Where has Daniela been? Battling Lyme’s Disease, Successfully.

I can’t believe how long it has been since I last wrote for my blog or sent out a monthly newsletter, 5 months!

The reason? I have been deep in a healing crisis. A stealth infection was ravaging my body and I had to KICK it’s butt.

I was diagnosed with Lyme’s Disease in September of 2007, and after several months of intensive treatment from an wonderful Integrative M.D. I thought I was all cured. Then came the stress of starting my online business, planning my wedding, getting married, and a wonderful but exhausting backpacking trip through a (unbeknown to me) tick infested area. I came back with a rash that was not a bull’s eye rash, but very suspicious, and an overwhelming fatigue and overall body ache that I could not shake with any amount of rest and good self-care.

I ended up this fall in tears at a new Integrative M.D.’s office in tears feeling completely frustrated and helpless. How could I, a health freak and nutritional counselor, be so darn sick? It just made no sense to me. I ate a super healthy organic diet, lived a extremely healthy lifestyle, meditated and did yoga daily, even all my household products down to the paint are non-toxic, what gives? My joints were constantly aching and swollen, my digestive and hormonal systems way out of whack, my emotions swinging every which way, and my mind extremely foggy.

The doc’s answer was Chronic Lyme’s Disease. I was skeptical about this controversial diagnosis, but the more research I did, the more the diagnosis felt right to me.  I even went to other health care practitioners to get second opinions, and they all agreed that diagnosis was correct, plus 2 co-infections were found. At the recommendation of my doctro I, who for the past 10 years have not put any pharmaceuticals in my body with very few exceptions, started taking oral antibiotics.  The antibiotic treatment ended mid-December, and I continue to complement it with herbal antibiotics and many, many other supplements and alternative therapies. I put myself in a healing cocoon and prayed for a miracle.

Most of the information you read on Chronic Lyme’s Disease online is downright depressing. If one’s primary source of info on Lyme’s was reading online Lyme’s Disease forums, it would be easy to come to the conclusion that almost no one recovers. This is absolutely NOT TRUE! It is true that there are no clear cut treatment plans backed up by clinical research that will completely repair all bodily system impacted by Lyme’s, but I am happy to report that as I write this post every single one of my symptoms is between 80 and 90% improved after only 5 months of full-time battle.  While I was taking the pharmaceutical antibiotics (I took Doxycycline), my symptom increased significantly, but that is a good sign that the bacteria is ‘dying off.’

I literally had no extra energy to write blog posts for newsletters up until now,  which I felt very sad and guilty about giving up.  It was difficult at first to accept the need to dedicate myself full-time to my healing, it felt so selfish. And most of all I was afraid if I really and truly dedicated myself to healing, that I still might never get better. I did a lot of work to release these negative beliefs about healing, and as I write this I realize that these false beliefs really and truly have been erased by the fantastic results I get to witness and feel in my body, mind, and spirit every day. And I now have a huge amount of very helpful health and healing info to share with you!

I will be writing a lengthy series of posts on the foods, alternative therapies, etc that I have found most beneficial in my healing journey, now that my inspiration and energy has returned. But before I conclude this post I want to send a shout out to my amazing group of friends, family, and healing practitioners that have supported me so exquisitely over the past few months. I am so very grateful for all the TLC, hugs, and laughter you have shared with me. I hope through this blog I can pay it forward a bit.