So I have now officially made it past the one year mark of being treated for Lyme and Bartonella.
I certainly have many many improvements as far as the Lyme symptoms go. However I am still battling the stuff inside my head. My brain is so sensitive to the bacteria still in there and every time I start taking Minocycline I herx something terrible that I have to keep backing off and slowly going back on again. I am on my 5th round of Mino.
It's hard to believe that for 6 years I was misdiagnosed and put through so many testings and physical therapy and then after all that finally diagnosed with Lyme and treated and in less than a year so many of those debilitating, painful issues are almost gone completely. Mostly my neck pain and the right arm numbness and weakness is gone. I can't believe that I was so bad before, I couldn't lift things with my right arm or write normal as my hand would shake and quiver and I couldn't hold on to a pen normal. I looked like I had MS or something like that. Mornings was so hard as I would slowly crawl out of bed, not able to stand straight for several minutes, my routine was always walk slowly down the hall, trying to straighten my body, walk on tip toes because the soles of my feet hurt terribly, body tremors and shaking was normal while trying to get out of bed. I am so happy that I don't do any of that anymore!! What a difference antibiotics have made!
However with treatment came some new symptoms as the bacteria is being aggravated inside me and the revealing of the co infection Bartonella and then in March of 2014 we found I was very anemic.
I did 3 months of iron supplements and in August my counts were all normal! Was so excited!
However the past few weeks I started noticing the fatigue and the metallic taste in my mouth and itchy body so I decided to go get my blood drawn to make sure I wasn't anemic again. My LLMD called that evening with the results and said I was back down again, not as bad as March, but since the last blood work on August I have lost a unit of blood.
He encouraged me to find a primary care physician in my area that would be supportive of my Lyme treatment to help trace this anemia issue that seems to be affecting me. He said absolutely it is possible that there could be the presence of the co infection babesia, which is known to eat hemoglobin and cause anemia, however before he goes that route he wants to rule out anything else that could be causing the anemia.
So I am currently waiting to hear back from a doctor that was recommended to me and see if she will take me on as a new patient and work with my LLMD.
I hope to have some more clear information on my anemia soon.
I just want to encourage those who are reading my blog to make it a point this year, if you haven't already, to watch the documentary below, Under Our Skin. I am anxiously waiting to view the sequel Emergence it's not free on Youtube just yet.
It's so important to educate ourselves about this disease, especially now as we are hearing of more and more people being diagnosed every day. Just in my circles I can't count how many folks I know that have come down with Lyme Disease. I have provided the video below but not sure if mobile devices can see it, so it is free on Youtube, just search Under Our Skin.
