A New Chapter...

That is a lame title. I had thought of a good one the other day... but that was the other day and now I don't remember it at all. 

I was at home in DC last weekend and saw my doctor on Monday February 10, Exactly two years after my initial horrible sickness set in. February 10, 2012 I got food poisoning and spent the night vomiting my guts up. It was just as horrible as it sounds. I continued to feel crappy for the next week and figured I just had the flu or a bad cold. But I never got better. Things just got worse. And worse. Until my doctor started me on Doxycycline at the end of March. If you've read my About page you'll know how that spring semester went for me so I won't go into great detail here. 

So what happened at my doctors appointment? Well both my parents went and we met with both my doctor and the head doctor because SOMETHING needed to get figured out. Basically, we concluded that my body had pretty much shut down from overload of treatment. We decided it was time to take a break from antibiotics.

ALL antibiotics! Yes, that means I got to get my picc line out! I was ecstatic when the docs said I could get it out because I went in there with one goal- to make them let me get it out. Mission accomplished and I didn't even have to fight for it! My adrenals ARE SHOT. They have been for years so I am starting Cortef to see if that helps at all. I'm stopping B12 shots because they are doing absolutely nothing for me. We decided we are going to spend the next couple weeks letting my body rest and focusing on detoxing plus eradicating the mold. In two weeks I will start the heavy metals chelation protocol (4 days of oral chelation and 3 days of mineral replacement). I'm still taking all my supplements plus some Byron White detox formulas and BLT and Crypto-Plus by Researched Nutritionals (some herbal formulas for fighting Lyme, Bartonella, and Babesia). If I am handling everything alright (aka don't die from not being on abx) over the next couple weeks we will start an herbal protocol. Most likely the Cowden protocol. This makes me very  happy because I am so over being on abx all the time. If I had stayed on them it would have been 2 years straight on abx in March.... yuck! My gut and mental-ness (yes I realize that is not a term but I'm making it one) need a break.

I already mentally feel so much better. It's weird not having my picc and I felt a little empty at first. I mean, a pretty big part of my life for the past 7 months is now GONE. What?! It's crazay. But not having to do the infusions every day and not having to take drugs every day is a huge mental break and I feel more positive already. I'm ready to fight this thing! EFFFF YOU LYME! I AM COMING FOR YOU AND I WILL FIND YOU AND I WILL WIN!

(my sad arm and my ridiculous smile)

I have now been off abx for 4 days... 4 whole days! I was doing okay until yesterday afternoon when I crashed and crashed hard! I think it was more my fault then not being on abx. I decided HEY, my picc is out! Let's go to the gym and use my arm that I haven't used in 7 months! ... Poor choice, Victoria. My body was NOT ready for that. So I slept all afternoon and most of today (skipped class... oops). Then I took a detox bath and feel much better :). SO moral of this story: I've been off abx for 4 days and haven't died yet- yay! Keep your fingers crossed for me.

So my goals over the next couple of weeks are to DETOX DETOX DETOX!

-Juice daily (2x daily but at least 1x if something comes up)

-Dry Brush daily

-Epsom salt baths 3-4 days a week at least (probably all I have time for with school)

-EAT CLEAN- mostly raw, some solid protein, whole foods, organic, drink bone broth (made some last night... yucky but I gotta do it for my gut!), alkalizing diet, lots of veggies! (I failed at this already yesterday but that is because I crashed and burned and had been gone earlier in the week so didn't have a lot of food in the house.... MAJOR Grocery shopping trip this weekend and food planning for the week!)

-Lots of lemon water and tea

-Take all my supplements every day!

-Rest! My body needs some serious rest on top of detoxing so I need to make sure to do this

-Spend some time with friends- staying motivated and positive for me involves surrounding myself with awesome people and now that I'm not all consumed with IV's I can spend at least 1 night a week catching up with a good friend.

-I'll also be doing acupuncture and ozone enemas with the ND in town I mentioned in my previous post. Had my first ozone today and it went well but I haven't noticed a difference (probably because we did a super low dose and it was my first one).

My family is thinking about getting a second opinion (from not a Lyme doc about not Lyme related illnesses) because we think I may have something else besides Lyme. Like something endocrinological related since I've had issues with my thyroid and adrenals (forev's) and I don't respond to treatment (like to ANYTHING) the way I should. But we'll save that for another day and I have no idea right now.

When my nurse came to pull my line out she brought me a little gift, too. It was so sweet! She said since she won't be around for graduation now (since my line is out) that this was my graduating from my picc line present :)- Beautiful earrings!

 (Kind of a crappy pic, sorry!)

OKAYYYYY done with this long post and time to go to bed. Sorry if are bored to death now.

Hope you are all doing well! I'm also hoping to have a new recipe up soon- we'll see what I get done this weekend.