A not-so-bad week

I’ve been struggling mightily recently, and haven’t really had the extra energy to update this blog. (I also wanted to wait until I had something interesting to report.) This past week was, for some reason a not-so-bad week. After weeks of binge watching Netflix, Hulu, and Amazon Prime because I was too tired to move from the couch, this week I had some energy to do things. Nothing crazy, of course, but little things like get up and use the computer, do more of the exercises for my still-not-yet-recovered foot, and go out for a short (5 minute) walk. While it’s not unusual for me to have one not-so-bad day periodically, it’s quite unusual for a string of five days in a row (which I’m currently at). So, I thought I’d look back and see what I’ve been doing differently that might have made this positive difference.

Caveat: I’m doing so many different things in my treatment that it’s entirely possible one or more of them have just now kicked in and my analysis below is simply an analysis of coincidences rather than effects. Still, if anything I did might help others, I feel like it’s worth sharing.

Dandelion Tea

Last week, after a particularly bad couple days of herxing, I had done a bunch of research on additional ways to detoxify my body. One thing that kept coming up was coffee enemas. No, I didn’t try it, despite recommendations from several people. Instead, I read up on what the effects of a coffee enema are supposed to be. As best I could tell, the theory is that the caffeine stimulates the liver to release more bile. The bile is where toxins are trapped and, when released, can be excreted. So I started researching other things that are known to trigger the release of bile and came across an unlikely answer: dandelion.

It turns out that dandelion, when ingested, triggers the release of bile from the liver. I didn’t want to go crazy with dandelion, so I looked into seeing if there were any dandelion teas available that would be gentle enough to try. After a bit more searching, I decided on Traditional Medicinals Everyday Detox Tea. I’m a big fan of Traditional Medicinals teas, so I was excited to see that they had this available.

I started by drinking one cup of the tea every morning. I decided to do it in the morning to coincide to when I take my cholestyramine (CSM). The goal of CSM is to bind to bile in the small intestine to prevent the reabsorption of toxins, so it seemed like having the CSM first and then drinking the tea later would ensure that there would be adequate CSM in my system to bind to whatever was being released.

The first couple of days it gave me some gas and loose stools, which makes sense since bile is released directly into the small intestine. I stopped drinking it for one day to let my system settle down and then restarted again without any further trouble. I’ve been drinking it every day since then.

Stretching and Garlic

I’ve been seeing a mysterious energy healer for the past few months. I use the term “mysterious” jokingly as he basically doesn’t exist online, and even after someone specifically gave me his contact information, my Googling skills could turn up nothing. I’m assuming this is on purpose, so out of respect for his privacy, I’ll just call him PT.

I originally went to PT for help with foot, which was really not doing well after my injury, and he was amazing. I limped in barely able to put any weight on my foot and walked out with only a slight limp. With those types of results, I then asked him to dig into my fatigue, Lyme, and other symptoms. During this visit, he told me two things were contributing to my fatigue:

1. My neck and shoulders were too tight, which was restricting blood flow and energy. He pointed out that this is quite common in his patients because everyone spends so much time on computers and cell phones these days. He energetically relaxed my neck and shoulders and then showed me some stretches I should be doing every day to keep the area open.
2. He said my body was, “too alkaline,” and that was causing the blood to move more slowly than it should. In Lyme treatment, I spend a lot of time trying to stay alkaline in order to reduce the severity of the herxes, but I never knew I could be too alkaline. His advice: every morning, eat one clove of garlic.

I started doing both of those last week and didn’t notice too much of a difference, but decided to stick with it. Sometimes things take a little while before they start to make a noticeable difference.

Acupuncture

On Sunday I woke up feeling awful. My head was pounding and my stomach hurt enough that it was hard to stand. This had all the makings of a big-time herx so I emotionally prepared myself for the worst. Fortunately, I had scheduled an acupuncturist appointment for later in the day. My symptoms subsided a bit by the time the 2:30pm appointment came around and I asked the acupuncturist to focus on those two main symptoms. I did feel better after leaving, though still not particularly good or energetic.

This Week

Monday I woke up and I noticed immediately that I had more energy. I just didn’t have that dragging feeling that I typically have when I wake up. I was able to get up to the computer and do some of the writing I had fallen behind on. My stomach was fine and my headache, while still there, was nowhere near as bad. This same trend carried through most of the week into today (Friday).

Aside from the headache, most of my herxing symptoms are either gone or minor. I was able to get up and do things every day this week. I still didn’t feel well enough to sit through the dentist appointment I initially had scheduled on Thursday, so I did end up rescheduling it (not a fun experience when you’re healthy, let alone when you’re not).

Keep in mind that for me, having energy means the tank feels about 20–30% full. When you’re used to operating at around 5–10%, that’s a pretty big jump and a noticeable difference. For most of the past few weeks, I’ve been exhausted by noontime and spending the rest of the day binge watching something on TV. Being able to hold on until 4pm is a big difference for me (and by “hold on”, I mean, still be able to think and speak relatively clearly, not necessarily do whatever I want).

I’m not sure if anything I did last week, the tea, the garlic, the stretching, the acupuncture, had anything to do with this not-so-bad week. I go to acupuncture periodically, and the effects typically wear off in a day or two, so I don’t think that alone explains the difference. Maybe it was the combination of everything that caused it, or maybe it was just a coincidence, or maybe everything else I’m doing is finally kicking in.

No matter the reason, and no matter if it continues or not, I’m very grateful for this five-day respite from my normal routine.