Up and Down, Up and Down, Up, and Down

What a weird week, it's been exhausting!! Tuesday I felt great so decided to bring my daycare kids on a field trip to the hardware store/garden center and to the park after we dropped my daughter off at preschool. It's always fun to go on little field trips and the kids love it. We were go,go,go that morning. Got our supplies at the hardware store and the kids helped pick some things out then went to play at the playground at the park. We all had a blast and before we knew it, it was time to pick my daughter up from school. Then headed home for lunch and nap! I didn't even feel that tired, which is amazing after all that! It was a good day!

Wednesday was another whole story. I woke up totally drenched from night sweats, had to peel my clothes off. Which unfortunately is happening every night now and started about a month or so again. Not a good sign at all. I also woke up with bad air hunger, then heart was racing, then lungs hurt, then numb and tingly all over, dizzy and felt like I was standing sideways. Very scary when you can't get air no matter how hard you try. This particular episode was a bad one and was similar to one I had back before I started treatment. I didn't want to risk passing out since I run my own daycare at my house so asked a friend to come over until my mom could get out of work and come rescue me( I HATE having to ask people to do this) and take over the daycare for me. I am lucky to have a mom live so close and willing to do this for me. I don't know what I would do with out her and very lucky that I have a friend that's willing to come over ASAP knowing I need her. Once I was able to prep enough for the day so my mom wouldn't have to do so much I went back to bed. Couldn't sleep very well but was able to rest. Then headed to an appointment to the chiropractor and acupuncturist. On the way I stopped by to pick up a butt load of drugs from my lyme doc's clinic. Bad, bad idea. The driving really pushed me over the edge, I was so dizzy, weak and nauseous. I just wanted to get to my appointment knowing it would help me. The adjustment was nice but also released a lot of toxins my body was holding onto so I was pretty dizzy afterwards. Acupuncture was key to getting air back in my lungs. Thank you lord, I could breathe normally again! I was still very tired but felt so much better after my appointment. Then headed to my parents house to meet my mom and daughter so I wouldn't have to drive so far and get a break between. Turned out to be a decent night.

Today started pretty good. Besides feeling really tired I woke up feeling good and wasn't totally drenched from night sweats like the night before. Was able to load and unload all the daycare kids to bring my daughter to and from school just fine and we decided to take another field trip to the garden center again! The kids were requesting the playground again but today we didn't have the time for it which was probably good. The kiddos picked out more plants and we had a fun day! At nap I was able to plant up 3 bigger pots and work on putting up a small fence around our huge garden to keep our pet piggie from eating all of our flowers and plants like he keeps doing. Then after the kids left my daughter and I had to head back to the garden center to pick up more stuff and came home to work on it some more. Got it all done, was harder work than I thought it was going to be, my hands and back are not happy with me. Then swept and cleaned up the patio with the push broom(bad idea). That was the last straw and once I did that,there was no going back. My body turned on me. SO tired, air hunger started back up again, dizzy, in pain all over my entire body, and just really drained. Our course before all of this I promised my daughter she could try her new gluten free ice cream cone but didn't realize sherbet has dairy it in and she was not about to let that go. So, once again we had to go back to the store. Ugh, did not want to but hubby wasn't going to be home soon enough to take her. That trip was a tough one and tried to get out of there as fast as I could. Now as I write this my body hurts, my arms are burning from typing this, my air hunger is getting worse and I am uber drained. Trying to get motivated enough to go take an epsom salt bath to pull out the toxins. Lesson learned for the day, over did it for sure!! I hope tomorrow goes smoothly and I can figure out why my babesia is back full force. I see my doc next week so I am sure I will have more answers and will be changing up my drugs again.

Amy Tan, Ticked Off About Lyme

I thought this was a good article and thought I would share. Click HERE to read it!

Changes

Treatment has made many changes in my body. Some I expected, some I didn't. At first I lost weight because I was so sick from starting up treatment and having such overwhelming die off. The last thing I wanted to do was eat. Then I started to gain because the only way I didn't feel sick was to keep my stomach full. Now I just over eat ;-) Although If I don't eat every 2 hours or so I do get dizzy and feel weak and nasty. So food it is! As of lately my hair has become really curly. It's so strange!! It started getting curly from treatment a while ago but recently it's REALLY curly. My hair hardly had wave to it before. What a strange thing to happen from Lyme treatment! I will take this over my hair falling out though like it did in the beginning! The lyme spirochetes are a cork screw shape, apparently my hair felt left out and wanted to be in the same shape as what is taking over my body!!

On the Mend!

This weekend was rough, I felt like crap and I was in the ER all morning yesterday with my 4 yr old daughter. She woke up in a ton of pain and couldn't move her neck. Now both her and I are starting to feel better and grateful for it. She is on muscle relaxers and has a neck brace(my little old lady) and I can tell my Candida is starting to clear up after doing some aggressive treatment over the past couple days. Now let's hope we can keep feeling better and get back to our silly selves like in the picture!!

Not Enjoying The Ride

I am so very sick today. I waited too long with my busy life to aggressively treat my yeast over growth and now it's everywhere and bad. I have my one millionth yeast infection and feel like sh*t!! My husband is gone prepping for a wedding he is in today and my family is gone out of town, so it's just me and my daughter hanging out. Luckily she wants to play doctor so all I have had to do this morning is squash my body into her little toddler bed so she can "fix" me and then bring me a million toys from her toy bin as gifts since I am sick in the "hospital". She is pretty much acting out what happens when she is in the hospital, at least the girl gets a lot of gifts while she is in there!! She would have kept playing if we didn't need to stop for lunch. I am at the point where I wish I would just throw up and get it over with, so very nauseous and nasty feeling. But my body won't let go and I don't have much time to rest anymore today. I have to somehow find the energy to get myself and my daughter to this wedding tonight and pack our own food since we are so restricted and can't eat anything there. I hope tomorrow is better, I really need it. I need a hug!

What does Candida(yeast overgrowth) look like

I have continually had issues with Candida, for a while I was getting yeast infections every two weeks. As some women know, it's not pleasant! I am dealing with it once again but now I itch all over or just my arm pits. Right now it's mainly my poor arm pits. They are raw, itchy, burn and sting. They itch so badly sometimes you can't help but itch like crazy and then wince in pain at the same time because the skin is broken open. I am currently doing a Candida Detox but I guess it't time to amp it up a little! Of course craving sugar doesn't help because it's so hard not to give in some days! It's a vicious cycle and need to focus on clearing it up!!! Here is some info I found on Candida--

Candida albicans is a yeast that normally resides in the body in the digestive tract and moist areas. Candida levels are kept in check by the immune system and beneficial probiotic bacteria in the body.

If probiotic bacteria are killed by antibiotics or if the immune system becomes weakened, Candida yeast may grow unchecked.

Local infections, such as oral thrush, skin infections and vaginal yeast infections in women can result.

People with severely weakened immune systems, such as those with cancer or AIDS, may develop widespread Candida infection, a serious medical condition called systemic candidiasis. Some alternative practitioners believe that overgrowth of candida albicans yeast in the intestines is responsible for a yeast syndrome that results in symptoms such as fatigue, headache, mood swings, sinus congestion, depression, poor memory and concentration, and cravings for sweets.

The excess Candida yeast in the intestines is then thought to penetrate the intestinal wall, causing yeast and other unwanted particles to be absorbed into the body. The absorbed yeast particles are believed to activate the immune system, resulting in an allergic hypersensitivity to Candida.

Lyme Disease Awareness Campaign Video featuring Candice Accola's fans

Crapola!

How do ya like that word! Crapola is how I feel! I am worried I am relapsing since I have been feeling yucky again lately. I have still had many good days but there sure are a lot of bad ones that are starting to creep back in. Not a fan!! It's scary to think I may be going down the tiolet again, so don't want to be in that place again! Let's hope it's just my body tweaking out with the weather change and being way more active with my daycare kids and working on the yard! Hoping today gets better...

One Year

It's been ONE year since I started treatment for Lyme Disease. I have one whole year behind me, thank god! It has been with out a doubt, the hardest year of my life. There have been many up's and down's, many sleepless nights, many extremely painful days, days where I wasn't sure how I was going to stand up right for the entire day, days hugging the toilet, and days I would pray and hope I wouldn't wake up in the morning.

What a difference a year can make. Now I can handle going to stores again and go grocery shopping with out feeling like I could die, I can handle some yard work, I can handle working 50 hours a week much better than before, I can keep up around the house a little easier, I have energy again, most days I can function on a normal amount of sleep, I am a better mother and wife, and when I have a bad lyme day or week I know I will be able to bounce back from it much easier than a year ago. Thank god I have a year of treatment under my belt! Now to keep trucking through and focusing on health!

Excited to be Healing

It is SO nice to be healing and able to do more again! Today I-raked one garden, shoveled out a new larger boarder in the grass for my veggie garden which doubled it in size, raked out the huge sandbox/jungle gym area, bagged up half of the stuff I raked and drug the bags to the driveway, went to the fabric store, went to the hardware store with the fam, went back to the hardware store to exchange broken item, and picked up pizza for hubby on the way home. Phew!! Thats a lot! My body is pretty sore, but I am so excited I can do more again! I was such a go, go, go person before that it's nice to feel I can accomplish more again. One year ago I couldn't walk into Target with out getting really dizzy and having to croutch down to aviod passing out! Today I can spend a lot of time in there( too much ;-)) and be totally fine most of the time!! Wooohooo!!

It's Lyme Disease Awareness Month

The point of my blog is mostly to educate people. I knew nothing about Lyme Disease before it changed my life and I want others to be educated BEFORE they could possible be bitten and know what to do and watch to watch for. I am calling all lymies to help me. LYMIES please post your answers below...

LYMIES, what were your first symptoms, what did they turn into(Like I got more as time went on), how long before finally being diagnosed, how many docs did you see, what finally got you the help and treatment you needed?