June Update- Round 5

Another month has gone by and I'm feeling a little better than last month. 

There was one week in May where I was really tired, but once the week was over, I started feeling better again. That's the short version who want a concise update on how the herbal Restore Program from Vital Plan is working out for me.

Here are a few more details:

My husband and I celebrated our 28th wedding anniversary last month.

We have a really good marriage and having chronic lyme has been an adjustment.

He's had to do errands on the way home to pick up food or tp or other household supplies. (and has to help me with a lot of other chores, as well)

I haven't had enough energy to be able to drive to Walmart, shop and drive home - I'm hoping to be able to do that by the end of this round of herbals or next month.

 

In May, I purchased a Migun infrared Mini Mat. It's a jade infrared heating mat that raises your body temperature. (for those wondering, it was $345) I sit on it when I am resting. My temperature has raised from high 97's most days to being 98.2 to 98.6 most of the time.  Raising body temperature is important because borrelia bacteria thrive in lower body temperature. The warmth from the mat also is soothing when my muscles are sore, as well. You can read more about it HERE. 

That would have been the gist of  the whole month, that is until last week,  when I started getting the dreaded feeling that a UTI was imminent.

I fought off the UTI for a few days with some natural remedies, but finally broke down and started some Bactrim.(My primary care doctor wrote me a prescription for several courses because I've had the infection regularly).  Bactrim is one antibiotic that doesn't seem to create any problems with my stomach and it's never caused me to herx...until now. 

My UTI symptoms went away about 8 hours after the first dose of antibiotics, but I decided to take a Bactrim 2 times a day for 3 days since it didn't seem to be a bad infection. The first day I felt fine, but about 30 minutes after the taking the pill in the morning on the 2nd day, I felt a herx coming on...and it was bad. I should have known something was up because my feet felt swollen and more numb than usual upon awakening. My forearms ached, had a weird tingling feeling on my tongue and many other neuro symptoms. Overall, I just felt awful. 

Knowing this wasn't going away, I quickly got into the bathtub and added 2 cups of magnesium flakes. A hot bath usually feels good right away and helps with the symptoms after I get out, but this time, even the water didn't feel good. 

I spent most of the day in bed on my Migun Mat and thankfully, I felt better in the evening.

Oy, I can't imagine taking long term antibiotics and going through this day after day- for months at a time. Herbals are much gentler and I only herxed the first couple of weeks. If I feel some symptoms coming on, the usual detox methods (hot bath, Migun Mat, lemon water, ginger) always help.

So glad I'm off the Bactrim and only taking the herbs in the Restore Program. 

Today I went to my monthly chiropractic appointment and the chiropractor commented that this has been the best my neck has been in 3 years. I noticed yesterday that I was able to turn my neck more to the left. Yay!

After the chiropractor, I decided to tempt fate and go to the Marshall's nearby. This particular Marshall's is a small store, so I thought I could get what I needed and drive home. I didn't shop the whole store and made a beeline for the home section. I was looking for some pillows, etc. for staging our home for sale. My husband just painted our bedroom a neutral color for resale and I felt that some colorful pillows would make it look a little less boring.

Here's how the bedroom looked after painting:

It's a little too neutral for me. 

I'm really glad I decided to go to Marshall's because I found a silver pillow for the new bedroom chair and found 2 colorful pillows for the bed. 

After paying for everything and walking out to the car, I was tired and needed to rest, so I sat in the car for about 15 minutes.

After resting, I wanted to go to Steinmart to see if they had any good shirts for my dad since Father's day is coming up soon. This wasn't the Steinmart I usually found some of my dad's favorite shirts at, but I thought I'd give it a try because it was close by. I struck out. After leaving the store I was tired once again and hungry, so I ate some almonds that were in a little container in the console of the car. Glad they were in there.

After resting again, I drove across town to my regular Steinmart and found a shirt I liked for my dad. 

Once again, I was tired and rested in the car before driving home.

Once home, I unloaded the car, gathered some snacks and a drink and am now sitting- again.

Why do I go into all these little details?

All of you with lyme, or fibro or some other autoimmune disease or even those of you with young kids -- here's the moral of the story, as they say: 

Accept what you CAN do and stop getting frustrated with what you CAN'T do or don't get done. 

Tomorrow is another day. Don't stress about it because that will only make things worse.

That's all for today. 

I was going to share a review of 4 Vital Plan supplements, but the post was too long.

I will share the review on Wednesday, so stop back again!

I hope today is a good day for you,

Pam

Here are my symptoms as of today:

extreme fatigue (5-6)- can work up to 2 hour in the yard on a good day

    can drive and do a few errands as long as I rest every hour or so. 

Numbness, tingling in feet hasn't gotten better

swollen pads on bottom of feet near toes- this is as bad or worse than it's ever been.

dizziness- only when tired

difficulty finding words (1)

blurry eyes ( comes and goes)

urgency  (2)

light sensitivity (2)

noise sensitivity (2)

startles easily (3)

muscle pain (2-3)- comes and goes

aching forearms- comes and goes 

muscle weakness (6)
high pitch ringing in the ears/low pitch ringing - high pitch comes and goes
98.2- 98.6  

Down about 25 pounds (132)