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This past month, I haven’t felt as spectacularly as I did in March and early April. Such is the Lyme disease journey. Full of peaks and valleys, with the peaks as promises of better days ahead, and the valleys a reminder that we’re not quite there yet.
Hope falls in the valleys, just as it rises when we ascend towards days of better health.
Granted, over the past few weeks I have been traveling in Costa Rica and Colombia, and staying in hostels and noisy hotels is bound to leave any Lyme insomniac feeling like slop. I shouldn’t have expected to feel wonderful after long days of plane travel and long nights interrupted by dogs, roosters, trucks and people bantering loudly in Spanish.
I can’t blame them. Latinos have no concept of what it means to be quiet. Silence is just not part of their culture, but the cacophony is torture when you can scarcely sleep at home on six meds, anyway!
But thank goodness for benzodiazepenes!…the one thing that always promises me at least six hours of solid rest and sanity when all else fails.
Still, six hours isn’t always sufficient and after many days of planes, buses and cackling chickens, my hope for healing fell as I strolled the streets of Medellin a zombie, the weakness in my legs reminding me of how much Mepron is stealing the CO-Q10 from my body. I’m not there yet.
Fortunately, God grabbed me before my thoughts descended too far into a pit and through my friend Roxana, prophetically reminded me that the full manifestation of my healing is near. I’ve now received a few prophecies which promise this but apparently I needed another word from my Creator after a few weeks of travel and missing out on my daily prayer time with God. The latter is vital for helping me to live in truth and for keeping my brain out of dark places.
Yet whether or not God is healing me supernaturally, at the same time, He is also using medicine to heal me. So I returned home this week and bravely asked my Lyme doctor for higher doses of everything, since I’m not reacting to the meds in my current protocol anymore. Pending the approval of my insurance company, this month’s regimen will involve 2 tbsp of Mepron (instead of 2 tsp), 1,000 mg of azthromycin (instead of 500 mg), Omnicef, and assorted herbs, including Noni and artemisia. Babesia continues to be the bad bug in my body, and it’s the one my doc and I have decided to really whack. His contention is that Babesia is always the last one to go, after Lyme and all other infections, but it’s impossible to get rid of Babesia completely until Lyme (Borrelia) gets kicked out of the body. I hadn’t heard this theory before, but apparently, this has been his experience with patients. If a patient is on Mepron for two years and isn’t improving, according to my doctor, it’s probably because that patient still has Lyme. So the Borrelia must be eradicated before the Babesia will disappear.
When I told him that I can take copious amounts of artemisia without experiencing a Herxheimer reaction (as in, thousands of milligrams per day!), he told me that perhaps I haven’t been metabolizing the stuff properly. To remedy that, we are trying a new technique. Artemisia mixed with Phosphatidyl Choline, a fatty acid that is supposed to help with the absorption of the herb. The level of ferritin in my body may be important, as well. Dr. Schaller, in his book on Babesia, writes that a certain level of ferritin must be present in order for the body to effectively utilize artemisinin. I don’t know whether he still believes this, but if so, it might also explain my problems with artemisinin, as my ferritin levels have typically been low.
Still, as I prepare for the next round of bug-whacking, I keep my eyes fixed on God and His promises. In my last post, I mentioned the possibility of beginning a prayer group for those afflicted with Lyme disease. I will provide more information on this group in a week or two, after I return from a writer’s conference this week in Colorado. Because I believe that prayer is just as important as taking medicine for healing, I hope to establish a large group of people who will collectively pray for one another during a bi-monthly conference call. Please pray and ask God whether He wants you to participate in this group! While people of all beliefs and faith systems are welcome to join, the prayer sessions will be focused upon Jesus and the God of Christianity, since this God is the One I love and believe in. He heals and loves all, even those who don’t know or believe in Him, so please don’t be discouraged from attending if you belong to a different faith system. More information is to come! I believe this prayer group will be a powerful way in which God heals and reveals His love to those afflicted by Lyme disease.