Health update

I saw Dr.Borden (Lyme disease doctor) yesterday and wanted to "update" people who are following me on my health journey.

As I figured, my body is in an ACTIVE state of fighting off Lyme disease right now, more so than ever before. I sort of knew this because of how bad some of my symptoms have been in the past 3 months. It seems every symptom I have has either intensified or changed in some way. Or I have new symptoms now to add to the mix. What is going on with this, getting worse and worse instead of better? I have often thought over and over.

So I reported to the doc that I've been dealing with this awful, chronic pain in my neck/shoulders/back that is a "new" symptom that my current pain medications aren't even touching. It has actually been quite comical in our house lately if you are able look for the humor in the situation: Mark on the floor doing HIS back stretching exercises for HIS back problem, and now me, with mine. If you were a fly on the wall you would definitely think: It sure looks like they are getting OLD in this house.

Dr. Borden says this is a good sign (what?), and a very strong indicator that my body is FINALLY at a place of being able to get rid of Lyme disease.

We've sort of come full circle is what he said. You see, when I first came to him back in May, I had already been taking strong antibiotics for 8 months and getting nowhere. I had already seen 15+ "doctors", I had already "tried" everything. I was at the end of my rope. I went into that appointment knowing he was my last ditch effort. I think he knew it, too, but took on my case with a strong confidence that he could get me well, as he has seen it happen many times before.

But because I, and my vast load of "specialists" weren't EVER treating the cause of WHY I was sick, but rather the "symptoms"......is WHY I couldn't ever get well.

Dr. Borden's treatment approach goes after the CAUSE of disease - period. Even if you have cancer (he & I had a very interesting talk about that, by the way). He deals mostly with Lyme Disease and all of its nasty friends, but is always after the CAUSE of why someone is sick.

In my case, Lyme disease had attacked my whole endocrine system, particularly my thyroid and adrenal glands. The bacteria gets in your body and "attacks" different organs and glands causing major disruption. Taking all the hormones in the world to "treat" my low hormones wasn't ever going to help because they weren't the CAUSE of my sickness. Eating a gluten free diet because I have Celiac Disease wasn't going to cut it either. Spending a year working with a nutritionist to change around my diet didn't help either. Taking every and all different supplements weren't the answer. Repeating and adding on more and more "tests" wasn't going to get me there either.

That is what I've been doing since 2002, but had already felt sick the majority of my life.

Some clarification is probably needed at this point: along with Lyme Disease, it is very common to also get coinfections, that are often WORSE than lyme, mimic a "parasite", come in groups, and are very often missed (as in my case). Plus, the craziest thing is - the blood tests for coinfections are even more unreliable than the ones for Lyme.

The CAUSE of WHY I've been sick all of these years IS Lyme, but because of the coinfections "being in the way", there was no way of getting at the lyme bacteria itself. Get it? I finally got it, once he explained it that way to me.

That's what Dr.Borden's goal was: to get all the other "infections" out of the way so we could directly ATTACK and ERADICATE Lyme Disease - FINALLY.

Well friends..........I am now at that point in this long, long health journey. With so many ups and downs, I can't even count.

I NEEDED to know - so I just asked him, with much trepidation, because I have asked THAT one question thousands of times it seems: How long until I feel better?

He only paused for a second (he's always remained the confident one). Of course, (because it's in my nature, which isn't always a good thing), I didn't wait for his answer. Instead I said again: Please DO NOT tell me years, please. Maybe by next summer? Is that even a possibility?And he said, Definitely. 


I sort of sat there, stunned for a moment by his answer. Are you serious? I thought. I'm only looking at living like this for less than 6 months after ALL of this time? Seriously? Oh my! I don't even KNOW what it FEELS like to feel HEALTHY. Will I even recognize it when it comes? All of these thoughts swirled around in my head as I was paying my bill, gathering my new medications, and wishing him and his staff a Merry Christmas.

I believe God whispered through Dr. Borden at that PERFECT moment exactly what my soul needed to hear, especially at this time of year: HOPE.

Hope that I WILL finally beat this disease once and for all. Hope that there IS a light at the end of this tunnel. Hope that I WILL feel healthy and strong and ALIVE soon. Hope that this journey has been worth it; that I can use what I've learned to help someone else.

Thank you to all of you who have hung in there with me; those who have been there to lean on, talk to, cry to, vent on, whatever....you know who you are and I hope you know how much I appreciate all of the support and encouragement along the way.

Please pray for me if you think of it, that I am able to continue to "hang in there" while I patiently wait for Healing to come. That I stay Hopeful.