posted
Hello, I have not posted here before, but I do lurk and read posts from time to time.
I wanted to write to say that I have been having some successes lately. I have had Lyme probably for about 17 years now, but didn't know it until last year. By then, I knew I could not possibly tolerate antibiotics and decided to go the herbal route.
I started out with the Cowden protocol and did it for 8 months with significant improvements. After 8 months, I thought I should continue with something else and the naturepath I was occasionally seeing suggested Silver. I did not tolerate that well at all and after trying and trying had to give up on it to let my digestive system recover.
I was feeling fairly OK and ended up stopping everything for about 5 months. In that time, I slowly relapsed. I do not have the privilege of being able to see or afford Lyme doctors, much less get to them. I live in a very remote place, days drive from any Lyme doctor.
So, out of frustration at feeling constantly in the dark about what was happening, I decided to purchase a scientific microscope, thinking it would save me lots of money on tests, etc. I was able to purchase a great older one (1000x objective) on eBay and got all the stains and other things I needed mostly from Amazon, believe it or not. It all cost me less than one Lyme specialist visit.
I started out looking at stool samples. (You can find much info on doing this on the web.) I discovered pretty quickly that I had several worm infections. This was a shock, since I had had stool tests a year earlier showing nothing like this. I did some research and discovered that Labs that run stool tests generally don't report worm infections. It is thought that they are not a problem for humans, even though we know that they can be very damaging to our pets and most people have pets and livestock wormed yearly.
I purchased worm medications from various sources online and was expecting to suffer from them, but amazingly suffered very little. The results for my digestive system were amazing. After years of suffering with IBS, etc, finally, I was almost normal.
Next, I decided to take a look at my blood and was shocked to find that I had a raging babesia infection. I had the most success seeing them using Wright's stain. I had used Artemisinin during the Cowden protocol and it appears that it did not get rid of it. Buhner has written that if Artemisinin did not work for people, they should use Cryptolepis. So, I have been on Cryptolepis for a little over a month now. Buhner recommends two months of it. Since worming myself, I was able to tolerate it fairly well and get up to full dose rather quickly.
I also went back slowly to some anti-Lyme herbs and colloidal silver. I am now able to take the full recommended dose of colloidal silver and am also taking homemade Cat's Claw tincture, purchased Teasel tincture, homemade ginseng tincture, and some other complementary herbs-- most of which are inexpensive home made tinctures.
While looking at my blood, I also discovered that I was infected with a Dog heart worm, a Strongyloide and a shistosoma. This led me to feel that Lyme's impact on the body leads people to become infected with a huge variety of things that normal people would probably fight off and to me, it meant that every Lyme person has a totally different story, different sets of pathogens that create a unique illness like no one else's. It all depends on what they are accidentally exposed to.
I am currently treating the strongyloides and shistosoma and won't know for sure if I've got rid of them for at least a couple of months after my last treatment.
The treatment I used for the strongyloides was a combination of Ivermectin and Albendazole, which had the amazing and unexpected side effect of killing Babesia. A week after my first treatment, I did a blood check under the microscope and was blown away at the change -- the noticeable lack of Babesia parasites. The cryptolepis was working slowly, but I had a huge drop in parasite levels after the Ivermectin/Albendazole treatment.
I started to feel well enough, that I decided to try once again to do some exercise and started out slowly running in the mornings. I have not been able to do this for at least 12 years now. I have read of a few cures where the Lymie had used cardiovascular type exercise. I had to force myself at first. It was difficult and miserable. To my amazement, over time, this also helped me feel better. I have been able to work up on my distance and now do about 30 minutes a day. I don't think I could have done this without first getting the Babesia load down and the worms addressed.
I recently read the book "Healing Lyme Disease Naturally: History, Analysis, and Treatments" by Wolf D. Storl and Matthew Wood, which changed my way of thinking about Lyme. I decided to add some traditional syphilis treatments and one of them is sauna. I made arrangements to use a sauna belonging to a local massage therapist. She wanted to help and gave me a good deal. Wolf Storl, who cured his Lyme with teasel, sauna and exercise, points out some flaws in modern thinking about Lyme treatment that lead to so many treatment failures and I recommend the book for a different perspective on the disease.
At first I Herxed after the sauna, but this last session caused me no problems and the next day, I felt better than I have in 17 years. I was so amazed--blessed, really.
Maybe I'll have setbacks again, but I feel hopeful now. Lady Barbara, who cured her Lyme with Teasel, grapefruit seed extract and belly dancing said that she never once thought she wasn't going to beat it. I think this is important. You can't get well without that inner unstoppable drive and strength.
Anyway, I am going to try to stick to the colloidal silver for 3 months (though it maybe isn't perfect) as the narurepath suggested along with as many herbs as seem helpful to me. I think I will also build or save up to buy some type of sauna for myself. I will keep up with whatever herbs I can, also.
Wolf Storl and Lady Barbara both suggest the key to beating Lyme is to change the body ecology so that it is no longer a suitable environment for Lyme. From my own experience, I think also that every person is different and that sometimes, you have to find and go after other infections first in order to get well enough to tolerate some Lyme treatments. Taking colloidal silver when you have worms actually worsens the worm situation. Killing off your gut bacteria opens the door to some other pathogens that were kept in check by healthy gut microbes (this is partly why silver is imperfect, but I seem allergic to grapefruit seed extract.)
I love my microscope and I don't know why I did not think of getting one before now. It is so empowering to look at this hidden world. I imagine most lab techs can only spend a minute or two looking at a patient's slide, but I can go over every millimeter of a blood smear and take as long as needed and be very thorough.
The web is also amazing, because all the information I needed to do this was there.
I just wanted to write this to give people hope.
Tish
Posts: 31 | From TX | Registered: Nov 2008
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posted
Wow that is amazing! I think it is so great that you were able to get a microscope and look at all of this stuff for yourself.
Congratulations on how well you have been doing lately. I hope it continues for you. Definitely keep us posted.
Take Care!
-------------------- Sick since 10/2001. Tested CDC positive for Lyme 10/2008 through Quest and Igenex. Started treatment 1/2009 with LLMD. Lyme, Erichilosis, Chlamydophila Pneumoniae, Q Fever, Strep Syndrome and probably a few others I am forgetting. Posts: 451 | From Virginia | Registered: Feb 2009
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posted
Are you using dark field or staining bright field slides?
While you can see some things, you can't really see much with bright field without the proper stains.
Posts: 967 | From A deserted island without internet access | Registered: Sep 2009
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If you don't mind, I'm gonna PM you. I like doing my own studying and research, and I need to understand what I need to purchase to do this like you're doing! Posts: 829 | From MD | Registered: Dec 2009
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Grapefruit seed extract caused huge herxes for me. I could only take partial doses. It's strong stuff.
-------------------- sixgoofykids.blogspot.com Posts: 13449 | From Ohio | Registered: Feb 2007
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momlyme
Frequent Contributor (1K+ posts)
Member # 27775
posted
That is awesome! I found this so interesting. I wonder if my budding scientist would enjoy getting a microscope for Christmas.
Would love to know more about what kind, supplies, etc.
-------------------- May health be with you!
Toxic mold was suppressing our immune systems, causing extreme pain, brain fog and magnifying symptoms. Four days after moving out, the healing began. Posts: 2007 | From NY/VT Border | Registered: Aug 2010
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posted
Lyme - the do-it-yourself disease in the country with the most expensive medical system.
Posts: 8430 | From Not available | Registered: Oct 2000
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posted
Tish, this is some interesting information. Can you describe the process you used to do the experiments and the best stains for each? I'd like to try replicating the experiment and see what the results are. I think the babesia test done by labs just looks for the antibodies to a specific strain and misses what a lot of people are actually getting.
Posts: 7 | From NY | Registered: Mar 2009
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Spirochetes are best viewed under dark field (a different type of microscope).
Posts: 967 | From A deserted island without internet access | Registered: Sep 2009
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Tammy N.
Frequent Contributor (1K+ posts)
Member # 26835
posted
Good for you!!! Wishing you continued healing. All the best....
Posts: 2238 | From East Coast | Registered: Jul 2010
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posted
I'd love to learn more about this too! Would you be able to write out the first steps you took and the essentials for a newbie like me? (how were you able to put a name to what you found in the slide?)
I've been infected for a while and have learned a lot but this is new territory, Awesome and congrats!!!
posted
For those who are interested, here is some info below that I have sent others. It is very basic, but will get you started.
First, though, I want to respond to an earlier post that I had the best luck with Wright's stain or Wright's Gemesa stain. This stain will do Babesia, Ehrlichiosis, and Bartonella. It has also been used for Lyme spirochetes in some studies. However, my experience has been that I have not definitively seen any spirochetes with this or any other stain I've tried. I have seen things that look like them, but none of what I saw was a definitive "Ah Ha" moment. But, I knew this would probably be the case. I had seen on the internet some instructions for converting a regular microscope to dark field done by a Lymie, who needed to find an inexpensive way to do this. But, I have not been able to find them again and think they have since been removed.
If you can find a university where they have programs in Biology, veterinary medicine, and medical programs, you will be able to find a number of good books on parasitology, hematology, and microscopy.
Here is some basic info:
The hardest thing for me was figuring out what kind of microscope I needed. I was lucky and found a really good used one on Ebay for under $300. It was an old Bristoline. The prices vary a lot. Many microscope companies and scientific suppliers have good quality sturdy used ones at reasonable prices. You can search them on the internet. Many of the new inexpensive microscopes are made in china and are plastic and of poor quality, but may do for home use. Good quality new ones cost around $1000 and up. Here is a basic page that will get you started: http://www.sciencetoolbox.com/articles/article_06-09-04.html You can do a google search for "used microscopes." or just "microscopes" to get started in your search.
To look at blood and parasite cysts, you need a minimum of a 100x objective and 10x eyepiece, giving you 1000x overall magnification. I wish I could have 2000x to see things better and am currently looking for information on whether I can get the needed parts for my microscope.
To find out about staining, just do a google search for "slide staining procedures" or "wright's stain procedure" or "Gram stain procedure" or "Acid fast stain procedure." Also, look in Lyme or parasite research papers online and read what they used in their studies.
I had the best luck with Wright's stain: http://www.med-chem.com/procedures/Wrights1STEP.pdf I saw in some research papers on Lyme where this stain was used to stain spirochetes. It is a fairly simple procedure, compared to others. Gram staining will give you different information. It is not so good for staining Babesia, but shows yeasts, small bacterias, and many parasites really well and helps in identifying them as either gram negative or gram positive, narrowing down your search to identify them. http://faculty.stcc.edu/rapp/BIOT251/gram_stain_procedure.htm
You can fix blood and stool smears with 95% Ethyl alcohol (rubbing alcohol) that you get at the grocery store. Fixing hardens the sample on the slide, so it will stay put for staining and so cells don't rupture during staining. So, if you read about a staining procedure that calls for fixing the sample, you can probably use this instead of a fancy lab fixative, which is hard to get. The Wright's stain I got from Amazon has fixative already in it.
Here are instructions for a fecal float: http://fiascofarm.com/goats/fecals.htm I have a little bottle that worked great for me. There are other instructions on the web, too, and it seems that the techniques scientists use to stain slides vary a lot, so do a lot of reading to find something that seems easy to do at home. Fecal floats don't have to be stained, as most cysts show up without it.
I was able to get a small Gram Stain kit and wright's stain on Amazon. I don't remember where I got the Acid Fast Stain kit. Acid fast staining is used for detecting micoplasma.
If you can, get some lens papers to clean off your lenses when done. Be very careful with the 100x objective, which can easily be cracked or can be damaged by chemicals.
I put a piece of plain white paper next to my microscope and make drawings of what I see. You can also get camera mounts to take pictures or buy cameras for microscopes. This all takes quite a bit of reading up on before you purchase I think.
To look up parasites, you can also go to google and type in things like "blood parasites" and then click on "images" on the left. Or "fecal smear" and click "images" or type in the names of Lyme parasites and click "images" on the left. You will find lots of microscopic images to compare to what you see on your slides.
I also went to the library of the university where I work and checked out some parasite and hematology books. They also had books on microscopy techniques.
Plan on having lots of badly done stains in the beginning. It takes practice to make nice ones and you just have to do a number of them at first to get skilled in making nice ones. You can wash and re-use used slides with soap and water and then rub or rinse with rubbing alcohol to remove any films.
I also purchased a small quantity of buffer solution for Wright's staining, which gave me better results. Typically, this is what I do for a blood smear:
1. I poke a clean finger with a clean needle and put a drop of blood on a clean glass slide. 2. I quickly spread it using the method listed in the link above. 3. I allow it to dry fully. 4. I then drop Wright's stain on it, covering all the smear well. 5. I wait one minute. 6. I then gently dropper on a diluted buffer solution, made up of about 5 parts distilled water and 1 part buffer, and I dropper on double the amount of Stain I used. 7. I let this sit for 2 minutes. 8. I then gently pour off the liquid from the slide into the sink. 9. I very gently rinse the slide with distilled water using a dropper, dropping the water outside the blood smear area and letting it gently run over the smear area and then tilting it off into the sink. I do this a few times. 10. I rest the slide almost vertically against something so it can drain and dry. 11. I put the slide on the microscope base and add a drop or two of immersion oil and position it under the lens. I don't use a cover slip for the 1000x viewing. 12. I very carefully focus the lens and adjust the light and then view the slide moving in a pattern that avoids going over the same area twice.
Good luck to all of you who try this. If any of you have good success with other techniques and stains, please let me know.
Tish
Posts: 31 | From TX | Registered: Nov 2008
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posted
I see also a post about Teasel here. I am doing low dose, just 5 drops. I had the most amazing Herx from it in the beginning. I started out at 1 drop 3 times a day and nothing happened, so I increased to 2 drops 3 times a day and I developed the worst joint pain, mainly in my arms, hands, knees and feet. I was crippled up by it for a while and then over about 3 weeks time, I recovered. I was blown away that such a small amount had such a huge impact.
Tish
Posts: 31 | From TX | Registered: Nov 2008
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