A Health Update Feb 2020

It has been over 2 months since I received my diagnoses and started treatment so I wanted to give a bit of an update. I have been going back to see the functional medicine Dr every month & having my thyroid labs checked monthly.

My thyroid is still not up to where the Dr wants it to be (although the numbers are better than they were), so I’m increasing the 2 thyroid meds I’m on.

Last month I also added 2 meds to help with the yeast in my gut and several supplements to try to get my gut health better before starting the antibiotics needed to treat the tick-borne illnesses.

My iron levels are better, so that’s great news and next month we’ll be rechecking my selenium and a few other things to see if they have leveled out.

So, this month we get to start treatment for the Babesia – yay! Babesia is a malaria-like parasite that often goes hand in hand with lyme or other tick-borne illnesses. I am starting a new medicine for it that treats parasites, bacteria & even viruses with few side effects (and can even help with things like SIBO, more gut issues). Sounds great & like it will help with a lot of issues that are going on and the better news is that my insurance is covering most of it!!

Next month hopefully I’ll be able to start on the antibiotics. Since there was so much going on, we have been working in this order: building up my immune system, fixing my thyroid, trying to heal my gut, then tackling the Babesia and lastly the tick-borne illnesses.

Long story short: I am doing pretty well overall. I still have days that I wake up & don’t feel that great, with no explanation, but most days I have more energy, and I’m able to do more and more. I still have to be careful not to overdo it. Going places still taxes me more than anything else, so I try to make sure I don’t do too many things in a week, or in a row, but I’m very thankful for the progress I’m making. Also most days I’m sleeping better, which is huge.

A few weeks ago I decided to cheat (on date night – there’s really nothing I can eat at restaurants & just wanted to enjoy the time) and it really hit me hard. I was miserable for 4 days – not sleeping again, more pain, all the symptoms were back, it took me back to where I was last fall. It is a good encouragement for me to keep on being diligent about how I eat as that is making a huge difference, (I’m sure the 20+ supplements and many prescriptions I’m taking are also helping), but the food is HUGE and I can always tell if I’ve eaten something I shouldn’t. It’s still hard to discipline myself to not cheat, even a little bit here & there, but I’m trying to be diligent, knowing that the harder I work at it, the sooner hopefully I will heal.

My new pain issue: Aside from the health issues I’ve been dealing with, about a week & a half ago I woke up in a lot of pain in my pelvis/sacrum/tailbone & lower back. I figured maybe I had slept wrong & just needed a couple days to right it self (this has happened before, but never to this extent).

Unfortunately, it has been getting worse, not better to the point now where I can barely move. The pain is excruciating and debilitating. It feels like the worst charley horse you’ve ever experienced x 10 in my left side that won’t release, but every time I move sharp pains go down my leg, up my back and all throughout my pelvis/tailbone. I cannot find a comfortable position, not even lying down (which has never been the case before, I have always been able to lie down and get relief from my back pain that I’ve been dealing with the past 7+ years.) So I know something is wrong. I did see my primary Dr on Monday, & she ordered xrays, but didn’t feel she could justify an MRI since I had one last May.

However, when I saw my functional medicine Dr on Tuesday, she is very concerned & willing to order an MRI now, so I’m working on getting that taken care of. She said it’s possible that a bone cracked or it could be a disk issue, like there had been a slow leak of fluid and just a wrong movement caused something.

The hard thing is that I’m already on pain meds due to my chronic pain, so I can’t just go to the ER to get something and what I have is not even touching this new pain. I was able to move up my next pain clinic appt to next Tuesday & hopefully will be able to get something stronger to deal with this until it lets up or we can get some answers. In the meantime, I’m back to not sleeping well as I just can’t get comfortable. I would appreciate prayers for answers, healing & relief from the pain. It’s hard to think about just enduring for the next week, not even to think about long-term.