Well, I’m wrapping up my second week of treatment for Chronic Lyme disease and I (Jesse) felt it was time to give you all some background on how I ended up here. As I mentioned in my last post my Ulcerative Colitis has been getting worse for sometime. I was diagnosed with UC in 2013 and my healing journey has been a roller coaster ride ever since. I’ve gone through periods of heavy flare symptoms and periods of calmness, but I have never been able to obtain remission for any extended period of time, despite following a healing diet and lifestyle. About a year ago, in the spring of 2018, I made the difficult decision to start taking intense immunosuppressant medication in hopes that my UC would go into remission. At this point I was steroid dependent, meaning I could not stop taking corticosteroids without all of my symptoms returning, and had been following a very restricted diet for five years. I desperately needed some flexibility in my life and to not always feel so close to the edge of a flare – as though if I stepped even one toe out of line everything would begin to spiral.
Fast forward about seven months to my most recent colonoscopy. The results were not good and showed severe disease progression throughout 80% of my large intestine. My gastroenterologist said, and I’m paraphrasing, that I had one more shot of getting my UC under control before I was looking at losing my large intestine entirely. Needless to say, this news was earth-shattering and so defeating! How could this be happening? I’ve been doing everything “right”? This isn’t supposed to be my story! Fortunately, around this same time, my functional medicine doctor (or my detective as I like to call him) was doing some digging of his own to find out if there was some kind of co-
infection that could be triggering my UC and causing it to get worse instead of better… and that is how I was diagnosed with Chronic Lyme Disease.
Unfortunately, this is the reality for many people in my position, living with chronic illness is not an easy fix. Often there are other things going on inside your body that can hinder your healing which is why it is so important to find a doctor who can be your detective, look at your health as a whole picture, rather than in isolated parts, and help you put together all the “puzzle pieces” of your health! Okay, okay, I’ll get off of my soapbox now, but you’ll definitely hear more about this from me as we go along this journey. The point is, if I hadn’t remained curious about my body and my health and just accepted the fate I was given, I would never have discovered this potentially life changing diagnosis. I would never have been able to live out of my dream of one day being full of vitality, rather than illness.
Before I give a brief overview on my treatment, let me be clear… I am not a doctor or certified medical professional, nor do I pretend to be. I am simply sharing my personal healing journey in hopes that someone find comfort or encouragement.
For the past two weeks and for seven more weeks to come I will be going through a series of IV treatments and detox therapies to put my Lyme disease, and subsequently my UC, into remission! My IV treatments include Ozone therapy and high doses of Vitamin C, as well as Glutathione. I am also going to an infrared sauna 2 – 3 times a week, getting manual lymphatic drainage once a week, taking Epsom salt baths, exercising as much as I can and sleeping as much as I can. The general purpose of these treatments is to stimulate my immune system to kill the Lyme bacteria and then flush it out of my system.
I will keep you posted on my progress, but that’s it for now. Till next time!
