This week’s treatment of antibiotics was much different than
last weeks. It was not near as
harsh because I was not on oral antibiotics in addition to the intravenous
antibiotics. With that being said,
my LLMD did increase the IV antibiotics to Merrem and Cirpro in the morning,
and then AGAIN at night too, so I was infusing two antibiotics twice a
day. Infusing twice a day has not
been near as intense on my digestive system as the previous weak; granted there
have been times where I have been nauseous but no vomiting.
In addition, I have noticed that I have lost my sense of
taste! I went to the dentist on
Monday and apparently my back taste buds are severely inflamed and that is a
direct side effect of my antibiotics. Food just doesn’t seem appetizing to me at all; I have
had to mentally force feed myself.
My go to comfort foods has been fruit and rice cakes with peanut butter
and jelly.
Also, this week my headaches, fatigue, irritability,
depression, isolated nerve and muscular pain have increased. I had to withdrawal from one of my
online summer courses that I was taking to try to keep myself busy and I am
still recovering from the immense guilty and feelings of failure that I feel. I have also just felt sensitive in
general even when people go to give me ahead it just doesn’t feel good
sometimes. Often times when I am
alone I find myself in crying spats just getting out my frustration towards
this disease, which motivates to want to get better and to succeed.
*The best part of my entire week was meeting a kid a year
younger than me, who goes to Virginia Tech and has Lyme disease and a
coinfection. He happens to also
see the same doctor as me! He is
not near as far into the process as me nor has he been sick as many years, but
I have never been able to talk to someone my age in person that knew exactly
what I was going through. We
talked for two and a half hours at Starbucks from topics ranging from different
symptoms, antibiotic protocols, management of symptoms, relationships, how to
describe what we have to our friends, our families, our futures, and most
importantly HOPE! I left feeling
hopeful for the first time in awhile because I was not alone; I knew I wasn’t
alone before from reading online articles and talking to people on the phone
and even knowing adults, but it is truly different when the person is in your
age group! The crazy thing about
his family is his Dad has Lyme with a coinfection and his sister as well! His Dad is very sick and just got a
port inserted two days ago to begin IV therapy, so I am sure I will be hearing
from this new Lyme friend!
Another week completed and now next week I have 3 days of
CoArtem, which attacks the coinfection Babesia. I am not even taking other antibiotics with CoArtem because
it is so powerful! The second week
of my protocols are usually hard mentally for me and then the third week of my
protocols are usually hard physically from what I have been able to observe,
therefore this shall be interesting!
Last time I took this antibiotic I felt out of this world; I felt as if
I were from another planet and couldn’t communicate with anyone. I was so worn down and fatigued;
everything hurt too. I was not even
on as intense of a protocol as I was given this time, but being back at home
instead of at school and having minimal stress will be helpful!
Anyways I will keep everyone updated on what the future
holds for me, until then I hope everyone is spraying with Off to protect
themselves against ticks and still checking for ticks after being outside!
“You have to fight through some bad days to earn the best days
of your life.”
