About two weeks ago I went to visit my naturopath to get a full biofeedback work up. I tend to see her about once a year so she can use her nifty computer based machine to test me and help me understand what is currently happening in my body. I got some really good/helpful/interesting information from her and I wan to share it with you all. I'm excited about what it means for my health and I hope that my sharing can help one of you reading this to find the missing puzzle pieces in your health.
Warning: This is a LONG blog post, full of medical info.
The first piece of information I got was really exciting! She said she couldn't find any tick-born infections (TBIs)!!! I was really excited about that, but also a tad suspicious because I had just been muscle tested a week before and was still coming up slightly positive for Bartonella and had a substantial case of Babesia. I was really hoping her test would confirm my LLMD's (Lyme Literate Medical Doctor) muscle testing which has been saying that I don't have borellia aka Lyme and it did! The naturopath said that my test results were fluctuating as she went further and tested me for molds. I learned that mold illness can mimic Lyme and even effect the test results. She felt like she was missing something and wanted to be really really sure when she told me that she couldn't find any more TBIs so she kept checking and tweeking things in her biofeedback system until we finally figured it out.
According to her, I no longer have Bartonella at all! That's amazing since I'm not directly treating for it right now (unless there is something in the Bab-1 formula that also works against bart). She also said that I don't have any adult organisms for Babesia or Lyme, just eggs waiting to hatch. This is really exciting news because I am already treating for babs and when the eggs hatch they I will already have the meds in my system to kill them. I'm just one life cycle away form getting rid of babs :-) The bonus is that the life cycle is pretty short and she said it should happen in the next few weeks. I think it's happening right now because I'm feeling quite toxic and a bit herxy. The Lyme buggers have a longer less predictable life cycle and so I'm just hoping that they won't hatch until after I get something to kill them into my system. I'm just afraid t odo that right now because I'm so sensitive and I keep twitching every time I add a killing agent to my protocol. I'll see my LLMD later this week and confirm these findings with him and get something added to my protocol to make sure we kill the baby spirochetes as soon as they hatch. I can't believe that I'm just one life cycle away from really being rid of these fracking infections. I guess this explains why my LLMD hasn't been able to find the Lyme but wasn't ready to say I'm cured quite yet.
I couldn't help but wonder if I'm making such great progress why do I still have so many symptoms and what the heck is up with the neurological dysfunction and involuntary movements or twitching? It seems like if I'm almost all better I shouldn't have such dramatic symptoms. That's the thing about Chronic Lyme, it weakens your immune system and causes damage through the body resulting in a long list of symptoms and other issues some of which are worse them the Lyme itself. That's why when Lyme is left untreated for years it becomes really hard to treat and people get so sick for so long. Lyme Disease really has become an umbrella term for a whole bunch of conditions that tend to come along with the Lyme bacteria.
So back to my test results... She dug around and found that I have some hormone imbalances. My Thyroid is a little low ( not surprising as several people in my family take thyroid meds). my adrenals are low (I knew that), my progesterone level is low and I think I might be a bit estrogen dominate because of that ( maybe that's part of why I can get my skin to clear up?) and there are some imbalances with epinephrine and hydrocortisone. None of this surprised me at all, I have even been told some of it before. It makes sense with my family history, it fits with being chronically fatigued and easily exhausted, and I know that Lyme tends to attack or affect the HPA axis which controls the Hypothalamus, Pituitary, and Adrenal glands.
In addition, I am still fighting some other infections and exposures like heavy metals, an intestinal parasite, the MarCons staph infection in my sinuses, candida, and I've got a mild case of leaky gut. None of this surprised me either. I knew about all of these infections and have done a lot of work on each of them at some point. It is useful to know that pretty much everything is hanging around a really low levels. Now I know what I still need to treat and I suspect that if I could get my immune system to work it might be able to take care of some of these bitty bits of infection.
I mentioned mold earlier, well it turns out I'm being exposed to water damage molds, several species, and it's a toxic burden my body it having a hard time handling. I have got to figure out where in this new house there might be mold and talk to the landlord about getting an inspection or something. This is a potential nightmare I'm just not ready to face quite yet. I'll see what happens at my net apt and go from there. Hopefully we can do something to reduce the exposure and help my body to deal with it without having to get into any rental property issues. I thought we were done with mold when we moved into a warm, dry, newer home. ARG!
Now here's the really interesting part of the assessment results. We figured out that I have some vitamin and mineral deficiencies and part of the reason is because I have a genetic mutation that reduces my body's ability to convert folate into a useable form. It's called MTHFR. This is new information for me. I had been told before that my x-rays showed a mild cause of spinabifida and that it meant I inherited an issue with folic acid, but what I didn't know is that the folate has a relationship with iron, B vits, zinc, magnesium, and glutathione and that these things are key pieces to a properly functioning detox pathway. AH HA! Finally, it is all starting to make sense. I think that most of my symptoms, especially the neurological ones are simply an issue of having a broken detox pathway because of this genetic folate issue. Check out the list of conditions this mutation can cause. Read about how blockages in the detox pathway can effect the body.
There is a lot of interesting science behind all of this and I'll do additional blog posts on it later, but for now, to keep it simple, I'll just say that I think this is the missing piece to the puzzle. I think this explains why I am one of the lucky people who is more susceptible to getting a chronic illness, why it is taking forever to treat it, why I feel sooo bad even after making so much progress, and why I am so sensitive to so very many things. It could also explain things like exercise intolerance, seasonal and food allergies, digestion issues, sleep disturbances, weak teeth, and might possibly be a major player in every single symptom I still experience. In fact I think that this is one important factor in why each person's journey with Lyme is so different, we all have different genes that make us more or less likely to manifest certain kinds of symptoms.
This may sound like a horrible thing, OMG you've got a genetic defect! But really I'm so glad I know. It's not something that is going to kill me, it's really pretty easy to treat with a knowledgeable DR.'s help, it is probably linked to most of my symptoms and therefor I should feel a ton better once I start treatment. I'm also really glad to have found this out now so that I can take really good care of myself if we ever try to get pregnant. In fact I'm thrilled to find this out. I have this really strong feeling that getting this under control is going to create a lot of relief for my body, things will start to repair themselves and fall into place, I should start detoxing properly and get rid of the toxins and metals, and my immune system should bounce back and start taking care of the last few little infections. I really think that I'm on the verge of a BIG breakthrough and I'm excited because I think this is going to be the thing that brings me back to being ME.
I know that was a lot, thank you for taking the time to read it all. I so very much appreciate those of you who stick with me through the nitty gritty of this illness. I'll be seeing my LLMD on Wednesday night and I'm going to share this info with him, ask for his input, see what the muscle testing says and ask for some lab work to confirm it. Although I've simplified it to simply a folic acid problem, it is actually a complex chemistry equation and I want to make sure that we use this opportunity to really get a hold of all the little pieces and put me back together once and for all.
If you have any suggestions on tests I should request or questions I should ask my Dr. please let me know. I want to go to my apt as prepared as possible. As always, questions, comments, and support are always welcome. Thanks for being beside me on this journey. HUGS!
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