If you have chronic Lyme and are feeling less than your best, consider that you might need updated treatment options. If your doctor doesn’t know what else to do, it may be time to add to your health care team to explore updated treatment options. There is a community of health care professionals at work exploring ways to help people with Lyme disease heal and recover full lives. What you need might be out there. Here are a couple of examples where I had to persist and work through layers of problems to make the gains I wanted.
Absorption
After twenty-two months of antibiotics, two different at a time switching every three months, my digestion was weak. My doctor and I decided to stop because it seemingly wasn’t doing me much good. Instead, I went on a herbal protocol. The antibiotics killed all the pathogens they could plus a lot of pro-biotic organisms I needed.
I was missing the healthy pro-biotics that live in my gut and keep me well. It was ugly; I pooped 5 to 10 times a day and knew where every bathroom in my area was. It is not what you eat that matters as much as what you digest, and I could not absorb much, so even though I ate well and took the pills, I didn’t feel better and reached my lowest adult weight.
My Body Screamed For Updated Treatment Options
It was clear I needed to change things up, so I started on high levels of pro-biotics, as many as nine pills and a liquid each day. I considered a fecal transplant, but couldn’t get a healthy donor. My health care team got a new member who specialized in gut repair. We built a plan to repair my leaky gut.
The program included an elimination diet and specific supplements. I ate a lot of food without gaining weight because it was shuffling out of me as expensive nutrient-rich waste. I ended up on the autoimmune paleo diet for about two years and added lots of pre-biotic and pro-biotic foods like sauerkraut and homemade low sugar kombucha
Things turned a corner when I started to gain weight. Now I eat a vegetable-heavy regular diet and add pro-biotic foods regularly. My food plan is low in sugar, and I keep away from dairy and gluten. It took some time to rebuild absorption; it is much better now. But still, my energy was low.
Low Energy
For years after my diagnosis my energy was nonexistent. I regularly slept for 12 hours and still needed a nap. Even after antibiotic treatment that reduced my pain, my drive didn’t come back. I would fall asleep out to dinner with friends or at the movie theater. I became infamous among our friends after falling asleep at a drumming concert. The thought of this as my new normal scared me.
I went through a series of inquiries to help recover my get up and go. My gut wasn’t converting or using B12, so I needed shots, now I need much less and use a patch. My vitamin D3 was low, and my hormone levels were nonexistent. D3 supplements, as well as sunshine time, helped me over the hump. I had no hair on my body and was losing the hair on my head. My hormone restart took a few attempts, herxing, and a lot of patience. I had to work with a couple of different practitioners and updated treatment options to get things back on track.
Updated Treatment Options Can Help
You have to live with how you feel every day. If you aren’t making the progress you want, and look for updated treatment options, make sure you get what you need. I want to feel enlivened by and engaged with my life and live beyond the echo of Lyme disease. How about you?
Ask for help when you need it, whether from family and friends or a new health care team member with updated treatment options. You may need to grow your health care team as you uncover specific problems or blocks. Ask people how they solved particular problems, read, study, and listen to learn. Persist in building your self-care. As you rebuild from Lyme and manifest health, one of the best things you can do is to take action to expand your wellness and reclaim your life in little ways every day.
The purpose of this article is to share and educate on Lyme disease recovery strategies. The information provided on this website is not a substitute for professional medical care, treatment, or advice. All the material here is for information purposes only. Always share strategy and work with your health care team.