Refuse to sink - My journey battling Lyme disease

I like to call my health issues a Lyme puzzle. It's rarely "just" Lyme disease. Lyme is just a piece of the puzzle. It may be a very big piece, but it's not the only piece. No one gets sick with chronic Lyme overnight. It may seem like it. You may wake up one day sick as a dog, and life isn't ever the same again. But the beginnings of it started weeks, months, or likely years before. Our immune systems are extremely advanced. (I'm not going to get into the science of it, but pull up YouTube and look up how the immune system works. It's absolutely fascinating!) There's rarely one thing that overwhelms the immune system; usually, it's several things, a chain reaction of sorts. Our immune systems can become so overwhelmed that they can no longer fight. Many people with chronic Lyme have such impaired immune systems that they do not ever get sick, because their bodies can't fight viruses or bacterial infections. Chronic illness is often desc...

I've been talking a lot about my 2018 goal (focus on my body and my health) and I wanted to talk about some of the lifestyle changes I've made. Since Justin had to cut out sugar for his candida diet, I decided to join him and cut sugar out. Sugar is not only incredibly addictive and inflammatory, it also feeds Lyme bacteria. I still have a small amount occasionally, but daily I no longer cook or bake with sugar, and I use a stevia blend in my tea. I've enjoyed the challenge of learning to bake with sugar-free blends. My kids have also joined the healthy eating movement. We've never been junk eaters, but lots of empty calories for the kids (crackers, snacks, etc.) and not a whole lot of vegetables. I haven't been buying them snack foods, just fresh fruit and veggies, string cheese, yogurt, applesauce and those sorts of things. My goal has been to basically eat as many vegetables as possible and as little sugar as possible. No fancy diet, just eating what my bod...

As of February 16th, I've been treating for 8 full months. Symptoms that have improved: Depression and anxiety  Pins & needles sensations Throat issues & reflux Swollen lymph nodes Exercise tolerance  Symptoms that have worsened/relapsed/continued: Air hunger has come back ever since the super moon a few weeks ago Word recall has gotten slightly worse again  Insomnia continues in cycles More headaches than usual Joint and muscle pain during herxes Comments: The super full moon we had on January 31st really threw my body for a loop. For the few days up to, and the few days following (for a total of one week) I had a headache every single day, plus my typical Babesia symptoms of weakness, air hunger, and hot flashes. This was quickly followed by a major flare of my Lyme & Bartonella symptoms, which had me panicked until I woke up the next day and realized I had a head cold. (It's typical of my symptoms to flare when I'm sick) That luckil...

This last week has been absolutely awful. The super moon was earlier this week, and starting last Saturday I had headaches, weakness, and air hunger every.single.day. I don't know if it's related to the moon, usually the full moons don't affect me unless it's a super moon.  I feel like I'm going backwards. I still feel awful all the time. I rarely miss a day of my meds, I'm detoxing, taking my herbs, eating well. I am doing all the right things, and yet I still feel absolutely terrible. My brain fog came back this week, which is the only symptom that had seemed to go away since starting treatment. I'm literally back where I started...likely worse off than I was when I started treatment nearly 8 months ago.  To say I feel defeated is an understatement.  Every time I think a symptom is finally going away, it resurfaces. Every time I think treatment is working, I come crashing back down. It's like some sick roller coaster from hell, and frankly, ...