Japanese Knotweed

I was looking over all of the ingredients in my LB core protocol. This is definitely some powerful stuff.

Japanese Knotweed root, Cats claw vine bark, Andrographis, Sarsparilla root and Dandelion Herb.

I realized I could harvest half of these ingredients from the land myself.

This Spring and summer, I plan on hunting for some ingredients.

Japanese Knotweed is an invasive species that grows abundantly in Pennsylvania, so I'm going to start with this and Dandelion.

The key healing ingredient in Japanese Knotweed that heals Lyme is Reveratrol. Resveratrol can be extracted from the plant with every day kitchen appliances.

Resveratrol is reported to be well known by it's anti aging and disease combating properties.

It fights against Lyme Disease, Heart Disease, Cancer (by limiting the spread of Cancer cells and triggering the process of Cancer cell death), Alzheimer's and even Diabetes.

Valentine's Day with Lyme Disease 2016

Dating with Lyme sucks.

After waking up to flowers, a card and gifts, I got into the car for a trip to an aquarium in a different state.

The way there was miserable for me. I was car sick, had migraines and forgot half the things I wanted to take on the trip at home. We tried listening to stand up together, and the voice was so loud to my sensitive ears I felt like the speaker was yelling at me! It was a relatively bright and sunny day, which was nice, but I had forgotten my sunglasses as well. I was blinded for a time.

Valentine's Day this year fell on a Sunday, and the Aquarium was PACKED.

There was a very long line of bundled up people standing outside and waiting to get their tickets.

We stood in the miserable cold for a half an hour.

An over weight woman with some kind of mental illness and disabilities walked by as we waited, shouting incoherent things as she walked and pointing to nothing. Breath escaped from her mouth as she drug her body forward, preaching an enigmatic gospel.

"That woman has a message" My guy said. "What if that woman has all of the answers to everything? Maybe she knows the future and what's going to happen, and it all is being yelled from her right now, but no one will listen to her? She's like Cassandra."

"That woman is the Oracle," I said, and then we continued to shiver.

By the time we had obtained our tickets and ventured inside of the building, I could not feel my legs.

The place was overly crowded. There were children screaming everywhere. It was a hell hole.

Everyone was crushed against the glass, and crowded around each exhibit. You had to get so close to someone to be able to see anything. I didn't want people's germs. My immune system is working hard enough!

There were some good things to see. Penguins and sharks. Smiling Manta Rays that glided by and a couple of huge sea turtles. They were my favorite.

I started taking pictures of the animals that presented themselves to me in pairs. There's the romantic in me.

Two Hippopotamus.
Two Star Fish.
Two Sea Horses.

We thought to try and have lunch there, but there was nothing I could eat with the Lyme. Not even a decent salad.

We were both happy to leave when we did.

On our way home, I was surprised to be at the gates of Longwood Gardens, a place I've been wanting to go for awhile now but never got around to it. It's an indoor garden with 4.5 acres of botanicals to observe.

I was very pleased with this surprise, until we found that it was only opened for a half hour longer by the time we had arrived. Sunday hours.

We vowed to come back again in the springtime, so we could explore the outdoor grounds.

We came home, we cooked a bland Lyme dinner and then we watched the Twilight Zone and played mystery Science Theatre 3000 with eachother while watching it. We made voices for the people on screen and our own ridiculous plot lines.

Anything sexual had been out of the question due to possible pain.

And to end the day in true Lyme fashion, I couldn't sleep that night due to Herxheimer reactions.

Even when mild, they still suck.

Dating with Lyme sucks.

On Honey and making new Lyme friends...

Lyme disease is opening so many new doors for me, and introducing me to so many new people. Some of the kindest and most empathetic people I have ever met are recent additions to my world. I am grateful for this. It also aided me to realize just how MANY people out there are suffering.

My guy will come in from work, and tell me "So and so has Lyme, too!" or "So and so's wife had Lyme."

I get onto places like MD Junction for support from others. Hundreds of people are constantly on the board, all for the same thing.

If you have Lyme Disease, MD Junction is a great place, where you will receive many answers to your anxious thoughts via both doctors and other Lymies in different stages of Lyme. I highly recommend it, and have never been disappointed with any of my visits to that page.

A very helpful Lyme Activist from Iowa named Betty G. will help you out and show you around.

Oh yes, and I wanted to share with you the beautiful medicinal honey that had finally come in the mail today.

The Good Doctor prescribed one tablespoon at bedtime, which works fine for a cup of tea. :)

The Silver Angel

A friend of mine came over and invited a friend of his, who happened to be a late stage Lymer.
He believes he is fully recovered, after a long battle with many relapses.

He also is the first person I've spoken to that believes that Lyme can actually be cured, rather than just put into remission. And late stage Lyme, at that!

We'll Call him A.

A.had eventually lost his ability to even play guitar, due to illness, and he claimed to have never had a Herx heimer reaction. I guess not all Lymies have the same strand of Lyme. Because there were two ticks found on me, maybe there are multiple strands in me?

A. shared with me his secret to combating the disease, and he explained that he had seen a Naturopath in town.

She prescribed him "Safe Silver", as shown in the picture above. Safe Silver is nano particles of Colloidal Silver, which was widely used as an antibiotic in the 30's and 40's, right before pharmaceutical antibiotics started to take off.

Colloidal Silver has a colorful history, as does the usage of Silver for healing.

People dined off of silver plates and drank from silver cups to protect themselves from the Black Plague. 

The problem with extended usage of Colloidal Silver or Silver is that the body has a hard time getting rid of the metals, and then they all slowly build up in the body and start to cause problems. One widely known symptom, is that the skin of the person turns blue or gray!

A. also eats a Vegan diet. Unlike another person with Lyme I had spoken to, he is not a raw Vegan. This diet mixed with Safe Silver landed him right into remission. He now lives a normal life.

I asked my Lyme Doctor if I should mix Colloidal Silver with my LB Protocol, and I have yet to hear an answer back regarding interactions.

On this particular day, and during this particular week, I had been very run down by depression and prayed for some kind of help, and in walks in a random newcomer with a bottle of Safe Silver as a gift and a message of hope for even Late Stage Lyme. I am so grateful for the message. The universe provides.

Thoughts and Reflections...enriched with anxiety

My mind, though filtered through depression and the coming and going of memory fog, seeks out ways to create new avenues of awareness for the unknown disease. Had it been more talked about in the high risk area that I live in, I never would have contracted Lyme in the first place.

Had the boy that was there with me that day been properly educated and treated about Lyme, he would have told me to call a Lyme doctor the day I was bitten. He might have even had more of a chance himself had he known.

May is Lyme awareness month, and I want to do something for the community. I am not sure what yet, as I am brainstorming. I want people to understand, especially parents.

It is well known that Lyme can be passed through the womb to a fetus, and that some are born with Lyme.

Some believe that Lyme is the new STD and can be sexually transmitted, because the spirochetes are cork screw shaped like Syphilis and have been found in partners and in families. There is no actual evidence of this though. It is at this point a hysteric assumption with no facts to back it up.

Can you imagine being a child with Lyme, and living your entire life feeling as though that was normal? Having adults and doctors tell you you're perfectly fine when you are chronically ill or suffering from cognitive issues related to the sickness.

Then one day you wake up, years down the road and you are crippled or blind or having hallucinations or seizures, all because of lack of awareness and proper treatment. This is such a sick thing.

My mind races with anxious thoughts on a regular.

I wonder if my own life will be shortened with Lyme. What will happen to me if my immune system gets weak when I'm old? Will Lyme come back? Is this how I'll die someday? From lyme related causes?

I think of my Aunt who had Chrone's disease, who now is in remission. She is in her 50's and hasn't had any relapses.

I wonder what life in remission will be like. Will I always have occasional flare ups? Will I relapse? Will I regain my old energy and be able to continue physical activity the way that I had been? WIll it go back to life prior to Lyme?

Will I ever be able to eat a real slice of pizza again? A warm sandwich on a cold day? Some of my grandmother's cooking? Anything my friends make? Will I be able to go out on the town again and enjoy dinner and a drink? Can I share a traditional holiday meal with my family again?

Welcome to my vault of thoughts.

Winter detoxing and Lyme

Some days I have the ability to exercise, but then I have to heal the next day. Back to back exercises don't do well with me. I start to get the stiffness in my lower back and can't continue. I hope this leaves me upon remission. I miss being as active as I was. The exercise I do get serves as a great detox for the body.

As does using my home sauna. Steaming for twenty minutes daily detoxes as much as the liver does in 24 hrs. The steam is also relaxing.

Another way I detox is by taking Chlorella in capsule form daily, and by adding Tamarind pulp to my regular diet.

As I have stated in earlier posts, detox is absolutely necessary in Lyme treatment, and Epsom salts lost my vote after I read that they could possibly send lead into your pores.

Lyme and Manganese

Lyme and it's relationship with Manganese

Manganese is a chemical element necessary for human health. Our bodies cannot live without it, and will grow sick in it's absence.

We obtain Manganese in a great deal of our foods, including Tofu, Beans, Nuts, Spices, Brown Rice, Fish, Spinach and Black Tea. These are just to name a few. Whole grains carry a great deal of Manganese as well.

The bacteria that cause Lyme Disease happens to be one of the only organisms that doesn't need Iron to thrive. Instead it thrives on Manganese.

I am in awe of how intelligent pathogens can be.

After finding this out from my own research, I thought, "If I starve the Lyme of Manganese, then they won't be able to thrive. But if I starve myself from Manganese, I will not be able to thrive."

What about lessening the Manganese in the body?

Scientists say that there is no use in limiting Manganese, because no matter how low your Manganese levels, the bacteria will continue to obtain what it needs, and the body carrying it will get sick. You're better off just maintaining healthy levels of Manganese s then the body runs properly to help it to fight.

Maybe this has something to do with why the gluten free diet is so useful in treating Lyme? Because most diets contain an abundance of Manganese.

Hmm.



Current Diet:

In my own case, I've cut out all grains period.

I've also finally taken the dairy free leap, and am completely dairy free.

I still indulge in occasional meat to ensure I get my B vitmains and needed protein.

February 2016...Some new symptoms and the dying off of others

February, 2016

Lately I feel like I have the flu all of the time, and I need to rest often. It is now 7 months since I've started proper Lyme treatment, and nine months since I have been ill. I want remission.

Little by little, though I am getting better. Going herbal is a much slower, less abrasive process than being treated with antibiotic.

I have learned a great deal about Lyme this month, and about my own personal recovery, through a series of lessons and events made discernable to me via circumstance.

Some of these will be covered in this month's posts, and include learning about Colloidal Silver, ideas to further spread Lyme awareness, medicinal honey, going non dairy, Japanese Knotweed and thoughts on life in remission.

I am excited to report that as of this month, my throat hasn't swelled or closed up on me. I am very grateful for this transition, and take it as a symptom of my body healing.

I have just started experiencing pelvic pain and painful orgasm this month, but it was only for a week's time. It was an unpleasant surprise, and the pain felt dull and sharp at the same time, and continued for days afterward.

I went to my OBGYN to be sure that it was nothing more serious. I came up with an abnormal pap smear and am due for a colposcopy early next month.

Every once in a while, I'll get a flare up of arthritic pain in the sides of hands, and an uncomfortable lower back stiffness. Overall, I am feeling much better, beside the constant nausea.

My current medicinal regimen goes as follows:
Honey-1 Tbsp before bed by Tropical Traditions
Curcumin 500- once a day by Pure Encapuslations
Methyl Folate once daily by Jarrow
Vitamin D twice daily by Pure Encapulations
Ashwaganda before bed by Gaia
Chlorella once daily for detox by Solaray

and 12 capsules of  LB Protocol taken four times daily. I have been suffering from the nausea more so as I'm up to 12 a day. I wonder if maybe it has something to do with Oxalic acid in the Japanese Knotweed

I feel as though it's still going to be a long road. Possibly even another seven months until remission, but I'll be back to where I was by the end of all of this.

Observations of my own have shown me that Lyme symptoms follow a cycle or pattern through out the body, making certain ones pop up and others die down.

As wary as my mind gets, and as tired as my body is, I remain grateful for my strong immune system and anticipate a healthier future.