Interesting

I was reading an article about the herb Samento and it's effect on Lyme Disease. I came across an interesting statement: Lyme Disease is now thought to be the fastest growing infectious disease in the world. There are believed to be at least 200,000 new cases each year in the U.S. and some experts think that as many as one in every 15 Americans is currently infected (20 million persons).

Wow.

Often I wonder how many people have the disease and have no idea. It cost a lot of money to even get a diagnosis. What about people that can't afford it? I hope one day soon this disease will be more widely known. If I can get it- a person who lives in West Texas (where according to CDC there is minimal or no risk) and who isn't outdoorsy in the least, then anyone can get it.

So I went today and got two herbs that are used in treating Lyme Disease: Samento and Cumanda. My local dr. told me about these herbs 6 months ago (when I was first diagnosed). I finally decided to give them a try. I'll be taking them with my current antibiotics. I start tomorrow. I remember him telling me that it's been shown people who take these herbs along with their antibiotics have a better outcome. I spent $80 on both drugs (1 oz. a piece) so I really hope they make a difference. Getting sick sure isn't cheap!

I need to get this out!

I've been holding in a lot of anger lately. I'm just so mad about how things are going. I'm not feeling very good these days. I'm just sick of it. I mean really sick of it to the point I just want to scream!

I always think in life that every decision turns you into different paths. Even the most miniscule ones, though most don't change your life that much. I think I went down a wrong path when I went to the Louisiana doctor in August.

I was doing so good on doxycycline (what my local doctor prescribed). I told the doctor that, but he insisted that I should try Zithromax since doxy is known to cause light sensitivity and it was in August. If I would of just stuck with the doxy for longer, even upped my dosage maybe I would be better now. I was only on it 3 weeks and was already feeling dramatically better. Why did I chang?!?!!?!?!?!?! I guess I'm mad at him and myself.

Then when I went back to doxycycline in October, it didn't do ANYTHING for me. How disappointing. I'm thinking the bacteria became resilent to the doxy since I stopped it before. AGHHHH, that makes me so mad.

I'm on Biaxin and Omnicef right now. I've been having some scary symptoms with my heart. Biaxin is in the same family as Zithromax. And when on Zithromax I had occasionaly heart palps, chest pain, and uneasiness feeling in my chest. So maybe this is just not a good drug for me. I'm going to call my doctor about this because enough is enough. I'm sick of being scared. I can't do it anymore. I won't. I need to take my health into my own hands.

Scary Stuff!

Tuesday night I had a very scary thing happen. We were at the gym and I was doing so good. Orginally I was just going to workout on the eliptical for 30 minutes, but I kept increasing the time. I figured I could do it for one hour, which is way longer than I usually do. My heart kept skipping beats, but I just ignored it. The flutterings only lasted a few moments, so I really wasn't that worried.

I should of listened to my body and eased off, or stopped the eliptical all together. I was at 58 minutes- just 2 minutes away from my goal when my heart freaked out. I don't know how to explain it exactly. It started to beat erradically, almost like it wasn't fully beating, but vibrating in my chest. I was having trouble catching my breath and could feel my heart inside my throat. It was so scary.

I immediately went downstairs to sit in the dressing room. After 5 minutes my heart was still doing this. I finally went and found Matt and told him what was going on. I decided to sit out in the car to see if it would go away. It didn't.

This went on for nearly 4 hours. My chest was hurting so badly at one point I threw up. It's not often that I'm in bad enough pain to cause that to happen. I kept contimplating going to the ER. We were just about to get Holden up to go when the strangest thing happened- I got this really really bad pain in my chest and throat and my heart flip-flopped... then just like that it started beating normally. It as almost as if my heart shocked itself back into the right rhythm.

I know this incident happened for a few reason. #1 I pushed myself WAY too hard. #2 I was dehydrated. I don't know why but I find it hard to drink that much. #3 I didn't get very much sleep the night before. And #4 Tuesday morning I started a new antibiotic (Biaxin).

From now on I'm going to do just 30 min. increments at the gym. Like get on the eliptical for 30 minutes...then go do weights...then come back to the eliptical for 30 minutes. And I'm going to make sure my heart rate doesn't get up to high. Tuesday night it was at about 175 bpm, even going up as high as 180. That's really fast for a whole hour.

We're going to the gym again tonight. I'm kind of scared I'll have another episode, but I've decided if I do, we will go straight to the ER.

FRUSTRATED!

I'm trying to stay positive about everything. I really am, but it is getting hard. I still feel pretty much the same as I did when I was first diagnosed back in June. That is so disappointing. I take my meds regurarly and have even started exercising.

Lyme Disease is a very confusing disease. There is no set treatment plan because every person is different. There are so many different combinations of medicines you can take. I guess I just haven't found the one that will make me better yet. I just am so confused... you have no idea.

I'm also on the fence about my doctor. He is in Louisiana (10+ hours from where I live). My first visit with him back in August went so well. But since then things have gone down hill. First off I really don't like his office staff. They are cold and unsensitive. It's like talking to robots. When I call and leave a message no one ever calls me back.

I have a phone consultation tomorrow. I'm really hoping everything goes well.

I don't know what else to say. I had a lot on my mind, but I just feel so tired right now. I'm upset about so many things. I wish there was a magic wand that could make me better because I just don't know how to get better. What I am doing now is not working.

just an update

I'm just now getting over a cold I've had for about a week. It was kind of weird getting a cold because I haven't been sick like that in over a year. Yeah, no kidding. When you have Lyme Disease your immune system usually goes on overdrive so you usually don't get sick with other stuff. Maybe my immune system is becoming weaker. I don't know.

All in all I'm feeling okay. Haven't been having any heart palps (knock on wood). Just been feeling normal for the most part with the occasional lightheadedness. I have a phone consulation with my doctor next Monday.

Well that's about it, just thought I should update.

Oh and just for my own personal note last Thursday (29th) I started taking 400 mg. of doxy. Before I found that hard to tolerate, but so far so good.:-)

Waiting to go to bed...

Well I was laying in bed and it dawned on me that I forgot to take my medicine. I usually take it around 9. So I got up and took it... Unfortunately you have to wait 30 minutes before lying down. I don't know why exactly, but that's what the directions say. So I'm trying to pass time and thought I would update my blog.:-)

Let's see...

Not a lot of new stuff going on. I was hoping by now I would be feeling better. Last time I took doxy after only 2 weeks I was feeling significantly better. I still feel lightheaded a lot. I feel very tired almost like I'm in a fog.

Oh well, I'm sure I will improve in time. It's just hard to be patient!!

Another thing that has been on my mind are Christmas trees. We've always had a fake one. It's just easier that way. However I never really thought about ticks living in real Christmas trees. So anyone who reads my blog PLEASE take that into consideration when deciding on a real or artificial tree. I know the real trees are nice, but it's not really worth the risk in my opinion.

Had an appointment last week.

It took awhile for me to get on here and talk about it. Just been busy and tired, mostly tired. Well the appointment was somewhat of a disappointment. First of all I get to Louisiana and find out that my doctor is not there. This was my nightmare come true. I had thought a time or two before that it sure would suck if I went all that way and my doctor wasn't there.

I had the choice of seeing his assitance or rescheduling. Since we didn't have much time to burn and the receptionist wasn't even sure if he'd be there the next day, I reluctantly agreed to see the assistant.

Now if that wasn't bad enough we waited and waited and waited some more. Seriously we spent well over 3 hours waiting. The assistant was nice enough and seemeed to know a lot about Lyme Disease, but still it wasn't the same as seeing the doctor. Plus he only talked to me for about, umm, 15 minutes or so. That's a heck of a way to come, not to mention the waiting time, for 15 measley minutes. So I was a little peeved, to say the least.

The assistant switched me back to what I was on before... the combo my doctor here where I live had put me on. I'm happy about that but a little irritated at the same time. So basically I might of let 2 months of treatment go down the drain. I was feeling great on the doxycycline before, but when I went to the Lousiana doctor I was switched to some different meds to target Babesia. (Which I'm not even sure I have.) So for all I know I just have Lyme Disease and let 2 months go by, since we were focusing on Babesia. Ughhhh! That's is complicated to explain so sorry if it doesn't make sense.

This weekend I thought a lot about if I wanted to go back to this doctor. I decided to give him another chance. I feel if I just saw the dr. where I live I would have to be my own doctor. The doctor here knows some about Lyme Disease (which is more than I can say about most doctors), but he's not that experienced. I have more confidence in the LA doctor. This experience last time was TOTALLY different from my first appointment in LA.

Last time:
My doctor was here
He made me feel hopeful
seemed very condident that I would be completely normal again
he even talked about me having more kids (if I wanted) in the near future
plus he has/had lyme disease so he can relate

So I think I will stick with him, for now.


So it's been about a week on Doxycycline and Flagyl combo. I feel very sore which is a good sign. It means that the bacteria is being killed off and toxins are being released, thus I'm feeling sore, more tired, ect. It's kind of like when you're pregnant and the nauseous feeling is somewhat reassuring because it means the baby is thriving. So it's not a lot of fun, but it is a good thing.