Sorry it has been so long since my last blog post! I do miss blogging, so I am going to
try to give you the most thorough update on my life now that school is back in
full swing, but it may be very brief.
Since September 20th, 2013 I have been on an intense
protocol of:
-IV Cipro in the morning for the first two weeks M,W,F
-IV Azithromycin at night for the first two weeks M, W, F
-Mepron 2 tsp twice daily for the first two weeks M, W, F
- Septra DS 1 tab twice daily for the first two weeks M, W,
F
- Artemisinin 800mg twice daily for the first two weeks M,
W, F
- Lactoferrin and Xylitol first 8 days of antibiotics
-Flagyl twice daily on the second week just Thursday and
Friday
-BUT then CoArten twice daily on M,T, W of my third week
And I am finally on my 10 days off. I am exhausted mentally, physically,
emotionally. Being at school has
taken a tremendous toll on me and my parents in addition to others have
suggested I take next semester off because it is almost unrealistic that I am
at school from time to time.
Luckily I do not have to make a decision right now.
I went home the last weekend in September to go to the
cardiologist, where I found out I have mitral valve prolapse. This could be where I get increased
anxiety, I met Mandy Hughes from the documentary Under Our Skin the last
weekend of September and she looked amazing. She is no longer on antibiotics and she is currently a nurse
at Hopkins, meeting her may have saved my life. She was able to point out all of my current symptoms just
from looking at me, she could tell I twitch and was fidgety, my balance is off,
my central nervous system was going crazy, my speech was delayed, and the list
is endless. She restored my
hope. I cannot reiterate enough
that she looked amazing; here is a picture of us below:
Inspiration
The hope only lasted so long when I began to truly regress
cognitively, be in more physical pain, and barely be able to keep food
down. I had to fight with all of
my will power for two hours after I took my antibiotics to ensure that my pills
would be effective. I remember
calling a good friend of mine Wednesday night the second week of that protocol
at 12:30ish sobbing asking her if it was okay if I didn’t take my oral
antibiotics because I was going to throw up from the IV. She comforted me until I began puking
my guts out; I saw her that weekend at a PAL event Partners Against Lyme at
George Mason University and she commented, as did everyone else on how much
weight I had lost.
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| Beautiful Lyme Ladies |
My doctor was the keynote speaker at the event, so after I
asked him to feel my neck because my ear was killing me and I was going to go
to Urgent Care on Monday if he didn’t think it was too much of a concern, but
he agreed to and as he pressed on my neck and hit this one spot he told me the
nerves of my carotid artery were inflamed causing the ear pain. I have had this ear infection like pain
since June!!! It drives me crazy and as you can imagine cold, rainy weather
doesn’t make it much better. The
good news is he saved me a trip to the doctors that I didn’t need and I met
amazing people at this forum that were very similar to me.
The protocol was vicious in general but especially with
CoArtem; I did not react well to that by any means. I had very vivid dreams, heightened anxiety, a hot burning
skin rash and so much more. As a
whole I still have a lot of neurological problems such as dyslexic like issues,
severe memory impairment, hand malfunctions, muscle aches, nerve pain in my
back and head, headaches, chest pain, air hunger, nausea, chest pain, anxiety,
just to name a few but I do know that it does get worse significantly worse
before you get better.
I went back to the doctors on Friday and I am sticking with
the same protocol because my Babesia symptoms aren’t going away which is
concerning. The only difference
was that on the same days I take Flagyl I am going to add Diflucan; oh the
joys! My body was treating 50
degree weather as if it were 25 degree weather; I can’t regulate my body
temperature at all and my blood pressure has been super low at the doctor’s
office it was 82/47. I did IV
magnesium while in the office and am going to start juicing or shall I say
making as many green smoothies as I can to bring myself back to life! In addition, I have been doing IV iron,
which I think was the only way I made it through this protocol because it
restored some of my fatigue; I hope I can do more of it.
Now for the good things that have happened in my life, I was
accepted for field placement for the spring of 2014. It was a competitive process that at first I had to submit
an essay then I had be chosen for an interview then I had to be accepted to the
actual field placement after everyone has been interviewed and considered. I also went to the tattoo shop that I
want to have my tattoo done at and I got it stenciled on, it gave me something
to look forward to. I took a ton
of photos! Once again I am sorry
for not writing in forever!
“Every test in our life makes us bitter or better, every
problem comes to break us or make us.
The chose is ours whether we become victim or victor.”
