Feeling Great...month 13

Last month was pretty depressing for me.  I tried not to show it in my post, but I was disappointed in my progress before last month and there wasn't much to write about other than I tried (and didn't succeed) with some essential oils. It wasn't that they didn't work; it was that I couldn't handle the herx.

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After the essential oils, I tried Buhner's protocol for Bartonella since I had been having some irritating Bart symptoms and I was impatient and wanted to get rid of them.

I added Japanese Knotweed first and actually felt great the days I took them. Then I added most of the others - Arginine, Sida Acuta, EGCG, and a few others. I added everything but the bacteria killing Houttynia. You can find the list of herbs on Buhner's website or the revised protocol in the latest addition of his book Healing Lyme.

After about a week on all of those herbs and supplements, I started to herx and felt bad. I felt bad enough that I ended up spending most of the day resting in bed. All of my old neurological symptoms returned and then some. Then, a couple of days after that the ice pick headaches started, so I stopped all of the extra herbs and went back to only the Restore formulations. My goal had been to do the protocol for 30 days and I thought I could handle the herx for a month, but I couldn't.

 Those of you who have had ice pick headaches know that they are no joke. They actually feel like someone sticking an ice pick into the side of your head and mine were every 5 seconds.(I'm not exaggerating) The ice pick headaches slowed down in frequency and intensity, but continued for 5 or 6 days after stopping the extra herbs. Seems that I stirred some bugs up.

I started feeling better a couple of days after stopping the herbs for Bartonella. It's really difficult to feel awful after having a couple of months of not feeling bad and feeling good some days.

One of the main reasons why I stopped the herbs for bart is that we are getting our house ready to put up for sale in May and the "get the house ready to sell" list is really long and I need to be working on that list every day and I couldn't afford to be out of commission for even a month now that I'm feeling better.

I am feeling pretty great these days - most days I'm working on the house the equivalent of working a part time job. I still have to take breaks, but most days I work about 6 hours on the list and doing household chores.  One day I worked 10 hours with 2 breaks for meals and some smaller breaks in between. I worked pretty hard for 3 days straight, then took it easy for 2 days after that. Not bad.

I'm happy to report that the past 3 weeks I've felt really great almost every day. That's how progress seems to work... A year ago I felt bad/awful, then I started having a day or two where I didn't feel bad. Then those  days got closer together.  I started  having a day when I felt good, then those feeling good days start getting close together. Finally, the feeling great days showed up and now I'm to the point of feeling great (like I can conquer the world) most days. That's a far cry from being in pain and not having the energy or even the motivation to get out of bed (remember, I have a type A personality).

It feels good to get to this point. Yes, I still have some symptoms to resolve, but they are minor annoyances and sometimes, if I sit really still, I feel totally symptom free.

One thing I would love to share with you is that I found something that's helping me sleep better. One of the reasons why I wanted to do the bart protocol so desperately is that I was getting up to go to the bathroom every 90 minutes to 2 hours at night. Sometimes after I went back to bed it was difficult to get back to sleep. Restful sleep is so important for healing, so in my search for a remedy, I found Ashwagandha and ordered some.
I ordered this one:

I took 26 drops in a few ounces of water and drank it before bed. 
It. tastes. awful. 
But, I only woke up 2 times that night instead of 4 or 5. Progress.  I didn't wake up feeling groggy either. I also remembered dreaming right before I woke up and felt rested in the morning. Last Saturday evening I slept all the way through the night and didn't wake up once! So excited about that sleep!!! That doesn't happen every night, but most nights I'm only waking up once or twice, which is a big improvement.  Last night I slept for 4 hours, then woke up and 4 hours again. That's perfect! I think I remember reading that 4 hours straight is restorative sleep, which is what I need.
Ok, so where am I with my healing and what does my day look like.
I still take my morning slow, but I'm waking up at 8 or 9 am, when I was sleeping until 10 or 11 in January.  I have enough energy during the day to work on the house list throughout the day and do daily chores. I'm currently working on painting most of the trim and doors in our house. There is a lot of trim in our house because it's BIG, which is why will be downsizing!

I've been busy painting trim all over the house. My husband painted the walls, I painted the trim. The painted box is a small makeover project.

I'm able to drive to the store and shop without brain fog taking over. I still have to be careful though. I was able to go to church last week and take out one earplug during the sermon. No, I'm not a crazy lady, I've just been sensitive to noise and anything amplified on a microphone or speaker since having lyme.  I'm looking forward to eradicating that symptom!

In summary, I've made a good jump in feeling great this past month, especially the last 3 weeks. I've come a long way since January of 2015 and I'm looking forward to complete healing.

Hope you are having a good day and can't wait to hear that you are making good progress if you have lyme disease. 
Pam

ps: remember the Collagen Protein from Dr. Axe I started adding to my smoothies last time? I'm happy to report that it's made my face really soft. The skin on my cheeks had been really scaley and not it's just really smooth.  Here are the status of my symptoms:

Numbness, tingling in feet is finally getting better!

dizziness/off balance- is mostly gone - I still get a little wobbly when I'm really tired.

blurry eyes - not as bad

urgency  (3) - still a problem, but not as bad

noise sensitivity (3)

startles easily (2)

muscle pain -only on a bad day

muscle weakness (2)

tremors - only happened once during the month when something stressful happened

high pitch ringing in the ears/low pitch ringing - high pitch is not as loud and I can hear the low pitch now

98 +   temp

Weight- down to 123- 124 Waking up at night- only once, maybe twice - down from every 2 hours  or 90 minutes.