really very good. BUT I believe that I will defeat this crap, one way or another. “His grace is sufficient for me. When I am weak then I am strong. His power is made perfect in weakness.”~The Apostle Paul of Tarsus

He ran a test called, Coomb’s. It came back positive. Basically, I have what’s called Hemolytic Anemia. It’s an auto-immune issue. I have some “unknown” antibodies that are attacking my red blood cells and blasting them to smithereens. Mine don’t look anything like the picture above. Mine have a zillion foreign antibodies attacking. Then my liver can’t handle the load of crap that I’m sending it and it can’t carry the dead red blood cells out of my body fast enough so then my bilirubin shoots up. I think that’s about it. But basically my red blood cells are being destroyed at a rapid rate. And due to this my LDH is high which indicates damage to my internal tissues and organs.

My doc hasn’t seen anyone with this since he did his residency 5 years ago. He was totally blown away. It’s possible that I was reinfected in June when I had another deer tick. But no one really knows. He does know that in 2005 my CBC was completely normal. And in 2005 I thought death was knocking. So, he was greatly encouraged that this is a relatively new problem.

Good news is that my work on building hemoglobin is working. I went from 26 to 30. He really was pleased with that and couldn’t tell me enough how wonderful that was. I have to get it to 34. So, for now, we’re running tests every 3 weeks to monitor my RBC. I’m continuing with my detox protocol of coffee enemas, 1200 mg milk thistle, my molasses and yellow dock, dandelion root concoction, rifing and adding Artemisiae back in.

He doesn’t think it’s Bartonella as much as he thinks it’s Babesia. That’s why he thinks I’ve been reinfected. All the research he did and what could be connected to the Hemolytic Anemia is Babesia. Some of the best information out there for us on these diseases is on veterinary sites.

So for now, I’ll keep plugging away at it. Hey, lets be positive, now if you have these same labs come back at least you can suggest this to your doc. Part of solving this puzzle is finding all the pieces. Boy I wish I could get those corners. My doc explained to me about T1 and T2. These infections are sooooo intelligent that they’ve figured out if they can get the immune system to attack itself then it’s not attacking it. I’m sorry I can’t even communicate it back to you. It’s all very confusing, especially when it’s you. He writes it all down for me because he knows I’m going to research it and find more answers. I love my doc. He’s so compassionate and caring.

Well, it’s not like I haven’t had Babesia before. But it sure is a hard one to kill. I’ll be ordering more Artemisiae from Hepapro which in my opinion is the best on the market. Bryan Rosner even mentions it in his book, The Top 10 Lyme Disease Treatments.  Bartonella is still very active and I’m hitting it with the rife machine. It’s definitely connected to my back going out on me. But the area of my spleen is connected to all of this other stuff. So, we’re running a sonogram of my spleen to see if it is in fact enlarged. Which would make complete sense considering.

Don’t give up hope. I believe this is just one more hurdle to jump over. It’s a marathon, not a sprint. Remember that. When you think you can’t go any further, you can. Take a rest and continue the fight. Never, never, never give up!

“I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me.”

Philippians 4:13