First of all, I'm sorry for the delay in my post. It has been an interesting month and a half since my last post. Despite all the craziness, I remain positive and always feel so supported by my practitioners. My D.O. ran my thyroid labs after a month on synthetic T3/T4 and I ended up hyperthyroid. Though I was hyperthyroid my symptoms were very hypothyroid. This is pretty common with crossover in symptoms. I was so exhausted that I was napping all the time, I could not get out of bed very easily, I did not have the energy to make it through the day, I had nausea and headaches and lots of muscle an joint pain, my cycle was completely whacky and so we ajdusted the T3 and lowered the dose and spread it throughout the day. The first day of this change in dose was completely awful, but then I started to feel better. I've been on the new dose for a couple weeks and though I feel better than I did prior to starting the new dosage level I actually feel worse than I did before I ever started taking synthetic T3/T4. That said we re-ran the thyroid labs again this past week and I'm waiting for the results to come back. Chances are that the meds will need to be adjusted again. I've decided that I'm willing to go through one more adjustment and if I'm not feeling like it is really making a positive difference, then I'll likely ask to be weaned off the T3/T4. So far for the additional expense in labs and medication I have to say it really isn't proving to be worth it for me, so it may just mean that the majority of my symptoms can be attributed to the chronic lyme and co-infections. When all is said and done, I may be able to say that I learned more about the source of my symptoms after trying the meds.
In addition I finally had my first 2-hour appointment with my new naturopath in Boulder. She has many years of experience treating chronic lyme patients and she has been added to my team to help with that piece of my case. I really enjoyed meeting her and feel that with her on my team I'll be able to make some important headway in the direction beginning to feel much better than I've felt in many years. That is not to say that this step in my treatment is going to be easy. In fact I'm probably facing some of the most difficult months ahead and I've already had a taste. My new doctor talked me through the steps that we will take in killing off the lyme and the co-infections that come with it. I'll keep you posted as we go through the process. She feels that my symptom picture is very indicative of Bartonella as the primary and there are likely other co-infections we'll deal with after the dominant one seems to be under control. Some of the other things we'll need to evaluate and perhaps treat are viruses such as EBV and MCV. These viruses are commonly found in chronic lyme patients... so I'll keep you posted on the outcome. I'm not certain when we'll be running the labs. The other piece we'll be looking at are heavy metals to see if there is any toxic overload. If so, we'l likely have to chelate.
After evaluating my case my new doctor understood that my body is very sensitive and reacts quickly to certain things, sometimes positively and sometimes negatively. She started me on a product from Beyond Balance called MC-BAR1. She had me start out at a 1/2 drop and wanted me to increase by 1 drop every few days until arriving somewhere around 8 drops or so per day. Well, needless to say, we didn't get very far. She gave me specific instructions to pick up Activated Charcoal in case of any herxheimer reaction. She feels it is counterproductive for the body to deal with herxing.
After my appointment I took my first 1/2 drop and I took my second 1/2 drop the following day. I hadn't felt great, it was a Sunday and a beautiful day, so I decided to just relax in the sunshine for a little while. Later that day while running an errand my arms began to itch. I looked down and my arms were covered in a rash and I had newly developed patches of vitiligo all over my forearms and hands. I knew for certain this was a herx and I had to get home and call my doctor. She is available between appointments for such occasions with her lyme patients. I'm so thankful. I was scared that my vitiligo might spread to my face or simply get worse. That is here to stay, but the rash is finally gone. I had ordered a bottle of Activated Charcoal, but it had not arrived yet with my other supplements. I just didn't think my body would react so quickly to such a small amount. I have had to stop the MC-BAR 1 for the time being. My doctor has ordered a remedy to clear out my kidneys and lymph. She will go over the detail with me next week when it arrives. I'll do this cleanse for about 2 weeks and then we'll give the MC-BAR 1 another shot. I have to admit that I'm nervous, but I'll just have to trust that it will all be ok. Though the rash is gone, my body is still herxing, but now the symptoms are muscle aches and a flare up of my costochondritis, which has not happened in quite a while. It has been a painful week, but I'll see my physical therapist next week and she'll likely be able to help me get it under control. My Psoriasis is also more aggravated. It was tough to get through the week in so much pain, but I'm hopeful it will subside soon. My massage therapist was able to help reduce the pain a bit this weekend and my chiropractor has been able to help with gentle adjustments that have kept everything from getting more severe.
Despite all this, I'm excited to move forward with treatment and hopefully get to a point where I'm feeling better than ever. It will be a long and likely bumpy road, but I'm ready.
