EVERYONE NEEDS TO WATCH THIS!
If you've ever walked on grass, under trees, or are a child of a mother with Lyme...you need to watch this. If you've only ever lived on Antarctica, you are exempt. EVERYONE NEEDS TO WATCH THIS!
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Yesterday, I had a live blood smear done. This involves an analysis of peripheral blood. My finger was stuck with a lancet and two drops were taken and each placed on a slide. A microscope was then used to observe the blood cells and any bacteria, parasites, or other microorganisms. I've added three of the 23 videos that were taken during the analysis. In each video you will see circles that look like glistening doughnuts. Those are my red blood cells. They are basically normal except they are not perfectly round. I have some anisocytosis which means a patient's RBCs are of unequal size. It is commonly found in anemia and other blood conditions. My iron deficiency anemia came back several months ago, so that explains the anisocytes. The findings are posted directly below each video. In the middle of the frame you can see a long, squiggly black thing. That is a Lyme spirochete. In this video you can see a neutrophil which is a type of white blood cell. Neutrophils form an essential part of the immune system. If you look closely, you can see that the neutrophil has 3 spirochetes around the left side. It is attempting to destroy the spirochetes. THAT...is a good thing. This. Yeah...this guy is a nematode. I posted the video of a different magnification so you can see the whole thing. That's why the red blood cells look so tiny. This is a problem I didn't know that I had. Nematodes are also a co-infection of Lyme. Ticks carry them in their gut and they are passed to the host through the tick bite just as all of the other bacterium are.
My Lyme team treats all of their patients with a round of an antiparasitic before Lyme treatment even starts. They gave me Biltricide and it make me sick. Fortunately, that round was only 4 days. It makes me wonder if I was sick because it was trying to kill the nematodes off. Now, we have to figure out what route to go. I think we need to try a therapeutic round of oral Ivermectin to see how I do. That will be the next big point of discussion in our teleconference next week. All of this is very easy for me to understand. In 1994, I graduated with a Bachelor of Science in Clinical Laboratory Science before I got my RN degree in 2001. We had intensive studies in Hematology, Pathogenic Microbiology, and Parasitology. My first degree has provided me more information as a patient than when I was in the workplace. Now, do you want to read something really interesting after seeing that nematode in my blood? Take a look at the following article by clicking on the title... Lyme Bacteria Hides Inside Parasitic Worms, Causing Chronic Brain Diseases I love Dr. Richard Horowitz. He has treated countless Lyme patients with great success. He's in Hyde Park, New York. The video shows his book at the end. It's one of the first Lyme books I ever bought and has a ton of information in it. There are a lot of parts of it that will go right over your head. You can tell it was written by a doctor because it's very technical. He does a good job explaining it, though. He has written a new book that I pre-ordered that is written more for the layperson. It'll be out by the end of the year. A little more fun has been added to my day. I can't wait! Finally, the Clindamycin has been authorized and ready for infusion. It's twice a day Monday-Friday and will add 2 hours to my infusion time giving me a total of 4 hours on Mondays, Wednesdays, and Fridays. Clindamycin has to be refrigerated which means I'll have to stick it somewhere in between the relish, Havarti cheese, and leftover baked beans. It should fit right in. What you see in the picture below is what I'll be infusing Monday-Sunday. So, I know you're asking what the deal is with the little bulb thingies. They're called elastomeric pumps, eclipses, or grenades. I, of course, prefer the latter. :) The one big bonus to the Clinda grenades is that they don't have to be hung on an IV pole. They don't work by gravity. I can walk around the house with it in my pocket if I want to. Since it's a little hard to explain I went to look for a YouTube video on how to infuse them. Sure enough...I found a great one! The only thing she doesn't mention is if there's some kind of Pinterest project I can make out of them. I'll have enough time to get my creative juices flowing while those antibiotic juices are going. Yes, I'm kidding about that because I know someone is going to think I was serious. They will, of course, be responsibly dispatched, posthaste, in the proper receptacle. It's medical waste, after all. There's a special little place in our living room that I have lovingly given the moniker "Dea's Dispensary." It's where all of the magic potions are kept. When we lived on Okinawa I bought this 4-bin system for recycling. It cost $35. I like to keep things because you never know when you'll be able to use them again. Here's m proof. Two duty stations later I have the exactly what I need to keep my IV meds organized. The folder on the floor is where everything from the home health agency gets filed. It makes that one part of my life so much easier. Last week I had terrible cognitive dysfuntion. I could barely pay attention to anything and had trouble following conversations. The brain fog was awful and the fatigue was almost overwhelming. I couldn't think of what I wanted to say and when I finally did think of something my brain would substitute the wrong word again. This week, the worst parts have been the fatigue and excruciating pain though, thankfully, that was only for two nights. I just take it one day at a time and sometimes even one hour at a time. I'll get there. Every day is one day closer to that one year they're saying it'll take to notice a difference in the way I feel. This is the next step in treatment and bring to mind the song immortalized by "Queen" (which is the only band whose music I run to)..."The Show Must Go On!"
The show must go on! Yeah! The show must go on! I'll face it with a grin. I'm never giving in! On with the show! Lyme Disease - MS Misdiagnosis from DanW on Vimeo. Wow...this is another eye-opening documentary. It's awesome, but heartbreaking. I thought about this a lot before I actually decided to do a video. Before today I didn't even know how to work the camera on my laptop. Of course, it is a relatively new laptop, so I'm going to go with that excuse. One of the main reasons I had to think about it was because I wasn't sure how personal I wanted to get with this. I mean, I know I wanted to put everything out there, but I realized that reading something on a computer screen isn't nearly as effective as seeing it through the wonders of video. After all, seeing is believing. It was difficult for me to do because sometimes I find the uncontrollable muscle spasms to be embarrassing. I don't like to use the word "spasm" for the twitching and jerking, because I always pair the word "extreme pain" with spasm. I've had those, too, as recently as last week. It's the kind of muscle spasm that wakes you from a dead sleep with tears in your eyes screaming for the pain to stop and causing you to contort your body into positions you didn't know you were flexible enough to maneuver into. This wasn't really a bad day for me. I would be unable to sit and actually do a video. This was more of an okay day. Of course, there are always a couple of things you know you got wrong after you stop the video. I will be on a total of 3 antibiotics this round, not 4. Mepron is an anti-malarial and that one is specifically to target the Babesia. That makes 4 meds. The muscle twitching/jerking in the video isn't NEARLY as bad as it is when I'm in bed trying to go to sleep. The neuro part of it also has an effect on my speech sometimes, which I noticed a couple of times in the video. The numbness in my face and slight Bell's palsy on the right side seem to have somewhat abated. Will they come back? I don't know. I think every step in this protocol will be something new and different. I didn't really say everything I wanted to say in the video, but I suppose it was a good start. Dr. Horowitz is one of the leading Lyme-literate medical doctors in the country. This is a very informative video. Not only is today May Day, it is actually the start of the The Mayday Project rally. |
AuthorMy name is Deanna...proud Navy wife, mom to one, follower of the One, pianist, registered nurse, avid knitter, crocheter, reader, & lover of languages. I also love to write. I have had undiganosed Lyme disease for 32 years following a tick bite when I was 11. Archives
March 2017
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