The Chronicles of Lyme Disease
In 1997, at the age of 24, I was diagnosed with Lyme disease. I
had gone to the beach and when I came home my brother noticed a small
red circle on my back that looked like I had been lying on a bottle
cap. The bull's eye appeared and disappeared within 6 hours! I was
treated with antibiotics for only ten days. My only other symptom
at that time was extreme fatigue.
A year and a half later I began experiencing Bell's Palsy (numbness
in half my face). I was given an MRI and nothing unusual was found,
no suggestions given. At the time it was not common knowledge that
Bell's Palsy is a sign of later stage Lyme. Years went by and I began
to experience memory loss and other cognitive dysfunction. I figured
(at the ripe old age of 26) that it must be part of the natural aging
process. Still, it did seem odd that my usually sharp memory was
reduced to a point where I couldn't remember what had happened in
a novel I was reading the night before.
It was 2002 and I was accepted into an intern position here at Great
Cape Herbs. As you may know, Cape Cod has one of the highest rates
of Lyme disease infection on the Eastern seaboard.
I received many new tick bites in the first 2 years I lived here.
My reaction to each one was the same. I would know there was a tick
biting me because I would get an itch at the spot it was attached.
After removing the tick, the area around the bite would become red,
swollen, hot and EXTREMELY itchy. This reaction would last anywhere
from 1-2 months. I was introduced to Lomatium
tincture as a topical
treatment for tick bites and found it reduced the itchiness, severity
and duration of the reaction by about 90%.
In my second year on the Cape, after a summer of working long hours
and running on little sleep, I began experiencing a multitude of
new symptoms; joint stiffness, vertigo, fatigue, crawling sensations
on skin, brain fog, difficulty controlling my legs when descending
stairs. I went on Doxycycline for 6 weeks and after feeling horrible
for the first week (from Herxheimer reaction where toxins from the
dying spirochetes flood the system) I started to feel a lot better.
Memory returned, stiffness and fatigue left etc. I was alright for
about 8 months and then it all started to come back. Took Doxycycline
again, felt better. Eight months later found me with all the same
symptoms plus tremors and excruciating leg cramps at night.
I decided not to take the antibiotics this time as I had been reading
Healing
Lyme by Stephen Buhner and wanted to try the herbal approach.
Figuring that I might feel worse before I felt better, I put off
beginning the protocol until the season slowed down. By December
I was feeling pretty poorly and decided to start on the herbs. I
followed the core protocol for two weeks and started feeling much
better. Then I got distracted by Christmas and stopped the protocol
for two weeks. Felt HORRIBLE. Internal tremors made me feel like
I was shaking inside my own skin all of the time. Lots of leg cramps
in the night, shooting pains in my jaw- all manner of fun.
I started the herbal protocol again 10 days ago, adding to it the
taking of nightly VERY HOT baths (skin brushing beforehand) and a
supplement called BCQ which is a powerful antiinflammatory. AMAZING
how much better I feel in such a short period of time. Internal trembling
all but gone, hands hardly shaky at all, no leg cramps, memory improving.
Stay tuned for the next exciting chapter!
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