Bartonellosis: A Hidden Cause of Splenomegaly

November 26, 2019

https://www.galaxydx.com/bartonella-a-hidden-cause-of-disease-in-spleen/

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Bartonellosis: A Hidden Cause of Splenomegaly

An enlarged spleen can present a diagnostic mystery. The spleen is an organ that is like a large lymph node (see our previous blog post on bartonellosis and lymph nodes). It cleans old red blood cells from the bloodstream and as part of that process is exposed to everything in the body.

The spleen can become enlarged (splenomegaly) due to a pathogen, a metastasized cancer, or other reasons such as autoimmune disease. Rarely, the spleen can rupture. A person with an enlarged spleen may be advised to avoid contact activities in order to prevent rupture.

Sometimes the changes to the spleen can be hard to interpret or hard to treat, leading to splenectomy (spleen removal surgery) that may not be necessary. For example, a case report from 2009 warns that changes caused by Bartonella species infection (bartonellosis) may be mistaken for splenic lymphoma.

One question is just what role the spleen plays in controlling bartonellosis. This has been tested in both cats and mice. In the mice, spleens were removed from some mice and how they responded to bartonellosis was compared to mice with intact spleens. The mice without spleens had 10 times higher bacteremia (the total bacteria load in the blood), and their infections lasted an average of two weeks longer. A similar experiment done in cats had the same result. Clearly, the spleen plays an important role in managing bartonellosis.

Research in dogs suggests there may be a link between Bartonella species and cancer of the spleen as well. Splenic disease is a cause of mortality in older dogs, especially Golden Retrievers, which have the highest prevalence of hemangiosarcomas (cancer of the blood/blood vessels) among breeds. The highly vascular splenic tissue makes a suitable home for these cancers. Once the mass grows large enough, it can cause the spleen to rupture and/or cells can metastasize to other places such as the heart.

In one study, Galaxy Diagnostics co-founder Dr. Breitschwerdt and his team at the North Carolina State College of Veterinary Medicine used PCR on tissue biopsies to discover that Bartonellaspecies DNA was more prevalent in splenic hemangiosarcomas compared to Babesia and Mycoplasma species. In 2018, the American Kennel Club’s Canine Health Foundation awarded a $220,000 grant to the Bartonella Research Project at the college to further examine the link between bartonellosis and splenic hemangiosarcomas in dogs.

In humans, Bartonella species infections of the spleen have been reported with other symptoms including fever and other infected organs. Bartonellosis has been associated with abscesses or nodules in the spleen. Bacillary peliosis can also occur in the spleen (see our previous blog post on bacillary peliosis and bacillary angiomatosis).

In one reported case, a spleen rupture occurred spontaneously with no prior signs of infection such as fever. A lymph node from the splenic hilum was found to have necrotizing granulomas and microabscesses. The individual was tested for a variety of pathogens and found to be infected with Bartonella henselae.

Bartonellosis is notoriously hard to detect, which can make spleen symptoms caused by Bartonella species particularly mysterious. A patient in the United States had an enlarged spleen, skin lesions, and anemia. Blood testing did not reveal bartonellosis, but the spleen was eventually removed and tissue tests revealed the presence of Bartonella bacilliformis. This is a species of Bartonella that is primarily transmitted by sand flies in South America. The patient, it turns out, had visited South America three years earlier.

An enlarged spleen can be caused by a variety of things, making it difficult for physicians to determine why it is happening and therefore an effective treatment. For many patients, it can be safer to remove the spleen immediately and perform further diagnostics later. Bartonellosis is one cause which can be difficult to detect, but it is treatable.

References

Rising, T. et al. (2016). Splenorenal manifestations of Bartonella henselae infection in a pediatric patient. Case Reports in Radiology, 2016, 7803732. doi:10.1155/2016/7803832 https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4835656/

Liberto, M. C. et al. (2013). Diagnosis and follow-up of Bartonella henselae infection in the spleen of an immunocompetent patient by real-time quantitative PCR. Journal of Medical Microbiology, 62(7). doi:10.1099/jmm.0.050617-0 Available at: https://www.microbiologyresearch.org/docserver/fulltext/jmm/62/7/1081_jmm050617.pdf?expires=1573610642&id=id&accname=guest&checksum=CCB170A5F5F432F02D4BC09F1D47E638

Bieraugel, K. et al. (2015). Cat got your spleen? Hepatosplenic Bartonella infection. The American Journal of Medicine, 128(3), 246-249. doi:10.1016/j.amjmed.2014.11.003 https://www.amjmed.com/article/S0002-9343(14)01022-5/abstract

Daybell, D. et al. (2004). Disseminated infection with Bartonella henselae as a cause of spontaneous splenic rupture. Clinical Infectious Diseases, 39(3), e21-e24. doi:10.1086/422001 https://academic.oup.com/cid/article/39/3/e21/354202

Lydy, S. L. et al. (2008). Isolation and characterization of Bartonella bacilliformis from and expatriate Ecuadorian. Journal of Clinical Microbiology, 42(2), 627-637. doi:10.1128/JCM.01207-07 https://jcm.asm.org/content/46/2/627

Ghez, D. et al. (2001). Bartonella henselae infection mimicking a splenic lymphoma. Scandinavian Journal of Infectious Diseases, 33(12), 935-936. doi:10.1080/00365540110076705 https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/00365540110076705?journalCode=infd19

Sykes, J. E. et al. (2007). Bartonella henselae infection in splenectomized domestic cats previously infected with hemotropic Mycoplasma species. Veterinary Immunology and Immunopathology, 116(1-2): 104-8. doi:10.1016/j.vetimm.2006.12.004 https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/17254639

Varanat, M. et al. (2011). Molecular prevalence of Bartonella, Babesia, and Hemotropic Mycoplasma sp. in dogs with splenic disease. Journal of Veterinary Internal Medicine, 25(6), 1284-1291. doi:10.1111/j.1939-1676.2011.00811.x https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full/10.1111/j.1939-1676.2011.00811.x

North Carolina State University. (2018). AKC-CHF grant funds new CVM Bartonella research project. Available at: https://cvm.ncsu.edu/akc-chf-grant-funds-new-cvm-bartonella-research-project/

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**Comment**

How many doctors are privy to this knowledge?  My guess – not many. They will test you and when it comes back negative they will emphatically state you can’t have Bartonella, yet you can see from this article that it’s very hard to detect and they only found it when the spleen was removed and specifically tested.

Please learn all you can so you are aware of the many ways Bartonella can present so you can advocate for yourself and loved ones.

For more:  https://madisonarealymesupportgroup.com/category/bartonella-treatment/

Category:

Bartonella

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Omega-3s Recommended as Adjunctive Therapy for Major Depression

November 25, 2019

https://www.medscape.com/viewarticle/918963?

Omega-3s Recommended as Adjunctive Therapy for Major Depression

Megan Brooks

September 25, 2019

A clinical practice guideline from the International Society for Nutritional Psychiatry Research (ISNPR) recommends omega-3 polyunsaturated fatty acids (PUFAs) as adjunctive therapy for major depressive disorder (MDD).

The value of omega-3 PUFAs in depression is “overlooked,” even though accumulating evidence supports it. This therapy “needs to be on the radar” of physicians, Kuan-Pin Su, MD, PhD, chief of the Department of General Psychiatry, China Medical University, Taichung, Taiwan, told Medscape Medical News.

Su, a founding member of the ISNPR and a strong proponent of “nutritional psychiatry,” organized a subcommittee of the ISNPR and invited the top 10 most-cited authors in the use of omega-3 PUFAs for depression to review the literature and develop the practice guideline on appropriate prescribing of omega-3 fatty acids for MDD.

The consensus guideline was published online September 3 in Psychotherapy and Psychosomatics.

Prophylaxis, Maintenance

The guideline emphasizes the importance of accurate clinical diagnosis and measurement-based psychopathologic assessments in the therapeutic setting when recommending omega-3 PUFAs for depression.

The guideline notes that there is a growing body of evidence demonstrating the efficacy of n-3 PUFAs as an adjunctive treatment for MDD. The guideline authors also note that omega-3s are safe and effective for accelerating the effect of antidepressants at treatment initiation and for augmenting existing antidepressant therapy when efficacy is inadequate.

With respect to formulation and dosage, the guideline recommends pure eicosapentaenoic acid (EPA) or a combination of EPA and docosahexaenoic acid, with net EPA starting from at least 1 g/day up to 2 g/day for at least 8 weeks as adjunctive treatment. Importantly, the authors note that the quality of n-3 PUFAs may affect therapeutic activity.

The guideline also endorses n-3 PUFAs as a potential prophylactic treatment for high-risk populations, in addition to standard medical care. The duration of acute n-3 PUFA treatment may be extended to include maintenance treatment to prevent recurrence.

Potential side effects, such as gastrointestinal and dermatologic conditions, should be monitored, and comprehensive metabolic panels should be obtained during treatment, the guideline authors note.

They call for further research into personalizing the clinical application of n-3 PUFAs in subgroups of patients with MDD whose omega-3 index is low or who have high levels of inflammatory markers.

The panel acknowledges in the guideline that there is ongoing debate on the benefits of omega-3 PUFAs for MDD. Meta-analyses have shown “only small but statistically significant effects,” the authors write.

They note that in three meta-analyses, the estimated effect sizes (standardized mean differences between n-3 PUFAs and placebo) ranged from 0.23 to 0.56, with wide confidence intervals (CIs).

However, small effect sizes have also been reported regarding antidepressant drugs compared to placebo (standardized mean differences, 0.30 – 0.47, with narrower CIs).

Given that currently recommended therapies for MDD have only small effects, the panel notes three “practical” strategies that should be employed to address the “unmet” need in depression treatment.

These include an open-minded attitude to integrative intervention; the application of personalized medicine; and a shared decision-making process based on balanced information to enhance treatment adherence.

Reasonable Approach

Commenting for Medscape Medical News, Timothy Sullivan, MD, chair of psychiatry and behavioral sciences at Northwell Health’s Staten Island University Hospital in New York City, said the recommendation constitutes a “perfectly reasonable practice guideline.

“The big picture, however, is that while there is a literature on the usefulness of omega-3s, average clinical experience hasn’t been as impressive. Clinicians generally haven’t been overwhelmed by the results. There are practitioners that favor them more than others,” said Sullivan.

“Conceptually,” he added, “what’s appealing about omega-3s is we know that depressive states are associated with dysregulation of the immune system, and agents like the omega-3s appear to have a role in helping to re-regulate or positively regulate the immune system and combat some of the metabolic effects of stress. But it’s still an area that we need to understand more about.”

The guideline authors were supported by research grants from the Ministry of Science and Technology, Taiwan; the National Health Research Institutes, Taiwan; and the Chinese Medicine Research Center from the China Medical University. Su is a founding committee member of the ISNPR, the board director of the International Society for the Study of Fatty Acids, and an associate editor of Brain, Behavior and Immunity. The original article contains a complete list of authors’ relevant financial relationships. Sullivan has disclosed no relevant financial relationships.

Psychother Psychosom. Published online September 3, 2019. Full text

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For more:  https://madisonarealymesupportgroup.com/2019/06/05/can-lyme-disease-cause-depression/

Excerpt:

Many people are surprised to learn that infectious diseases, including Lyme disease, are a major contributor to mental illnesses and cognitive issues.Research shows that children who have had an infectious disease are significantly more likely to have mental health problems as they grow up. In a study that followed over 3.5 million people, scientists found a 62% increase in the risk for mood disorders if a person had been hospitalized for any type of infection.

https://madisonarealymesupportgroup.com/2018/10/03/lyme-patient-misdiagnosed-with-anxiety-depression/

https://madisonarealymesupportgroup.com/2019/08/11/the-unfortunate-connections-between-lyme-disease-mental-illness/

https://madisonarealymesupportgroup.com/2019/04/18/ketamine-reduces-depression-related-behaviors-in-mice-limits-bb-in-vivo-relieves-chronic-pain/

https://madisonarealymesupportgroup.com/2019/11/22/side-effects-mild-brief-with-single-antidepressant-dose-of-intravenous-ketamine/

https://madisonarealymesupportgroup.com/2019/05/11/irish-student-admitted-to-hospital-for-depression-actually-had-a-deadly-brain-infection/

This is happening more and more, yet is considered to be rare:  https://madisonarealymesupportgroup.com/2017/10/01/panspandas-steroids-autoimmune-disease-lymemsids-the-need-for-medical-collaboration/  Two stories are presented in this link – Susannah Cahalan’s story from the book, “Brain on Fire,” who had a similar auto-immune brain issue, and then the story of Patrik who had Lyme disease which morphed into Autoimmune encephalopathy.

Lyme/MSIDS, PANS, PANDAS, & autoimmune encephalopathy can all be interconnected and we need knowledgable practitioners who can recognize this as it’s not going away anytime soon.

 

 

 

Category:

Inflammation, research, Supplements, Treatment

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Hundreds of People Impacted by Tick-Borne Illnesses in North Carolina

https://spectrumlocalnews.com/nc/triangle-sandhills/news/2019/10/30/hundreds-of-people-impacted-by-tick-borne-illnesses-#  News video here

Hundreds of People Impacted by Tick-Borne Illnesses

By Kaitlin Miller Triad
PUBLISHED  Oct. 30, 2019

NORTH CAROLINA — State health officials said hundreds of people in North Carolina are infected by tick-borne illnesses each year, but deaths are rare.

Former Senator Kay Hagan died this week from complications from a tick bite.

Infectious Disease Expert, Dr. Christopher Ohl, said he sees a handful of patients each year who have been bitten by ticks.

He added lyme disease and viruses are rare in North Carolina, but there three tick-borne infections to worry about here.

 “One is Rocky Mountain spotted fever, which is in the spotted fever group. The other is ehrlichia or ehrlichiosis, which comes from that little tick which you may have seen that has a big white spot on its back, the lone star tick. And then the third one is a kind of group of infections related to Rocky Mountain spotted fever,” said Dr. Ohl.

Health officials said they can be treated by antibiotics. (See link for full story and news video)

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**Comment**

The article stupidly states that Lyme disease and viruses are rare in North Carolina.  I’m from Wisconsin and just had an infected North Carolina patient contact me yesterday. Now why on earth would someone from NC contact me?  I’ll tell you why – they aren’t believed down South:   https://madisonarealymesupportgroup.com/2018/05/31/no-lyme-in-the-south-guess-again/

https://madisonarealymesupportgroup.com/2019/04/22/its-just-crazy-why-is-lyme-disease-treatment-so-difficult-to-find-in-mississippi/

https://madisonarealymesupportgroup.com/2017/10/24/no-lyme-in-oklahoma-yeah-right/

https://madisonarealymesupportgroup.com/2016/09/24/arkansas-kids-denied-lyme-treatment/  This one really gets me….listen to what this bonehead had to say:

According to Dr. Naveen Patil, Director of the Infectious Disease Program, ADH,

“We don’t have Lyme Disease in Arkansas, we have the ticks that transmit Lyme Disease but we don’t have any recorded cases of Lyme Disease.” 

Wow.  Illogic at its best.

Dr. Ohl says to just wait and see if you develop symptoms.  Stupid, stupid advice. This “wait and see” approach is dooming patients to a life-time of suffering.  According to ILADS:

  • Based on animal studies, ILADS recommends that known blacklegged tick bites be treated with 20 days of doxycycline (barring any contraindications).
  • Given the low success rates in trials treating EM rashes for 20 or fewer days, ILADS recommends that patients receive 4-6 weeks of doxycycline, amoxicillin or cefuroxime. A minimum of 21 days of azithromycin is also acceptable, especially in Europe. All patients should be reassessed at the end of their initial therapy and, when necessary, antibiotic therapy should be extended.
  • ILADS recommends that patients with persistent symptoms and signs of Lyme disease be evaluated for other potential causes before instituting additional antibiotic therapy.  https://www.ilads.org/patient-care/ilads-treatment-guidelines/

And a recent study states that treating prophylactically if TBI’s are suspected is warranted: https://madisonarealymesupportgroup.com/2017/07/12/start-treatment-if-tbis-are-suspected/.  Also see:  https://www.lymedisease.org/lyme-basics/lyme-disease/diagnosis/, and https://madisonarealymesupportgroup.com/2017/09/02/microbiologist-holly-ahern-on-lyme-disease-how-did-we-get-here/.

If you’ve been bitten by a tick but aren’t believed and are told Lyme doesn’t exist in the South, go somewhere else.

 

 

 

 

Category:

Activism, Lyme, Viruses

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Interpreting Your Lyme Patients’ Ups & Downs For Greater Clinical Success

https://www.uprootinglyme.com/interpreting-your-lyme-patients-ups-downs-for-greater-clinical-success/

Interpreting Your Lyme Patients’ Ups & Downs For Greater Clinical Success

Interpreting Your Lyme Patients’ Ups & Downs For Greater Clinical Success

By

Recently a patient I was treating for Lyme who had been doing better and better, suddenly took a turn for the worse.  In order to help her know what to do to manage and move through her flare, I needed to try and determine what had caused it.

Was it the effects of the laser acupuncture she had been receiving lately?  Was it the new set of homeopathic medicines that another practitioner had recommended?  Was it the trees-with-questionschange of environment since she recently transitioned to her summer home?  Was it a delayed response to a mercury amalgam removal procedure from several weeks ago?  Something she was eating… or something else?

Health practitioners who treat Lyme, stealth infections and other complex chronic diseases are familiar with this guessing game.  A major challenge to treatment success is the truckload of dynamic factors continually influencing body and brain chemistry – and often not in the positive direction towards health and well-being.

The Art of Interpreting Change

Between the best-laid treatment plan and the chaos of advancing disease lies the “zone of complexity.”  It’s within this zone that doctors and practitioners of Lyme and complex chronic disease attempt to interpret the patient’s responses to treatment.

From my years exploring and experimenting with natural detoxification and fasting methods, I became good at understanding the difference between a disease crisis and a healing crisis.  This understanding is crucial if we are to wisely interpret a patient’s ups and downs.

feeling-sickOver the years I have heard many Lyme literate doctors, naturopaths, PA’s and other practitioners give feedback to patients who took a turn for the worse.  In general, conventional medicine practitioners, even Lyme-literate ones with the best of intentions, don’t know how to analyze the unpredictable responses that Lyme patients often have to pharmaceuticals and other treatments.  I’ve also seen a similar scenario played out with herbalists, homeopaths, etc.

They deny that their treatment is responsible for the setback because it doesn’t “make sense” to them.  They may also refer out to a neurologist, cardiologist, etc., recommending specialist diagnostics in order to understand the unpredictable response of their patient.stethoscope

Yet the so-called setback could be handled so much more productively in most cases, moving the patient forward in their recovery and deepening their trust in the course of treatment.

How can this happen?  Understanding the difference between a disease crisis and a healing crisis is essential.

3 Basic Principles for Interpreting Change in Patients:

1.) Examine what preceded the flare (or acute symptomology) in terms of lifestyle.  Was the patient implementing a detox regimen of some kind?   In this case, chances are what has been provoked is a healing crisis, and the best way through this is continuing to detoxify and support the immune system.

On the other hand, if what preceded the apparent setback was a time of stress, a newly acquired infection, or poor lifestyle habits, then the symptoms likely do represent a progression of disease.

2.) Next, review the patient’s recent history in terms of energy.  Had they just reached a new level of improved energy and vitality?  This then is an indicator that the body has initiated a healing crisis, an advancement towards health, and the acute symptomology is a clearing of a layer of disease or infection that ought to be supported rather than suppressed. morning-walker

Conversely, if the patient had warning signs, or feelings and signs that his health was weakening, then the flare indicates a disease crisis.

3.) Finally, look at timing.  Typically disease crises are not short-lived.  They require at least a week to recover from, or they lead to a downward spiral of health.  On the other hand, when handled properly, a healing crisis can be managed and supported so that the symptoms are relatively short-lived, lasting only a day to a week.

The Gift of Clinical Experience

“Good judgment comes from experience, and a lot of that comes from bad judgment.” – Will Rogers

There is no substitute for clinical experience.  That’s why our year-long training for practitioners who want to specialize in holistic Lyme treatment is anchored in 3 live clinical experiences per year, which supply you with ample real-life cases to workshop, practice and apply the principles of holistic Lyme recovery in a guided setting.

Learn more and apply at www.uprootinglyme.com/mentorship

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**Comment**

In my experience, teasing out what is doing what is one of the most challenging aspects of treatment. Patients don’t understand that treating Lyme/MSIDS is unlike anything else they’ve ever done before and that instead of feeling better, they are going to feel worse – often for a long, long time (years).  For a great read: https://madisonarealymesupportgroup.com/2015/08/15/herxheimer-die-off-reaction-explained/ as well as:   https://madisonarealymesupportgroup.com/2015/12/06/tips-for-newbies/.

Treatment is very hard and long.  It is often also painful and time consuming. You pretty much revolve your life around the timing of pills, eating, and tinctures.

I find that patients that adopt an attitude of learning do far better than those who just want to be told what to do.  The reason you need to learn all you can is that no two people respond identically to treatment and you are the expert on your body. Learn all you can, ask a lot of questions, and read about all aspects of health.  It will all help you in the end.

alancing this new way of thinking takes some finesse but once you’ve learned how to balance life with this new way of thinking – everything is viewed through a different lens. If you allow it, illness can help transform you into a more caring and whole person.  

All of a sudden what you thought was a road block became a stepping stone to a place you’d never been before.

Category:

Detoxing, Lyme

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Escaping the Lyme/MSIDS Diagnosis Merry-Go-Round

https://rawlsmd.com/health-articles/meagain-escaping-the-diagnosis-merry-go-round-how-jennifer-casstevens-got-on-the-right-path-to-lyme-recovery?

[#MeAgain] Escaping the Diagnosis Merry-Go-Round: How Jennifer Casstevens Got on the Right Path to Lyme Recovery

[#MeAgain] Escaping the Diagnosis Merry-Go-Round: How Jennifer Casstevens Got on the Right Path to Lyme Recovery

By Jenny Lelwica Buttaccio
Posted 10/30/19

“I know the exact date it happened,” says Jennifer Casstevens, a mother of two and group travel agent in Oak Island, North Carolina. “It was October 12th, 2016. I woke up that day, and I thought I had the flu again.”

During the year prior, Jennifer had experienced a couple of episodes where she thought she had the flu, but after four of five days of just feeling bad, she recovered. “This time, it didn’t get better; the symptoms started piling on each other.”

The days leading up to Jennifer’s epic flu-like symptoms were nothing noteworthy. In fact, the day before, she and her husband had driven a couple of hours to pick up a car, and they returned home later that evening without incidence.

By the following morning, however, Jennifer says, “For whatever reason, I just couldn’t get out of bed. My family started to worry, and they wanted me to go to the doctor. It was scary.”

Jennifer's portrait in front of a wooden backgroundGrowing up, Jennifer lived in Virginia and spent a significant amount of time outdoors. She’d always been an avid sports enthusiast, playing softball from the time she was 8 years old through her college years at Virginia Tech and beyond.

“I was always outside; that’s just how it was. We rode bikes around the neighborhood and all that kind of stuff.” Jennifer recalls being bitten by a tick when she was in elementary school and her mother removing it. “I never had anything happen; I never got a rash.” Aside from an occasional sinus infection, she was a healthy kid and rarely got sick.

The first hints that something wasn’t quite right with her health came in her early to mid-20s. She describes those initial symptoms as ringing in her ears, carpal tunnel syndrome (CTS), and temporomandibular joint (TMJ) dysfunction. “They would just come and go. They happened one at a time over spans of time, so I didn’t put them together until I got really sick,” she says.

And so, on that pivotal day in 2016, Jennifer sought help at her local urgent care. There, the doctor diagnosed her with a bladder infection. “I’ve never had one in my life,” she explains. “I don’t know how they came up with it, but I went along with it because I had a little bit of back pain.”

She was put on antibiotics, but they failed to offer her any relief. Instead, her conditioned worsened as she experienced unrelenting fatigue, severe tailbone pain, and extreme numbness on her torso, including her hips and stomach. “There was no feeling there,” she describes. “Just numbness.”

“When the doctor allotted an hour for our first appointment and let me talk and askedme questions, it was like having someone finally look at me as a whole person.”

Next, Jennifer saw a gastroenterologist and a neurologist. She underwent a battery of tests, including a colonoscopy and an MRI. In an all-too-familiar story, her tests came back normal. By the end of 2016, Jennifer had maxed out her health insurance benefits with no clue as to what was wrong with her.

In January 2017, Jennifer decided to pay her primary care physician (PCP) a visit and request an ELISA test to check for Lyme disease. She had an aunt who had dealt with chronic Lyme disease, and since her doctors kept coming up empty-handed with helpful diagnoses or solutions, Jennifer wondered if perhaps that’s what was causing her to feel so unwell. She recounts the resistance she encountered when broaching the subject of a tick-borne disease as a possible cause of her symptoms.

“The doctor basically told me that I didn’t look like a Lyme patient and said, ‘But we can just test for it if you want to,’” Jennifer says. “Of course, the results were negative, and it was kind of like an ‘I told you so’ reply to the test. So I wrote Lyme off.”

Jennifer’s next stop was with a spine specialist due to her persistent tailbone pain, and her husband accompanied her to the appointment. After the spine specialist had reviewed her files, he told her, “You probably have something that they don’t teach us about in medical school. If it were my wife, I would look for tertiary care.”

In other words, she and her husband needed to seek answers at one of the country’s highly specialized medical institutions. They soldiered on, and Jennifer made an appointment for the following month at a well-known, out-of-state clinic. There, she received a diagnosis of fibromyalgia, a recommendation to attend the clinic’s chronic pain program, and suggestions for two medications.

Jennifer, her daughter, and dog sitting in a planeJennifer returned to North Carolina and took the medications for fibromyalgia regularly, but they weren’t providing her with any relief. So, after 45 days, she stopped taking them and pursued yet another avenue — a urogynecologist.

He diagnosed her with pelvic floor dysfunction, and for a short time, Jennifer thought she might be on the right track. But her hope was short-lived. “I paid an obscene amount of money for treatment, and I still didn’t feel better,” she says.

Fortunately, a breakthrough was just around the corner. In August 2017, Jennifer received a recommendation from a family member for an integrative health practice in Winston-Salem, North Carolina. This appointment was unusual compared to all others, because the doctor allotted an hour time slot for her first appointment.

“He let me talk for an hour; he asked me questions,” Jennifer recalls. “That was probably the most I’d talked to anybody. Most of the time, I was in and out in 15 minutes with every doctor that I saw, and I probably saw 18 doctors before I saw him!”

Finally, Jennifer had some answers: The doctor diagnosed her with neurological Lyme disease, Bartonella, Mycoplasma, a thyroid problem, MTHFR mutation, reactivated Epstein-Barr virus, and an estrogen imbalance. Since typical Lyme tests like the ELISA and the standard western blot are notoriously unreliable for cases of Lyme disease that aren’t caught in the acute stage, her doctor used Lyme testing from DNA Connexions to confirm his diagnosis.

“That was shocking: I had pretty much dismissed Lyme because of the ELISA test and the comment my PCP had made,” says Jennifer. “It was like having someone finally look at me as a whole person.

The doctor suggested she begin a 75-day course of antibiotics. Once the antibiotic therapy was finished, she switched to experimenting with herbal protocols.

“Basically, I was self-dosing on the herbal protocol,” says Jennifer. “I spent most of 2018 trying to find the right combinations, because some herbs would make me nauseous, so I would stop taking them. I knew that wasn’t the best path. I never could get that combination right.”

To help ease her symptoms, Jennifer began acupuncture, which she found extremely helpful. She also explored neuromuscular massage therapy, a type of soft tissue manipulation that works on the muscular and nervous systems, which was key to improving her long-standing tailbone pain.

In December 2018, Jennifer returned to her doctor for a follow-up appointment, but blood tests were still showing markers for Lyme. At that point, her doctor suggested she try Dr. Bill Rawls’ herbal protocol. When Jennifer looked into it, she was shocked by how simple the plan was.

“Remember that once you come out on the other side, you’re going to feel better. You think it’s a setback, but actually, it’s a breakthrough.”“I told my husband, ‘I think it’s herbs for dummies, because it looks easy,’ recalls Jennifer. “It’s all there in four bottles, and this is what I take, and it didn’t make me nauseous. I was like, I can handle this!” Dr. Rawls’ combination of herbs quelled her nausea, allowing her to feel significantly better, and it worked well in combination with the additional herbs and medications she was taking.

In addition to Dr. Rawls’ protocol, Jennifer has found his blog to be a valuable source of information for her. “That’s my go-to now — I just a word in the Search box, and an article will pop up that gives me my explanation,” she says.

For example, in June of this year, Jennifer was having a couple of horrible weeks. “I thought I was relapsing, and I didn’t know why.” She hopped on the website and landed on an article about the common causes of Lyme flare-ups, which helped her understand that her increasing symptoms were likely due to a flare-up and not a Herxheimer reaction.

Armed with this new information, Jennifer made an appointment with her doctor, where she learned that what she was experiencing was probably the result of a Bartonella flare. They adjusted her treatment to target the Lyme coinfection more aggressively.

While many people would be discouraged by a setback, Jennifer realized she could glean some valuable insights from what was going on in her body. She began to view bad days not as setbacks but as progress.

“Your body is trying to do something good,” says Jennifer. “Remember that once you come out on the other side, you’re going to feel better. You think it’s a setback, but actually, it’s a breakthrough.”

Jennifer and her husband on the lake catching fish

These days, Jennifer estimates that she’s about 60% healed. She credits Dr. Rawls’ herbal protocol for her increased energy, reduction in brain fog, and better concentration, problems that had troubled her for at least two years. She also adopted Dr. Rawls’ gut-restoring diet, cut out gluten, dairy, and refined carbohydrates, removed foods she was allergic to, and dove into the pages of his book, Unlocking Lyme.

In September, Jennifer played nine holes of golf with her husband, an activity which she hadn’t been able to do in three years. “I’ve golfed a couple of times since then, too. That was probably my number one goal, activity-wise,” says Jennifer. “It’s one of those things that makes me feel like this is me. I’ve finally gotten to that point.”

What’s her advice to other people who are seeking relief from Lyme disease and Lyme coinfections? “Be patient: Know that it’s not going to happen overnight,” says Jennifer. “I’ve made a lot of progress, and I feel like I can do a lot more now than I have in the past three years. I’m definitely on the right path now.”

Welcome to the #MeAgain Story Series. Our aim is to share stories from people who have recovered, or are recovering, from chronic disease in order to give you hope that healing is within your reach. This series will highlight their struggles and triumphs to inspire you to take action and reclaim your life. Enjoy!

Hank’s Story | Shawn’s Story | Julie’s Story | Ron’s Story | Stephanie’s Story | Donna’s Story | Brad’s Story | Mira’s Story | Jeff’s Story | Nicole’s Story | Jennifer’s Story

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**Comment**

I didn’t post this article to push Dr. Rawl’s herbal treatment – although both my husband and I tried it and relapsed on it.  I post it to show people respond differently to treatments and it’s important to keep an open mind and to never give up.  This story once again highlights the need to be as persistent as the organism itself as mainstream medicine is in a complete coma regarding tick-borne illness and is not to be trusted with your health.

All you will do is waste valuable time and money to be disbelieved and sent home with an anti-depressant.

If you or a loved one suspect tick-borne illness, get to an ILADS-trained professional, asap.   The best place to find reputable practitioners is by contacting your local support groups. These people have a lot of experience and can help you.  You can find a link by scrolling down the website to “find a Lyme support group.”  You can also contact ILADS directly, also by scrolling down to “ILADS.”

Category:

Activism, Herbs, Lyme, Treatment

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