Sorry...I took this off for a couple days so that I could get some work done. I was responding and wasn't doing my work!
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I recently watched the Mystery Diagnosis which featured Jackie Spar.
I was truly taken back because during the program, I realized that it was like watching my own story from ten years ago.
For those of you who saw the program, it was probably like looking into the mirror as well.
The reason for my response to the program, however, was not to commiserate with yet another victim of Lyme Disease, but yet to share a story that concluded with a person who is now completely cured.
During my illness,I saw the same physician as Jackie Spar in Connecticut. This doctor stood in front of my mother and me and told us that I would not be cured.
He told us that I had deteriorated so badly that the only thing for me to do was to hook myself up to an IV and pray.
I respect this doctor for the awareness he has brought to Lyme Disease, but if I had stopped there, I truly believe I would not be here today.
I went on looking for a solution after all others had given up hope. My mind and body were fighting against me, but I was still determined. Life brought me to Southern California, where I started a year and a half of IV treatment.
The quality of my life at this point was so poor. I could not function and eventually went on state disability.
My insurance company was threatening to drop me, and I was told that I would need to learn to deal with the pain. I could not deal with the pain.
I was not willing to live with the pain. 5 years I had lived like this, and it was time for it to end. One day, I fell upon a naturopathic doctor.
I decided to try something different. I started a program of accupuncture and various other natural treatments.
Soon after I started treatment, my pain and so many other symtoms started to go away. After 3 months, I was no longer confined to a bed.
After one year, my symptoms were virtually gone. I am now 31, and have been completely symptom free for 7 years.
My point to all of this is simple. It makes me incensed when I hear people say that Lyme Disease is one that never truly goes away. It does go away.
It goes away when we get rid of it instead of to allow it to live inside us. The scary thing about Lyme Disease is that it takes on the symptoms of depression, alzheimers, multiple sclerosis, and schizophrenia.
It can seem like a digestive disorder and heart disease. It can cause stroke and seizures. It can do virtually anything the body can succomb to. It is truly the great immitator.
What I ask people who have many strange symptoms at once to do is to ask themselves. Is this normal? Is it normal for a twenty year old to lose her memory. Is it normal for a thirty year old to be unable to walk? Is any of this normal at all?
...and on the other hand, Lyme can make a 60 year old think that it's ok that he or she is losing his or her memory.
What we need to remember is that our bodies want one thing: to be healthy. It is the design of our bodies to bounce back when something infects us.
What happens when we overmedicate ourselves with antibiotics is that our natural defense, our immune system, is destroyed. The meds become a crutch and take the place of what we were born with.
Our bodies see no more point to an immune system until it is virtually shut down. This is by all means dangerous.
The scariest thing to me about allopathic medicine is that its inclination is to treat symptoms.
When we have a headache, we take aspirin. When we have a stomach ache, we take an antacid.
What do we do when the symptoms are caused by something greater?
When we have pain, it is there to tell us something. When we are given drugs to mask all of our symptoms until we no longer know what our symptoms are, how are we supposed to know what is really wrong?
Possibly fortunate for lyme sufferers, there is no magic pain pill. There are simply too many symptoms for us to try to mask. I say that this is fortunate because it results in action. I remember that when I was sick, I used to ask myself a question quite often: Do I just die? Do I just let this kill me? This was not a possibility. As cliche as it was, it was do or die. I decided to do.
I personally was told during my illness that "it" was: depression, mental illness, laziness, multiple sclerosis, bladder infection, fybromyalgia, IBS, and thyroid disease. It was even suggested to me that it could be AIDS. These are all very different "diseases" with very different symptoms.
I would imagine that my story is like so many, if not most Lyme Disease patients:
After the symptoms get so weird, one day, we are told that we have Lyme Disease. Then what? We are given the drugs. We pay the doctors, we eat the pills, we stick ourselves with needles. We feel the pain only to wake up the next day to feel the pain again.
Eventually, we are told to deal with the symptoms because the medical industry simply doesn't know how to deal with this disease. For all of the symptoms that Lyme Disease displays, it would take so many pills just to achieve masking them. Without going to the root of the problem, how can we alleviate the symptoms? It just goes round and round until we literally are driven crazy.
So in the end, we can not stop with one doctor, or five; one treatment or twenty. We can not settle with one approach. We need to try approach after approach until something works.
We can't stop until we get the answers we want. Lyme Disease is not a life sentence. I am living proof.
If there is anyone out there who reads this, and is at that place where he or she feels all avenues have been exhausted, please feel free to contact me.
I am not a doctor, but a regular girl who has seen the dark side of a truly dark disease and has come back again.
I feel that there are so many people out there living unnecessarily with the pain and confusion Lyme brings on.
I feel lucky to have found the people who were willing to help me, and I would like to do the same for others.
Susan
[ 20. January 2007, 03:42 PM: Message edited by: Susan C ]
Posted by mag (Member # 8920) on :
hi susan,
thanks for sharing the encouraging story.
What a battle to fight -
I did not have a diagnosis for quite some time- so I looked into the alternatives. There are many setbacks but I have most of my brain back.
It is so refreshing to hear about your perserverence in spite of the negative tones in the medical field
thanks for sharing
mags
Posted by bettyg (Member # 6147) on :
welcome susan to the board,
what an INSPIRING story where every word you wrote came from your heart and bad experiences until you found the road to being CURED/REMISSION!
i applaud you for finding this board after seeing Jackie Spar's on the tv show! YES, she posted in activism too; so others can contact her IF she showed allows private messages, pms.
susan, we have also a SUCCESS STORIES found in general, please copy/paste your SUCCESS story here to that as well! we all need HOPE; you have provided us with that, and the concept:
keep questioning everything; don't be settled with less ... there must be something else out there i haven't tried that CAN help me.
thanks for coming and sharing your wisdom and 1st-hand experience especially for the newbies giving that much needed word, H O P E !! Posted by cantgiveupyet (Member # 8165) on :
what happend to Susans post????
Posted by Lymetoo (Member # 743) on :
.
[ 20. January 2007, 06:10 PM: Message edited by: Lymetoo ]
Posted by bettyg (Member # 6147) on :
susan, why did you remove your wonderful post showing how you overcame your lyme disease?
in my above post, i asked IF another copy of this could be ADDED TO SUCCESS STORIES.
NOT for you to delete this wonderful personal story giving HOPE TO ALL who read it.
if it was my post that caused you to delete, please reconsider and paste it back there again. it was very inspiring!
you can private message if you wish.
if you decide not to post it, then please delete your entire thread.
click on pencil icon, go to top and mark box DELETE POST; hit enter, and it's gone for good. Posted by pigwit (Member # 9059) on :
Susan's story does not seem believable to me either, but I would like to share my impressions.
1. She argues against the idea that Lyme never goes away.
2. She suggests that we over-medicate with antibiotics.
3. She talks about "allopathic medicine". Does she think that is what we use?
What is allopathic medicine? While not everybody has the same, exact definition, it generally refers to coventional or usual practice of medicine.
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