My Story - Lyme Disease

I believe I contracted the first infection in the Lyme Disease complex around 16 years ago, but only had a few skin rashes, unusual joint pain and unexplainable anxiety for the first few years. So I didn’t know how bad it was going to get… The bad symptoms showed up 12 years later when my stress load was sky-high. I was very busy in my church, working as a military research scientist and traveling a lot with an active research agenda, writing articles for publication in scientific peer-reviewed journals (stressful to write), presenting at national and international conferences, taught an online graduate course in educational psychology, and added two sons to our family making a family of 8. And I still took my wife out on a date most Friday nights, tried to help around the house, and my diet was OK, but I didn’t have time to exercise. There was not enough ‘balance’ in my life to offset the stress of my active lifestyle and still have energy to battle Lyme. I didn’t really know that I couldn’t do this much, I thought it would all work out because it seemed to be so ‘good.’ I know better now (I REALLY do).

At the point where my symptoms became intolerable (anxiety through the roof, depression for the first time in my life, start of digestive disorders, energy plummeting and adrenal exhaustion, CFIDS, dizziness, intolerance of ordinary viruses, etc.), I reflected a lot and felt that I had an infection, but that it was not well understood. So I worked with an Infectious Disease specialist, and among many other tests had my Western Blot test. I actually did show some antibody response on that test, but it wasn’t adequate for the medical standards at the time to show an active case. I should have explored that further, but maybe it is just as well that I didn’t because I would have been given antibiotics for several years which would have ruined my liver, which was already damaged by this time… Also most doctors did not understand then what is known now about Lyme, and how it ‘hides out’ in tissues chronically, and evades the antibodies so effectively that after a few years the immune system ‘forgets’ it is there. The Infectious Disease doctor could not find an infection, although he noted that my immune system was somewhat activated, so he just told me I was in the early stages of some sort of degenerative chronic condition, and in time I would know what I had. At the time I had no reason to question this diagnosis and dismissed the idea that I might have Lyme.

After that I went through intense misery for a few years, and developed literally every symptom you read about for every modern disease. I’m not making this up. I wondered why I was kept on earth. I felt like I was living in a bad horror movie all the time, in a torture chamber. I had seizures, an overactive but ineffective immune system, opportunistic infections, blood sugar crises, was bed-ridden for weeks at a time after having a cold, did not have enough energy to get out of bed some days, could not drive, could not sleep without sedatives, was unbelievably tired but could not relax and rest, and could not deal with any stress. My ears and eyes became oversensitive and I wore earplugs and sunglasses often. I could not attend church for several years (and still can not often) because I did not have the energy to sit in a chair for more than about 20 minutes, and could not handle the drive, the large crowds and all the noise and smells. I got multiple chemical sensitivity, massive food allergies, candida, got occasional blurry vision, had daily predictable energy swings with horrible late afternoons, had many severe muscle aches and pains (Fibro) and became gluten intolerant (no wheat products). I could not exercise at all, or walk more than about 20 feet without resting. I stopped digesting food properly and had to take hydrochloric acid and enzymes with all food. I lost all the weight I could lose, I became emaciated.

Of course I kept searching , and often lived on faith and hope that I would survive all the torment. I studied all kinds of alternative healing methods and tried many of them. I spent thousands of dollars on supplements but none did more than give a small boost, or they made me worse. I had little social support because I ran a small business and had to be careful to look attentive when around other people so they assumed I really was OK, but I wasn’t. At this time my family also was having difficulties, which compounded everything, my oldest daughter nearly dropped out of college as she started getting chronic fatigue, and had to drop down to one or two courses per semester. There were many other family problems and issues which I won’t elaborate, it wasn’t fun. I learned a new meaning for the words 'patience’ and 'endurance.' I felt like I was in prison, and even envied real prisoners in jails who at least had the energy to exercise in their cells…

Finally, a year ago I was persuaded by my current doctor to try a live blood cell analysis (dark field microscope), and it showed a strange bacteria form in my WHITE blood cells. The white cells are unbelievably toxic, and the doctor (Dr. Bradford, the same MD who invented the microscope!) said there was only one possible explanation, only one type of common bacteria could live like that in the white cell – and that was the spirochete (only Syphilis and Lyme are caused by spirochetes). This meant that I probably had Lyme. But I already had a negative test for Lyme, so I studied the issue and found that the Western Blot test is only effective if run within a few months of infection (I had already been fighting symptoms for 12 years when they ran this test!)… So I had the Bowen test, the new and much more accurate Lyme test, the direct fluorescent test. I showed a positive on that, and on a subsequent vision screening (most people with bad Lyme have some vision disturbances and/or chronic headaches because the neuro-toxins from Lyme are lipid toxins and get in the oils in the eyes and brain).

And the journey from there, the past year, has shown me why there are so many different treatments being used for this same set of symptoms, including energetics. The treatment path is almost as difficult as the diagnosis path. This is because this bug is a real ‘plague’ in the body, and very hard to eradicate. Lyme does not work alone, it appears to be part of a community of parasites, bacteria and viruses that work synergistically to take over the body and convert the ‘victim’ into a perfect host – they have learned to alter neurochemistry to trigger thoughts and behaviors that make your body acidic, cold, and sedentary, just how they like it. BTW, if you are often cold, and you suspect a chronic infection, welcome to Lyme. This is because Lyme is unique in preferring a cold body, almost all bacteria prefer a ‘warm’ body and grow better when warm, but Lyme is compatible with a virus-infected body, and viruses do better with lower temperature (this is why the body has a fever when trying to kill a virus).

Anyway, what eventually has started to work for me was a group of holistic treatments combined with the Salt/C protocol. After nearly 8 years of misery and suffering, I am finally on the road to recovery.