A Race I Didn't Enter

One of my proudest accomplishments was completing the 2008 San Diego Breast Cancer 3-Day. I chose to enter that event, I did the fundraising, I trained, and I walked every step of that almost 60 miles. I was so proud of myself for sticking with it. It was truly an amazing feeling to walk across that finish line knowing that I pushed past my aching tired muscles, blistered feet and being away from husband and kids and I did it. . 

Now whether what followed was strictly brought on by the physical stress of that event or whether it was a combination of things or strictly coincidence I'll probably never know. Shortly after completing the 3-Day I woke up with some unexplainable muscle pain. Over the next few days the pain became debilitating and severe and as it faded I was left with extreme weakness in my arms. It was so bad in fact, I couldn't drive or even write.  Off to the doctor I went and that pivotal event is what led me on my journey to a final diagnosis of Lyme Disease and related issues a year and half later. 

As I was mulling things over the other day, I thought how God is like my personal trainer and that the last 5 years were like a race. I would say a 5k. The problem is, it is a race I didn't enter. My "trainer" entered me in the race believing/knowing that I would make it. That I would cross the finish line. I couldn't have disagreed more but have I have pushed through, with my trainer by my side. Day by day, moment by moment, I have pushed through and made it this far. The issue I'm struggling with now is the fact that my trainer has once again entered me in a race I didn't ask to run. I feel like I'm starting the most grueling marathon, no lets say triathlon in the world. The run is all up hill. The road race is all up hill on a pothole covered road. The swim is in the midst of rough waters with almost hurricane force winds. I may have the best trainer in the world, but my initial reaction is He's nuts and He has set me up for failure. I already feel like I've lost the race and I have only run the first hundred yards. In my rare moments of clarity I acknowledge that those feelings are false and that He knows what He's doing and I am doing my best to trust Him every moment of every day. My faith is being tested and the reality is I am scared. I am scared, and angry, and frustrated, and defeated and for me the peace that passes all understanding has not set in yet. The only thing I can do is hold on to the hope that His peace is coming and when all is said and done I will be victorious and win the race of my life.

Just over 3 years after my life changing diagnosis I sit here not feeling much better that when I started. I don't know that overall I am any better. A few things have gotten less problematic as other things have gotten worse. My burning nerve pain rarely makes an appearance while my brain function continues to get worse. I had a few days of fumbling over my words and not making sense a few weeks ago it made my wonder if that is what happens when someone has a stroke. My heart continues to cause me problems to which I still have no clear answer and the fatigue continues to plague me daily. Some days the only thing I manage to do is get the kids to and from school.  My immune system is back in the trash. I'm back on multiple antibiotics and have been wondering where to go  and what to do next. What else can I try that I haven't? Not much with out winning the lotto. We have held our head above water with the generous help of friends and family (for which we are forever grateful) but the bank accounts are drained. Insurance still doesn't want to play nice in the sandbox of the Lyme world and without winning the lotto the options become very limited.

After talking with my doctor, we have agreed it would be worth it for me to try something called ozone. It is not a new procedure but more and more evidence is coming out stating the ozone is beneficial to people with Lyme. I will go in once a week and have a pint of blood removed. As it is removed it will be passed under UVC light which should kill different bacteria and such from my blood. It will then be infused with ozone which is basically adding an extra molecule to my blood. Then it will pass back under the UVC light as it re-enters my body. The procedure only lasts about 20 minutes and I will start with about 10 sessions. I am told it will very possibly be a rough 3 to 4 months once I start but I should see improvements after that and then maybe only do it occasionally. This costs roughly $150 a treatment. It's not exactly cheap but it is better than the cost of a very promising treatment the doctor talked to me about. Although this other treatment could be shared with my daughters the minimum it would cost us for the year it takes to do is $17,000. Something that's just not lying around at a moment.

This brings me to the toughest thing I/we have been dealing with over the last few months. I know I have mentioned that both of my girls most likely have Lyme. In fact during our visit to the Hansa Center last year, they confirmed that my now 10 year old in fact had active Lyme. (see previous posts) We did some natural herbal and homeopathic treatments for both of our girls and have been in a constant quandary of what to do next? We need to do the blood work which is not cheap and we need to decided what doctor we are going to take them to. I recently talked with the doctor I wanted them to see and he has stopped taking insurance so our options are slowly being narrowed and really we will be left with one. My girls have doing ok but very recently things have changed and kind of quickly which is where this being thrown into a triathlon has come from. My youngest daughter who just turned 7 had been struggling in school last year. Without going into all of the details the bottom line is she was diagnosed at the beginning of summer with executive functioning issues and Sensory Processing Disorder (SPD). I will have to write another post to give you all the details of those two issues but they are fairly significant. A lot of autistic children suffer from SPD but my daughter does not fall on the autism spectrum. With the number of autistic children testing positive for Lyme I felt that it was probably the same case with SPD. Sure enough between my doctor and the research I have doing it is very evident the Lyme can absolutely trigger SPD. And very similar to Lyme, SPD is not well accepted in the medical community. I was kind of told by my pediatrician, whom I really like, that in general the medical community doesn't care if your kid struggles with reading, writing, reversing numbers, etc...Insurance certainly doesn't want any part of of it. So we are left trying to pay a minimum of $325 a week for the therapy and help she needs or doing the dance of wording things so that insurance will at least approve an evaluation by an occupational therapist.  If we can at least get an eval, then we pray we get a good OT that can determine there are things my baby needs help with that the insurance won't throw a fit about. We are currently waiting for the approval for the evaluation. In the meantime my little one is starting to have a really difficult time and my husband and I are so unprepared with how to deal with this. Daily meltdowns make you feel like you are dealing with a spoiled 3 year old but the reality is she just doesn't know how to deal with how she feels from everything in her outside world. It is heartbreaking and frustrating on a daily basis. Part of me can't help but feel the extra difficulties of the past week are somewhat due to a strong antibiotic she was put on for an ear and sinus infection and that it is killing off some Lyme bacteria causing a flare in her symptoms.

The bottom line is all of this at the moment has left me feeling very guilty. Every once in a while I can tell myself that this is not my fault. This is still so new and overwhelming though that I can't help but fall apart in desperate moments blaming myself for giving my girls Lyme and being the cause of their struggles and pain. I didn't know a heart could break so much and still manage to beat. I pray constantly that God just takes this away from them. As a mom, I want to take it all away. I hate to see my kids suffer more than anything. Prayer is about all I have right now as we try and navigate these rough waters. I'm sure I will be able to look back on this in the end and realize my trainer had it under control. For the moment, I need to relinquish my need to try to fix it myself and remind myself that God is ever faithful. He sees our struggle is by our side every step of the way. Breath by breath I have to continue on to the finish line of what seems to be an impossible race, regardless of the fact this is a race I didn't enter.

Do you NUCCA?

The past few weeks have been another roller coaster of ups and downs. They have been physically and emotionally exhausting, filled with fatigue and some down right scary moments one of which almost sent me to the hospital. In the end though, they have been filled with hope and I feel like things may be finally turning around. 

I can honestly say that the decision to change my diet ( really our diet as a family) and begin exercising again have been very important decisions on this path to getting better. Although I really wish I would have made those changes long ago there is no reason to dwell on the past. I didn't believe I could really alter my craving for junk but it has happened. I do green smoothies, juice and eat a lot of cooked vegetable almost daily. Most of which are organic. For me juicing and cooking my vegetables makes them much easier for my body to get nutrients out of. It has been so taxed that digesting raw food can take too much work. I have gone almost gluten free and have reduced grains as a whole by close to 75%. I try and eat sprouted grains instead. I have reduced dairy by 50 to 75% and most of what I do consume is RAW milk dairy. I definitely don't feel good when I eat the junk or the gluten. Sweet things usually taste to sweet now and I actually crave vegetables. Who knew. 

I can see some improvements in my body from just the 5 or 6 weeks I worked out with my trainer. It is a somewhat difficult transition trying to workout with out him but I'm doing it. The things he taught me about functional exercises just make so much sense and seem to resonate well with my body so I look forward to seeing how strong I get over the next few months. I will never view exercise the same again. These changes with diet and exercise are definitely changes that I will stick with for the rest of my life. 

I have had some blood work run recently to try and figure out some of the missing pieces to the puzzle. As has happened so often before the test results come back normal. I know it may sound weird but it is really frustrating at first. You get tired of hearing that "they" don't see anything wrong when you know full well something is not right. This time it was regarding my adrenal glands and hormones. What I had forgotten though is the tests that were done were really basic and not the most reliable tests. In fact I am starting to rely less and less on what the blood work says. Just because the blood work comes back normal does not mean things are functioning as they should be. 

I feel like I've been at a crossroads with treatment for quite some time. I was hoping that the blood tests were going to point us in a certain direction but that didn't happened.  I weighed my options and decided that I would try a local chiropractor that I had heard some great things about. I had been to chiropractors before, in fact the doctors from Hansa are both D.C.'s.  This doctor though uses NUCCA and that was something I had not tried. It was perfect timing too because anther Lyme patient was inquiring about NUCCA and I heard a couple stories of people benefiting from it.   Besides being local, the office also had a payment plan that worked for us. Really I barely have the funds to continue with my accupuncture so I needed something I could afford. What has happened over the past two weeks of seeing Dr. S has been huge and given me such hope that I am on the right track. 

NUCCA stands for the National Upper Cervical Chiropractic Assocation. Without going into to much detail because I would probably screw it up, NUCCA involves adjusting the very upper cervical spine area with minor pressure. It is not the typical snap, crack, pop visit and it focuses on an area that no one has ever dealt with. My first visit was a sit down with the doc to go over my history, my complaints, concerns, and few minor tests and x-rays. After that the doctor let me know that he thought he could help me. As much as he wanted to start working on me right away he knew it was important to review everything first. I scheduled a followup for the next day. The second appointment the doctor said confirmed that he really felt he could me. He said in addition to the NUCCA he would be doing bio-cranial work as well. He laid out a treatment plan and we agreed I would see him twice a week for 6 weeks and then once a week for 6 weeks. After that we will figure out how often I may need to see him. He did say I am a very complex case but he likes a challenge. What a surprise. We jumped right in with the first adjustment which only took a matter of minutes. He finished with a couple more followup x-rays. As much as I don't like to have the x-rays they ensure that he is right on with his adjustment. During these first two visits the doctor explained a little bit about how NUCCA works. Basically when things in the upper cervical area get out of alignment it causes problems with the information going to my brain. Bad information going in, means bad information coming back out to my body. I'm very twisted and have a lot of misalignment. The doctor almost laughed and just said no wonder you are tired all of the time. You are so twisted that your body is fighting against it self, against the muscles to try and put you back into alignment. It really was making sense. At then end of my session I was put on the MRS mat. I won't go into that right now but you can look it up. Its magnetic therapy that helps with pain and all sorts of things by kind of acting like a whole body battery charger. A lot of people with Lyme use them and so I am excited to have the chance to use on regularly for a while. I have found that I am very sensitive them which is normal in my condition so I can't do to much time on the mat.

My next visit started off with some muscle testing and energy work. The first thing he says is that my adrenal glands are definitely weak and not functioning as they should. My blood work said my adrenal glands were find which I know in my heart was almost impossible due to how long I had been sick and everything I had dealt with. Next he picked up the fact that I had a virus in my intestine. He worked his energy medicine and put me on a herbal adrenal gland remedy. I'm almost in tears at this point and he was so excited he was almost jumping up and down. He said he could just see things unfolding for me and that we were really gonna get some where. Hope. Dr. Spinato gave me hope. Everything he said made so much sense. It also matched up with what Hansa told me in January. Adrenals and viruses were my two biggest issues. Two different doctors, in two different parts of the world, not knowing what each other said and using slightly different energetic testing methods came up with the same answers. So cool. We did the bio cranial therapy next which is like a big stretch in the neck and upper cervical spine to again help open up the communication to/from the brain. I jumped on the mat and was out the door. With in 45 minutes of my appointment I started getting sick to my stomach. I was "sick" to my stomach the rest of the day and the next. In addition I had a really bad episode of dizziness, heart, just feeling really bad and weird to where I considered the ER. I had been here before though and knew the ER wouldn't help. Anyways I figured I must be having a healing crisis. This is a little different in that herx I have talked about before. This is because my body is kicking in a fixing things instead of a die off of bacteria. I didn't enjoy it by any means but took it as a positive sign. The following appointment the doctor agreed with my thoughts that it was a healing crisis. He was glad I knew enough to just push on. So I have continued to have some healing crisis this week but am taking it as a positive sign.

Here a quick glimpse of what my treatment involves right now. I'm on 4 different antibiotics, a number of supplements (vit d, Co-Q 10, magnesium, adrenals, etc...), silver, acupuncture every other week, NUCCA, sauna daily if possible. I still have my chest port but don't use it right now. My plan is to do the antibiotics for about 3 more months and then be done with them for good. My goal is stick with natural herbal remedies and alternative therapies from then on out and for my family as well. I can't tell you how much I  believe in energy medicine. I will never view medicine the same again. I will be taking my girls to Dr. Spinato soon and look forward to how he can help them. I will be using alternative medicine and therapies for the rest of mine and my families life. I am happy to share anything I can with you about it and highly encourage you to look into these options. They may just change your life. I can't wait to keep you updated on my journey over the next few weeks as Dr. S works his magic. Feeling truly blessed and I like I am on the right path to getting well.

Frustrated but still fighting

As you can probably guess by the title of this post things are not exactly amazing right now. Let me say that I am blessed and my life is good. I have so much to be thankful for. I have been trying to increase my positiveness and stay positive and for the most part I think I have done a fair job. But as you may have learned by now I do vent when things aren't going so well. I have  gotten much better at not posting negative things everyday but there are times when it is necessary and this is one of them. I am trying to walk the line of being positive without making this disease look like its no big deal. There are days when this disease seems like it is the only thing you have going on in your life. The last week or so I am being reminded that this battle will be a life long one. 

Unfortunately this second round at Hansa has not produced the results that I saw the first time. I do believe that has a lot to do with how toxic I may have let myself get. I think because I was feeling so much better than I had in at least a year I was overdoing it and not taking care of my self the way that I should be. I know I have mentioned it in early posts but one of the things that is so frustrating about this disease is never knowing for sure why you feeling like you do.  Is it a herx, is it a flare, is it just part of the disease? Even with tracking symptoms sometimes you still can not tell. Over the past couple of weeks  I have had an increase in my brain issues. I am having a harder time concentrating and am more forgetful. I also feel more easily overwhelmed. Some of my heart and breathing issues have also increased a little. The biggest thing is some of my pain is back. After two months of being almost 100% pain free my joint and bone pain is back. It is fairly wide spread and random as was normal. My hips and knees get really sore when I am sitting or laying. My arms and legs are falling asleep really quickly and I have burning nerve pain. What the heck? This is obviously where my frustration comes in. I guess I had kind of convinced myself I could only go up. So this is my reminder that I guess I can go back down too.

My girls are still doing okay and I feel like Brooke (5) has had some improvements in mood and attitude. My family is plugging along with are better eating habits. I am beginning to believe we can do largely organic without breaking the pocket book. It comes down to my planning a little better but we will get there. I just have to remind myself to take this one day at a time and when we slip, we just need to get back up and move forward. There is no sense beating ourselves up over our mistakes. The girls are getting better at taking their remedies everyday. In about a week or so they will be all done. I'm hoping we continue to see some improvements with them both.

Our next issue is how we continue with my treatment. I wish I could be done but it is obvious I am not ready to stop everything. Hansa really wants me back in about another month or so. I still need to meet with my doctor here and see what he would like to do which I am sure will be to continue with the light therapy I had started at the end of last year. I am thinking I will be putting both girls through that as well just to try and help make sure we have done everything we can. I also have this CCSVI issue to address. It is a very complicated thing. The biggest road block comes back to finances. I hate that this is even an issue but it is. I am trusting God though that he knows what needs to happen and it will be taken care of. For right now I will continue the fight one day at a time.

I always like to end on a good note so I have a couple of things to share. An amazing person (and her family) who has become such an important part of my life have had a breakthrough in her fight against Lyme. She is lacking a major gene that is responsible for her bodies ability to detox. She is the second young person with Lyme I know personally who is facing this issue. I am so excited to see how this affects their treatment and how they feel. They have had little improvement much to the doctors frustration and this may be the answer. So I am beyond excited to see them start to get well. 

Last thing I want to share is some exciting news for the whole Lyme community. This Friday, the 13th, Dr. Phil is taking on Lyme Disease. Please watch it, DVR it, whatever you can do even if you don't like Dr. Phil. He has a LLMD and news reporter/Lyme fighter Brooke Landau in addition to some "bad guys" from the IDSA. The IDSA

Lots of prayers continue to be needed and appreciated not only for my family but for all of the families fighting this disease. Thanks for following along on this crazy journey. Sorry this update may be all over the place. My brain has just not been working lately. 

Return to Hansa: It's working

Sorry I took so long to write about my our last day at Hansa. The benefit is I can see things that we did are already working. Our last day was really good and sad at the same time. It has become almost a home away from home. The hardest part was leaving our friends. We have gained a life long friendship though and even though it was hard to leave I wouldn't trade it for the world. We love you Body family!

The day started our with me seeing the doctor. I was scheduled for an hour. He needed 15 minutes. That was it. I still have a lot of work left to do but we had made some progress and he got kind of as a far as he could go this time. So we moved right on to the kids. We did some work with the myasms which are those diseases, illnesses, and conditions in your family history that are passed down energetically. They don't always activate, and just because you have a myasm doesn't mean you will get that illness but you could. You just want to clear all of that out. The big one that stands out for me is cancer. I have it and so does Brooke but it has skipped Jenna so far. Hopefully getting these issues addressed in the kids means they won't pass them down anymore. Again doesn't mean that we would definitely get cancer but that energy is there and could activate at any time unless you get it taken care of.

We didn't really have any big revelations. Dr. J did say that Brooke's ear looked night and day better. She still had some pain at about 5 am in the morning so I was really nervous about our flight. He gave us a herbal remedy to take for the pain. Just to be safe I did give her some advil and found the ear plugs designed for flying that are open on the end to help regulate pressure. The kids did amazing on the flight and Brooke has had no complaints since.

Since we have been home things have been crazy as is usual around here. We have just been busy and I started not feeling good. I realized right away what my mistake was. When I was at Hansa I didn't really do any detox this time so I really should have come straight home and got in the sauna. Having the energetic treatments got things moving in my body and I wasn't doing anything to get the junk out. Then I started to have my usual sore throat that I get a day or two after flying. Weather it activates my Ebstein Barr or what I don't know but it happens I think every time I fly. This time I woke up with my eyes stuck shut and a bad headache. I kind of started to panic. Please not pink eye and no antibiotics. Well 24 hours later I am feeling much improved. I jumped all over detoxing and it seems to have worked. I did the sauna once Saturday, twice yesterday, plus took detox bath, and started taking my EmergenC. I also went to the health food store to try and find a remedy for my eyes. The lady suggested Rue Fennel drops mixed with purified water as an eye wash. 3 doses of that during the day yesterday and no problems with my eyes this morning. I will definitely be continuing this protocol for the next day or two to make sure I really knock it out. I also made Asian Ginger Chicken soup for dinner. It is has spinach and mushrooms and I threw in some chicken for my husband. It is supposed to be healing and was perfect way to end my day. 

Back to the girls. They both have a few remedies to take for the next 30 days. I was excited to hear it was only 30 days. Jenna is taking the same ones for Lyme and neurotoxins I originally took. I couldn't be more proud of my girls. These remedies don't exactly taste great and they do it 3 times a day without a fight. Already we have seen an improvement with Jenna's stomach issues. She has suffered with horrible gas since she was little. I don't think she has had any since we got back. It's the little things sometimes. It is just more confirmation that we are doing the right thing. I can't wait to see what happens over the next few weeks for both girls. I am expecting big things. I got our our paperwork and test results and took some time to look them over on the flight home. The one thing that really stuck out to me was Jenna's vitality. Her little body is only functioning at about 50%. We didn't talk about that specific number so I am going to email the doc and get some more information. Hopefully her numbers will increase rapidly now that we are on the right path. If she has done this will functioning at only about half of what she should I would say she is in for big things in her future. 

Our biggest challenge at the moment is this possible CCSVI issue for me. It is all so new and there are of course no guarantees that the "angioplasty" to open up your veins will work. There is just a lot of unknowns right now. I am still feeling okay with going to get the scans done if we can come up with money. Then we can go from there. Lots of research and prayers ahead. I am feel beyond blessed though that we found Hansa. We are on our way to better health and I couldn't be more excited.

Return to Hansa- This is where the healing begins

Things have been quite interesting since my post last night. I have a big break in my day so I decided to write part of my update now so I'm not having to write so much later. We went to dinner with our amazing friends who have been such a big help watching the girls during some of my treatments. We had a great night and come up to our room at about 8:30. Then out of the blue Brooke started complaining about her ear hurting. I was trying to figure out what was going on since we had been off the plane for over 24 hours and she had no complaints at all during our flight. I got her to sleep a little but the pain was waking her up in tears. That led to  borrowing my friends car in the middle of the night to go to Walmart. Not my idea of a good time but I had to help my little girl feel better. Long story short,  I didn't get a lot of sleep last night and neither did Brooke but with a little Advil, warm compress, and cotton in the ear while she slept...she is pain free and bouncing off the walls this morning. So all is well at this present moment. 

I was scheduled to see the doctor first thing this morning. I did forget to mention yesterday that besides seeing the doctor, I had a massage and did the LUX (the treatment that uses colored lights and gemstones aimed at different organs on the body). That is the same protocol today. They are trying to help me save money and do kind of the minimum but still get good results. I don't think the girls will do anything but see the doctor where you do get energetic treatments and some other stuff. I started my appointment, after discussing how I was feeling, with some basic alignment stuff. He did a little cranial release as well. We then went on to the neurophoton therapy with the glasses that show you the different colored lights. All of the standard stuff went really quickly with no issues so he brought out some homeopathics to test me with while wearing the glasses. We dealt with a couple of minor issues there. Then we moved on to colored glasses that are different then the colored lights. I flew through those as well with very little to deal with. So the doctor said I was going to challenge him today with what else to do. We finished up trying to address the ringing in my ears and I was done. I have a massage and LUX scheduled this afternoon and then the girls see the doctor. I'm hoping to learn lots this afternoon in their appointments and hope to start seeing some improvements.

My girls are doing so good with all of this. Convincing your kids to take herbal remedies and stuff isn't easy. Some of things I take are just plain horrible to chew up or swallow so they are troopers. Both of them gagged last night taking their first doses. I crushed up the pills and put them in applesauce this morning. It was better but not great. We will get through it though and hopefully soon they won't even notice. I have a lot of research still to do on this whole CCSVI thing and just trying to make sure I make the most of this short trip. I knew as soon as I got here I wish were staying the whole week and could just do everything. I am still really blessed though to be here and glad we are doing something to get our health in order.

This afternoon the girls got their turn to see the doctor and really their first experience with energetic treatments. Brooke went first because her ear was really bothering her again so I wanted Dr. J to take a look at it. Looking at ears isn't really standard for them but he did it anyways and said she needs to get back to the ENT. He really didn't like what little he could see but she has so much wax in the way he couldn't get a clear view. This has always been a struggle for Brooke and her doctors have had to remove the wax before. He said both ears were very red and kind of inflamed looking and it just didn't look good. Through BRS testing he did pick up a virus in the ear that is bothering her. He suggested some natural drops to try. He also showed me how to massage the area in her neck that would help open up her ears for proper drainage. Unfortunately I had to do another round of Advil before I get the store for the drops because they pain was so bad. Hoping we really get some relief before getting on the plane tomorrow. Once that was out of the way, he did some alignment stuff using energetic chiropractics and the percussor. Most of her issues were all in her sacrum. Then he did her cranial fixations with the percussor as well. Fairly easy for Brooke with the exception of the ear. She did great though.

Jenna had the same type of energetic treatments and use of the percussor to fix alignment and cranial fixation issues. He did note that both girls have a ridge in their "hard palate

Overall a good day. Looking forward to tomorrow but I definitely wish we could stay longer. We are going to miss our friends so much and I would love to keep working on the getting better but it will good to be back home with daddy and the dogs. We can also see how well we do over the next few months and then analyze where to go from there. So one appointment with the doc and then we will be saying good bye to Kansas and hello California.  Good night.

Return to Hansa- Survey Says...

I think I say this a lot but- What a day! This brings back memories of my first trip to Hansa. Information overload. I was ready this time and took notes but I am still not sure I comprehend everything. Of course as I start to process things questions come up so I will be making my list of questions for the doctor here shortly.  I wish I could take the "essence" of Hansa with me always. It is almost like magic that you walk through the doors and you swear you will eat right, take all of your remedies everyday on time, drink plenty of water, detox, meditate, think positive, etc...but then reality sets in when you leave and it starts you start to let those things go by the wayside. Once again, I am going to try really hard to to do what needs to be done to give us the best chances of health. Maybe it will stick this time because it has become about my kids much more than about me. So onto the day and what we learned. Sorry if my posts here are long but I so desire to give you as much information as possible. If anything I say here is helpful to one person than it really does make it worth it. Grab a cup of organic coffee, with stevia and a splash of almond milk and settle in for a read.

This morning started out with a CRT for myself and my 8 yr old daughter Jenna. My daughter did great during the test just like I knew she would. Next we went in to see the doctor and go over the results of the CRT's and then have the BRS(bio resonance scanning) for us and my 5 yr old daughter Brooke. Starting with me made the most sense. We reviewed how I had been feeling, what I was currently taking, etc...I admitted I screwed up and stopped taking my remedies a few weeks too early by mistake. I could tell than he wasn't thrilled but we were going to get through it. It may have been a blessing because my body actually tested that it didn't want to of the remedies anymore so that was good. Anyways, my CRT test didn't show a huge improvement but it is obvious by how I feel that things are improving. A lot of what I am dealing with may take 6 months to a year to clear up so that would make sense. In the overall numbers my inflammation dropped from a 4.5 to a 3. (0 is best 6 is worst) I will take any improvements I can get. Then when it came to vitality it went from 1.3 to 1.7. My body was functioning at about 40% at the 1.3 mark so again some improvement. When it came to specific areas there was not much change either. My thyroid is actually worse so I need to have it checked and may need to go back on thyroid medication that I had stopped in January. Hope to know a little more by Wednesday but will still need to have it checked. The biggest deal on my test was the fact that my head issues had not improved. This really confirms for the doctor that I am dealing with CCSVI. (chronic cerebrospinal venous insufficiency) Basically it is believed to be comprimised blood flow in the veins draining the central nervous system. The fact that I am having some lymphatic drainage issues in the areas at the base of the neck further supports the doctors suspicions. This is something they are finding in MS patients. Interestingly enough a lot of MS patients are testing positive for Lyme. (So if I could for one minute just say I don't blame Lyme for everything but the reality is many conditions appear to be caused by Lyme. Many of the conditions of really just a name for a group of symptoms like Fibromyalgia where as some of the other conditions may be actually illnessed or diseases them selves. I just encourage you to do your own research is you are facing a symptoms or have been labeled with a condition that may not make sense or has no known cause. Lyme has been associated with things like...Fibro, chronic fatigue, MS, alzheimers, parkinsons, arthritis, autisim, bi-polar just to name a few. Everything has a cause. Just saying. Enough of the lecture)

So what does CCSVI mean for me. One is the doctor believes this may be a big road block for me if it is not addressed and that would be sooner rather than later. Second I need to go get a MRI and Ultrasound to determine if this is definitely an issue for me. Being that this is a fairly new condition I am limited on the places that are familiar with it. The place that the Hansa Center works with regularly to address this issue is in Las Vegas. The imaging alone is about $3200 if your insurance won't cover it. Which I am guessing they won't but we will see. If the images show blockages you basically have to have something like angioplasty to open things up. That brings up a whole other world of issues...it is not guarenteed to fix things. You may not feel better even if it does fix things. You may "re-stenous" which means things block back up and then what. Factor in the risk and the cost of the procedure and well, this is going to be a big thing for us to deal with. Bottom line, I feel right now I need to try and proceed with the imaging and then go from there. In some cases it is genetic and something is malformed causing the issues. (Doc said this may be an issue in my case since Jennas test is leaning that way but they don't usually go down this road with kids. It could be other factors at this point for her) It could also be caused by some type of cervical impingement and fixed with some chiropractic type therapy. Either way surgery or other would involve me coming back to Hansa to continue addressing the issues and seeing what happens when that issue is taken care of. For some people, it is a huge turning point and they really improve after this. So bottom line is we have lots to think about. That covers the basics of me today. As far as the rest of my testing went with the BRS- my Lyme is definitely improving. I still have the ammonia in the brain(which is the main toxin released by the Lyme bacteria) but there was definite improvements. Started some new remedies to deal with the neurotoxin issues, the viruses which are major for me, and iodine for the ammonia I believe. Anyways I am excited to get back up and going and see some more improvements.

Now to what really matters- my girls. Brooke did really good with the doctor. In summary she has major digestive issues which I kind of figured. If you remember the top 10 list from last time Brooke only had a top six issues from each area. Children and healthy adults don't usually have 10 areas. For people with significant problems we have more than 10 but that is where they stop testing. Have to start somewhere. At least there is an end point for Brooke. From biggest issue to least her organs were- colon-stomach-thyroid-pituitary-pineal-hypothalamus and chemical/nutritional issues were metabolic-virus-lipid metabolism-yeast-allergies-hormones. Can't say all that means yet but should know more over the next two days. The hormone issue stuck out to the doctor and this is where the diet has got to change. Her hormone issues are stemming from the crap in our diets. So completely organic and hormone free meat and dairy or going dairy free is a must. What a wake up call. Dr. J believes Brooke has yeast in her colon so going to deal with that and forward we go. He also believes she may have some neurotransmitter issues contributing to her mood swings. She is also indicating stress on her autonomic nervous system. I believe it could be internal (illness type stressors) but it can definitely be external stress. Another huge wake up call. My 5 yr old and 8 yr old both are suffering from stress related issues. If these aren't indicators of how out of whack our world has gotten I don't know what is. The good news is although the doctor believes Brooke is carrying the Lyme bacteria she got in the womb she has no indications it has activated in her system. Lets hope with what we are doing here and the changes we make going forward her little can keep it in check and she never has problems. She does have some cranial fixations which may be affecting sinuses and some pelvic misalignments both of which we will deal with in the next two days.

My Jenna also has the cranial fixations which may be causing her more recent episodes of dizziness and pelvic misalignments. She has the indicators for stress on her autonomic nervous system too. She was indicating for a remedy that would help people who had gotten sick and not recovered properly. That is some big news for us. Jenna was born 9 lbs 4 oz to everyones surprise. By about 7 or 8 months old she was 18 lbs. She then got violently sick with rotavirus which caused her to end up in the hospital dehydrated and to have lost almost 4 lbs in a week. She has had ongoing stomach trouble and at almost 9 yrs old she weighs only 53 lbs. I am hoping we really begin to make some improvements in this area. Her top list of issues was as follows for organs adrenals-stomach-colon-heart-pituitary-pineal-hypothalamus-bladder. and chemical/nutritional were toxicity-bacteria-virus-hormones-allergy. She too has an end in site. The heart does concern me and they did pick up an arrhythmia which her pediatrician has also picked up but the Dr. J says he believes it may only come on  in response to what her body is going through at any given time.  The biggest news of the day was that Jenna is showing active Lyme as she has substantial quantities of ammonia in her brain as well. The bugs have started their cycle and are dying off releasing toxins into her little body. I almost cried when I heard the news but not because of what you would have thought. I am so thankful to God that we found out. My little girl stands a good chance to deal with this now and be done. No invasive antibiotics but getting her body to get back on top before it looses all control. I see myself in her at this age struggling with staying focused, being organized, remembering my homework.  Those same struggles in me were joke about lovingly in my nick name "Jessica Marie, tie your shoes, forgetful, Dlugos. I was a little bit of a walking disaster who always forgot things and well no one knew it wasn't just part of me. My body was being taken over slowly by these stupid bugs and their toxic waste and I was left fighting to get my life back. My little girl won't have to suffer the way I did. I couldn't feel more blessed. I am a little in shock and realize we may have some work ahead of us but we will overcome this. Dr. J believes her number one issue of toxicity is probably the ammonia and her body actually said it wanted the organs dealt with first. He does believe she may somewhat of a leaky gut and her allergies are really systemic reactions to what is leaking out. I can't wait for tomorrow so we can really get moving on these issues and hopefully start to see some improvements. Lots of questions to ask and things to figure out but feeling good about the direction we have chosen to go. I so desperately wish my husband was with me to help go through this and make sure we are doing whatever we can for our girls. I don't believe though this will be the last time we will be here though. So glad God has this under control. We couldn't face this battle without him. 

Now off to bed for some much needed sleep. Can't wait to share our exciting day tomorrow. Thanks for the prayers and support. Love you all.

Return to Hansa

So the return to Hansa has begun. What an incredibly exhausting day it has been. I could not be more impressed with how well my girls behaved today. I even got a compliment from a passenger on our first flight for their behavior. What a great feeling as a parent. I made sure my girls knew how much I appreciated that. I wish I could say that today was stress free and easy but would fun would it be if everything went off without a hitch. Getting to see some of my favoritest people from last time made the whole day worth it.

Here is a quick run down of our crazy day. San Diego-Los Angeles-Houston-Wichita. We left our house by 5:30 to get to the San Diego airport for a 7:30 flight to LA. My husband offered to find a Starbucks for my daily coffee fix but I said no, I'll grab one at the airport. Well the commuter terminal has almost nothing in it and I figured no biggie I'll grab one in LAX. Of course by the time we landed and all, we didn't have as much time as I thought. Not knowing my way around I just wanted to get to our gate and go from there. Found our gate, almost time to start boarding and there is nothing really around. Our flight ended up being late and I could have found food and coffee but no one communicated what was going on. Let me say that our United plane from LA to Houston  was great. Free headphones if needed and tvs at every seat with free games, movies(good ones too), tv shows, music, etc...So for that United is awesome. However customer service at the airport is awful. Like I said, a late and oversold flight with no info as to what was going on. We of course are late landing. We get off the plane and I confirm our gate for our connecting flight. Totally different terminal, meaning you have to take a tram since the Houston airport is so big. I have less than 30 minutes to take off and all the lady says if we don't stop at all we should make it. No offers to help us by giving us a ride on one of the million little luggage carts cruising around. Me and both girls are running through the airport with all of our stuff only to get to our gate and find out they are behind. It was like a scene from Home Alone. We landed safely though which is the most important part. Although I am still looking for my mocha.

It feels good to be back only I wish we were staying for longer than 3 days. I am excited to see my progress and to get some more healing going but I am way more excited to hear what they say about my girls tomorrow. The anticipation is almost too much to handle. I have been having some symptoms return over the last two weeks so the timing couldn't be better. I realized the other day I screwed up though, by relying solely on my brain, and I stopped all of my remedies like two weeks earlier than I should have. I am wondering if that is why I am having a little flare up or relapse or whatever. By the time I caught the mistake it was too late to start everything back up so I will talk with the doctor and have all of my remedies retested to see where I stand on them. Part of my wonders if 3 days is really enough but I believe we should be able to accomplish a lot. The only thing I know right now is that Jenna, who is 8, are both supposed to have the CRT test in the morning. Brooke, my 5 year old won't. Just to refresh your mind, the CRT is the temperature test where they take your temperature at 100-200 different points (all above the waist) on the body and then subject you to cooler temperatures for 10 minutes then retake the temperature on all the same points. How your body responds to the cooler temperatures gives and indication as to what is malfunctioning in your body and your overall inflammation and vitality. Last time, my inflammation was high and my body was functioning at like 40%. Can't wait to see the results this time.

Well I guess that is enough and I should really get some sleep. You know I will be filling you in daily about our trip. Your comments and questions are always welcome. Thanks to all of my family and friends for their wonderful support. By tomorrow at this time, I should have an answer to my most burning question...Do my daughters have Lyme also? It is comforting to know though how I will handle it. I believe we can get their health on track and that they won't have to suffer and go through all of medications and everything I did. We will get their bodies to deal with what ever they are facing the way God designed them too. Big couple of days ahead. Here we go...

Second Chance

My life may not be going the way I planned it, but it is going EXACTLY the way God planned it.


My husband and another dad took the kids out for dinner and a movie so I have the evening to myself. You would think I would be doing something much more exciting than this but the truth is I don't feel very good and wasn't up to going any where. I also realized it had been quite a while since I wrote an update and I figured there was not better time than this. My life has been really busy and I haven't had much down time. I have to say that is a good thing. I am amazed at how quickly I could forget how sick I was. In some ways I think it is a good think. However, it does create some issues with not over doing it. In my opinion my energy is still horrible and I still wake up tired not matter how well I slept. (I am sleeping much better by the way) I try and remind myself though, that I am doing much more than I was 6 months or certainly a year ago. So my energy is better but I know I still have a long way to go. If I could only have that bouncing of the wall feeling a few days a week that would be great.

Overall, I have done fairly well since coming back from the Hansa Center. I have not had any seizure episodes. My muscle spasms are 95% better. My pain has been almost non-existent and my brain function has improved somewhat. I had a little reality check though this past week with some joint and muscle pain, poor brain function, heart issues, etc...It has been a little frustrating but I can't really complain. It is interesting that this has been happening during the full moon and solar flares that have been happening. It seems really consistent among most of us with Lyme at least that feel worse during the full moon. I am hoping that is all it is. I got my new herbal remedy for this horrible allergies I have been having. Within 3 doses my symptoms had improved dramatically but they have come back. It seems like taking the remedy things clear up fairly quickly for a little bit but they come back within a few hours. Hoping we can get them under control soon.

As far as my treatment goes...my doctor here in San Diego had wanted my to start back up on the light therapy a few weeks ago. I am holding off for at least a little while more. That treatment is not cheap and I don't have any measurable results. That makes it hard to know if it is working. I have continued with acupuncture fairly regularly and am doing my epsom salt baths and the sauna. I will admit I am not doing the sauna nearly enough so I am trying to get up and do it first thing every morning. I did reach my 60 day mark since starting my remedies so I have stopped them. So other than my heart medication, the remedy for allergies, vit d, and one other pill I don't take anything. To go from almost 50 pills a day  and IV's to this is amazing. It is really evidence as to how far I have come. I am hoping to redo some of my blood tests, like my CD 57 to see what they are indicating within the next month or so.

The really good news is I am going back to Hansa in a little more than a week. Although I only get to stay for 3 days I am really excited to get a tune up and see how much I have improved and what else we can tune up. The best news is I am taking both of my girls. Although my husband doesn't get to go I can't wait to find out what they see in my girls and what we can do to get them on the right track. It is a total blessing that my friends from when I went in January will be there at the same time. I can't even say how much I have missed them. Plus, they are helping me with the girls while I am in treatment.  You can bet I am going to blog about that whole experience when we go.

I feel like I have so much more to tell you but I guess it will have to wait for another time. If you wouldn't mind praying for our trip which is March 18-21. Please pray for safety, answers and improvements for myself, Jenna and Brooke. Also please pray for our financial situation and some big decisions we have coming up. God is continuing to bless us and it will be exciting to share all of the details of my photography venture and what God is doing over the next few months. As always, thank you for your continued support, kind words and prayers. I will try to get back to blogging more often so you know what is going on and where I am on this crazy journey called life.

Finding Balance

I apologize for the long break since my last update. In reality, I haven't had much down time and I guess that is a sign right there that things have improved somewhat. Unfortunately I don't have much time now either so this update may be brief. I promise to give a proper update soon. Overall the improvements I had made since going to Kansas have held pretty steady. I don't have the energy I want and need yet but I guess the fact that I have been so busy means it is better than it was. Since I had a few days here and there where I was bouncing off the walls I guess I desire that everyday. At a minimum I know I can have more energy than I do.    My pain is definitely less. I don't have pain very often anymore and when I do it is milder than it was. My temperature issues are somewhat better, my seizure type stuff is better and my heart may be even a little better. So overall I have held onto some improvements but don't feel much better than I did 3 weeks ago. There is one thing that has been really bad but I do take it as a sign of overall improvement...my hayfever is out of control. I have had some bad allergies before but it has been probably mid to late nineties since they have been this intense. They have never lasted this long. They are intense everyday and have been for about 3 to 4 weeks. It would be really interesting to see where allergies show up on my top ten list now since they were number 10 when I had gone to Kansas. I finally decided to try a remedy from Hansa to see if it helps. Hopefully it will be here this week and I can get some relief. I had one little flare up about a week and a half ago that was a little strange. I was really having an amazing day or few days I should say. Then out of the blue I got sad and super depressed over that matter of a few hours. I wanted to crawl under the covers and be left alone. Some of my physical symptoms came back also. My feet got really cold, I had some pain and was sick to my stomach. What that was all about I don't know for sure but it did clear up. I am still learning to find my balance as I still have the ability to over do it. When you start feeling better you want to run out and try to make up for lost time and I catch myself paying for that every now. I just have to remember to take my remedies, get enough rest, and keep on my detox and diet.

God has really blessed my family and continued to take care of us this past month. I really feel like God has confirmed the direction we are going and I am working on continuing to trust Him to meet all of our needs. I have definitely has some ups and downs. I realize though that those down moments come from trusting man and not God. There are some big decisions in our future and I am excited to see where God will take us and how He will continue to provide for us.

One of those big decisions is  about going back to Hansa. My goal was to go back here in the next few weeks, with my husband and two girls. There is a good chance my husband can't go which make me sad but it is a must that I take my girls. My youngest is having increasing complaints of pain and stomach problems and I just want to go and get them back on track to healing whatever the reason. Of course money is always the big factor. I need a fourth person to go if my husband can't because my girls need to be watched while I am in treatment. When I looked at air fair it would cost us like 1500 for all 4 of us to fly.  That does make it cheaper to drive even with fuel being closer to 5 dollars a gallon. How we will pull this off I am not sure but I have an urgency about going back. I want to continue to heal and get my girls well on their way to healing as well. I would rather postpone starting light therapy again as that is not cheap and go back to Hansa again first. Lots to figure out in the next few days.

I wish I had time to tell you more but that is about all I can say right now. Please continue to pray for me and family and our upcoming big decisions. Oh and one last request,please look up Surf Chaser Photography and like my page on Facebook. Then share it with all of your friends. The future looks exciting and I can't wait to share more over the next few weeks.

Because of Lyme

I can't believe it has been a week since I left Hansa. Where does the time go? I don't think I realized how different my life would be when I came home. One of the big reasons is because I have gone back to school. Not anything crazy, just one class. But for someone who has been living the life of the chronically ill this can monumental. I am taking a class because I want to which is also different for me. This is not out of necessity. Of course things are different too because I am healing. I am getting better. I still am not sure how to say I feel physically. I am still having a lot of my symptoms but a week later I would say they are less. Next week is my typically bad week so I am excited to see how it goes. Emotionally and mentally well the positive attitude thing is a bigger deal than I ever thought. It is an everyday struggle to not fall back into bad habits. I have to fight to keep  my mind in the right place all day long. I am finding though that I am happier. My husband certainly notices that difference. People seem to be nicer. I'm getting lots of smiles, and hellos, and people wanting to start up conversations. So I am now a true believer in the power of a positive attitude. Gosh I have so much I want to say about some life long friendships I have made, and details on what specifically has improved but I am going to save that for another day. I have been thinking all week about this experience, the power of the positive and how blessed I am and I started realizing there are a lot of things I have because of Lyme. I feel like they are important to share with you all. So here it goes.

Because of Lyme:
My faith in God grew
I've learned to give up control and totally rely on God
I've learned what is really important in life
I've learned what real friends are
Because of Lyme:
I am making healthier choices for myself and my family
I've seen a whole new side to medicine and healing
I've learned to be okay with needles
I've made some amazing new friends
Because of Lyme:
I've learned to be positive
I've learned that I am good an empathizing and sympathizing with people
I've found that I can be a great support to someone else
I've learned how to live with less
Because of Lyme:
I've learned to speak up for myself
I've been given the opportunity to chase my dreams
I've learned how truly blessed I am
I get to help lots of people

I guess I could go on and on, but the point is, Lyme has given me so much more positive than negative that I wouldn't trade it this experience even if I had the chance.

Hansa Day 10- This is Only the Begining

A hindrance to everyday miracles is that everyone looks at the lives of the people around them and sees only mutual misery. When disease becomes the norm most accept the disease as their lot in life by saying, "Why should I strive for anything else?" You must separate yourself from what the world says is normal and align all that you are to what God says is true (Romans 12:2).- excerpt from Everyday Miracles by God's Design by Dr. David A Jernigan

I am officially done with my last day at the Hansa Center. I do believe I received an everyday miracle of healing here and I am more thankful than words can express for what I have experienced. Each day going forward, I am expecting continued healing in my body and I know things will only get better.

Again today it has been hard to put my finger on what is different, but things are changing. After talking with the doctor I agree that it is like an "energetic" shift I am feeling. If you just went down my list of 20 some odd symptoms and asked what was better I wouldn't say a whole lot. But there is this underlying feeling of health and vitality mixed with bouts of energy that has me bouncing off the walls like a kid on a sugar high. I had to fight to keep my mouth quiet and my talking to a minimum the entire day. There are a few friends and family out there that know exactly what I am talking about. I talk a mile a minute, about anything and everything and just wear people out. This feeling makes me smile though. It is just like about 8 or 9 months ago when I had a random episode like this. It was almost like going back 18 or 20 years. It reminds me of the true me that go lost in feeling bad. There is a reason multiple people over the course of my life "randomly" would nickname me Sunshine. Well my sunny disposition is back and I vow to never let it get lost through life's trials again.

I may have a long journey ahead of me to get to complete healing but I am well on my way and I am going to learn to live in the moment. Each moment is a gift and I am going to do my best to appreciate them and to share God's love and light with everyone I can. I am learning that I am someone who can feel other peoples energy as well. The benefit of that is that I can now let my positive energy overwhelm someones negative energy instead of letting them be a drain on me. I think it also allows me empathetic towards other people. Gods going to use me in big ways. I can't wait.

Besides all of my positive energy there are some things to share on a more physical level about where I go from here. First off, I have totally changed my view of medicine and how I will proceed in mine and my families overall health. Biological and energy medicine will become a big part of our lives for sure. More on that later though. As far as I go...the doctor feels I am stable. The goal, as I may have mentioned earlier, is to get you stable if not better before you leave. I am stable but certainly have areas that I will continue to heal in as we go. One of the surprising things to me though, is how well my body cooperated. The doctor got to do things he normally doesn't in someones first two weeks. I don't think I realized how strong my body is. Over the last few years, I had fallen prey to some ideas over how sick I was and what the chances were of me getting better. After all, we believe I have had Lyme for about 26 years and it's not curable so what will my new normal have to be? What a sad way of thinking. There is no reason why incredible health and great things are out of my reach and unavailable to me. I am not reduced to a life of pain, sadness, and IV antibiotics. For those of you who are chronically ill, guess what , you don't have to be either. You can be well. You need to expect "everyday miracles". We serve an awesome God and nothing is out of reach.

Sorry for getting off track. So back to treatment. The plan is for me to stay on my remedies/supplements for about 60 days. I am not going to start or stop any medications or supplements in this time barring emergencies of course. I will be using my sauna multiple times week if not daily as well as doing daily epsom salt baths. I will be continuing to see my acupuncturist and maybe a new chiropractor as needed probably once or twice a month. I will do the ionic foot baths and massage as I can. I will go back to biophoton light therapy as my doctor wants. Both doctors at Hansa seemed really impressed with my doc and I really see some great things happening between them all in the future. I am so glad that this is working out. I don't know if I will go back to my LLND or not. Right now I think things are covered but I do believe she is a great doctor and I am glad to have her as a resource.

As far as coming back to Hansa...the doctor would like me back in about 6 maybe 8 weeks. I need to have my port removed not because they said but because I am done with the IV's and I am not going back. I am also going to try and have my retainer removed. Interestingly enough, Dr. J thinks the removing the retainer could cause me more issues then having the port removed.

Your body doesn't pay attention to names. It doesn't know what we call the bacteria and it really doesn't care. So just like when I gave you my top ten lists that would work for my kids. Although they maybe able to confirm that Lyme bacteria is present I just want my kids healthy and I believe we can get a good head start with out antibiotics or invasive methods by bringing them here. I am not going to worry about how this may all come together. I am keeping the faith. God has been working behind the scenes with my family and some things and I know this is a big year for us. I couldn't be more excited about the future than I am right now. Oh, we did challenge my vagus nerve this morning and got a little something to resolve but it may not have any affect on my heart. Again, as I continue to heal new things may come up. We were certainly able to get beyond the top layer of my problems and as things get resolved new things could show them selves. Its not that they are just happening but more so that they are uncovered now that the more pressing and serious issues have been resolved.

Well, I am feeling like that is a good place to end for now. I still have some pictures to upload. I will end up blogging about my trip home and will certainly keep you posted on how I am feeling. I may just do it once a week for a little while to give us all a break. I wanted to take one minute and talk about some of my new friends. First off Caity (and her amazing mom Joni), Sabine (and her wonderful husband Jack) and I all came here and started treatment for the first time last week. We are have become good friends as we have shared our journeys together over the past two weeks. I am so blessed to have them in my life and am going to miss them all. Second the staff at Hansa are all amazing and I will miss them. Crystal, my massage therapist, is AMAZING (not just at what she does, but as a person). Thank you for the amazing work you did and how much you helped me. Lastly the other families and people I met this week have been incredible as well. Nothing but stories of love and healing pouring out of this place. Some new like me others back for their third or fourth time. Some with strokes and ms, lots with lyme, so many different stories each seeming to have their own everyday miracles. And all the glory goes to God. It is Him, working through people. This is an experience I will never forget and I will do whatever I can to help other people experience everyday miracles. You don't have to be sick or come here for miracles to happen. They can and do happen right where you are at in your life! Many thanks and love to all of the people who have supported me in prayer or through an encouraging words. It means so much. Check in with you all soon.

Hansa Day 9- Short and Sweet

Be Still and know that I am God- Psalms 46:10

Other than excessive yawning, I haven't really had any symptoms today. I got through all of my treatments great. My foot bath was not as clear as yesterday but clearer than its been. The doctor lovingly "kicked" me out of my appointment early because he couldn't find much that needed attention right now. As I continue to heal, more things may come out. He challenged me to go and do something which would normally make my heart rate go up and see what happens. So I will climb some stairs a little later and see how my heart responds. This is more just to help us get to the root of the heart issues I was having. We will discuss it tomorrow and he may also stimulate my vagus nerve a little bit and see what we can get to show up. Other than that, at this moment in time, I am feeling great. I am so blessed. Thanks again for your support. Can't wait to tell you how my last day goes and how I feel tomorrow. Lots of people hear getting healed and still needing prayers. Love you all!

 "Thank you Lord for what you've done for me. Thank you Lord for what you're doing now. Thank you Lord for every little thing. Thank you Lord for you make me sing"- from Bob Marley, Thank You Lord

Hansa Day 8- My Ancestors

The heart of the wise teaches the heart and adds understanding to the lips- Psalm 16:23

Today was another interesting day. In fact I don't think any day here is not interesting. As has been the norm I didn't sleep great. I usually feel my best in the morning, after I get up and get going. So although I was tired I didn't feel too bad. The first thing I did was the Ionic foot bath. I always look doing that later in the day because I have usually stirred some things up and then I am removing them in the foot bath. So I wasn't sure what this mornings would look like. It pulled hardly anything out. To me that means one of two things- it didn't have anything to pull out since I did one later in my day yesterday or I am really making progress. Hopefully I will be able to tell by what tomorrows looks like.

I was tired but still had that kind of energized feeling at the same time. My brain was definitely having problems today. My head was spinning with thoughts and I couldn't read to save my life. I would one sentence and not retain any of it so I would read it again and again. It was very frustrating but maybe part of the retracing process. I could also tell that I am starting to get "hyper" in my talking. I am talking faster and more so that is definitely some of the old me coming back. Good or bad...I guess I will know when I talk to my husband.

By the time the afternoon came I seemed to quickly go down hill. I had a couple of dizzy episodes, and my  arms and legs just seemed week. My forearms hurt a little. My heart had been acting up a little and I had some shortness of breath. So that was perfect timing for me to see the doctor. My left shoulder started burning right after I got on the table so he worked on that to release some tension. Then we did more neurophoton therapy involving delta waves (I believe). This is what helps me stay asleep. We definitely had some things to resolve there. I only had to take about half as many homeopathics as yesterday but I did come away with a new remedy. This one is for myasims. Not sure on the spelling. Basically these are things my ancestors have passed down through the generations "energetically". So diseases or problems my ancestors had, would be passed on in the form of energy that imprints on the cells. They may or may not manifest symptoms but by resolving these, we can hopefully keep them from passing on (if I were to have more children) and they may resolve current symptoms. Basically we came up with syphilis which is really common in most families, cancer, and something that dealt with OCD, alcoholism, etc...Dr. J even said I could have obtained some of that from my husbands ancestry as well. Anyways, it was really interesting. Glad we got some of those things resolved.

Overall a good day and I still feel like we are making progress. The doctor certainly believes we are. I feel lucky that I am moving on to things a lot of people don't get to do this visit. I am looking forward to feeling better with each passing day. Thanks for following along. Keep the prayers coming, especially for sleep.

Hansa Day 7- Something has Shifted

I can't believe I only have 3 days left. I miss my family terribly but in some ways I am not ready to leave behind the daily routine I have come to enjoy. If I could only have both!

Well today has been an interesting day. Indescribable almost. I feel like something has shifted, something has changed but I can't put my finger on it. I believe though it is something good. I believe I am getting better. I had problems falling asleep again last night. It had to be close to 1 am before I finally started to drift off. Of course I was tired due to not getting enough sleep. I did feel much more at rest today though and could relax during my treatments. The bummer is I didn't get a massage today but all of my other treatments were relaxing like they have been. Although I didn't have that wired feeling like I did yesterday there is still some strange "energy" despite being tired. My mood or emotions still seem somewhat stirred up from yesterday but its good. When I went in and saw the doctor I didn't get my notebook out. He questioned that a little and I told him right away that things were a little strange today. Things were changing but I couldn't exactly describe it. I told him that as I ran over the list of my symptoms in my head, I think I had every single symptom at least once today. But it didn't last. They came and went in the most random way. I had my own ideas on why and he seemed to agree. My body could be retracing each of these and maybe it is kind of saying good bye. It is almost like checking it one last time to make sure it has been fixed. So we shall see. That makes it hard to say that I feel better or great because I have had symptoms all day long but I definitely feel different in a good way. Dr. J asked a little about the emotional stuff from yesterday. I told him during my massage I found myself thinking of the most random and not so great moments in my life. I realized it must have been from our treatment and he agreed. He said he didn't want to get to personal but asked if they were events or how would I describe them (my thoughts)...definitely events and people that I knew I had some stuff I needed to let go of. He told me to not be shocked if these people and I had some sort of contact. My response to that was I'm going to pray that doesn't happen. We laughed a little but he shared some stories and reasons as to why. We just agreed that I will not be surprised and I will handle the situations with love. One of the crazy things about this topic is it fell right in line with Dr. Jernigans (the other docs)book I have been reading called Everyday Miracles by God's Design. Once again, God's timing is perfect. I really had some break through regarding my life, how I have been living and how God wants me to live. Lots of love and positive thinking in my future. Hopefully I will be able to share more on that topic another time.

Dr. Jowdy explained how the goal is to get you feeling better or at least stable before you leave. It sounded like he believed I was reaching a stable level and that he had reached the minimum goals he had for me so we were able to move on and dig a little deeper. What a blessing for sure. We did some similar things like we did with the flower essence yesterday but it was for allergies. He couldn't come up with food issues or allergies for me. So he said that the "hay fever" stuff I have may go away. He wasn't picking anything up and as we have corrected other things it may have solved these issues as well. I did test negatively to vitamin B stuff which was kind of weird. I told him I never had a negative reaction that I knew of from taking anything. Either way it was resolved with some homeopathics. We did more light and neurophoton therapy getting into deeper layers so to speak. I ended up taking about 15 different homeopathics that were just indicated (by my body) for one time. I am definitely excited to see how I feel tomorrow. The neurophoton therapy involves some muscle testing so it is absolutely crazy to see instant results in the test. I am dying on the table wishing all of my family and friends could be witnessing this. Believe, it is my mission to come back for even just 2 or 3 days with my husband and kids in the next few months. I can't wait for us all to experience great health. I really feel like we have been given a gift and me coming here is just the beginning.

Well off to dinner and hopefully and a decent bedtime. Which reminds me I need to tell you what came up in regards to the sleep issue. We discussed when I was typically falling asleep and according to the one chart it could be a gallbladder issue. He definitely picked up on some issues in my gallbladder so I am hoping we resolved those and I will be sleeping better tonight. Keep the prayers coming, not just for me but for my two new friends that have been here with me. There blessings are taking a little longer to show up. Thanks and lots of love for your support of me and family.

Hansa Day 6- Tired and Wired

It's late and I need to get some sleep so I am going to try and make this short. Well short for me anyways. I have had a horrible time with insomnia. Compared to some of my friends my trouble sleeping is nothing but it has definitely been rough the past few nights. I am sure I didn't get to bed before midnight the last three nights, I guess it would 4 counting tonight. In fact I didn't go to sleep until about 2:30 this morning. It is driving me nuts. Once I am asleep though, I do seem to be sleeping better than normal. Needless to say I was tired today. At least my day ended early so I go almost a 2 hr. nap. This week is much busier than last and the owner/head doctor is in this week. I am hoping I get a chance to chat with him even if its for a minute.

I started this morning off by seeing the doctor. He did some minor work with the percussor on my upper back and neck area. Then we went into something called bio coherence. Basically it involved the BRS to see first if my cells were able to communicate and second if there were speaking the same language. That uncovered a lot of messed up stuff. I took a one time homeopathic remedy and he proceeded to make me another remedy to add to my list. This one however I will not refill. Once my bottle is gone, I will be done. Because of some energy level stuff Dr. J wanted me to increase the one pill I take from once a day to twice a day. No big deal. Once we finished with the bio coherence we went on to some emotional stuff. I honestly forgot what they call this but they are a couple of things they will be looking at today we used flower essence to check for emotional things. The four or five emotional issues that came forward were pretty interesting and I guess looking back tonight I see how they were right on. Those emotional issues were playing a part in my bodies ability to heal. Bringing those to the surface added some more things to my new remedy so it now contained 13 different things in one bottle. The cool thing was, after we got that cleared up, I no longer needed to take those additional pills. Dr. J said there was some clearing out in my adrenals and hopefully this will help the energy/vitality stuff. I feel like my body is cooperating pretty well with the plan and things are moving along fairly well. That makes me happy of course. As far as the emotional things go, I may or may not feel anything. So two things happened after seeing the doctor. I was super tired and yawning a lot but at the same time I felt wired for a little bit. Some of the treatments that usually put me to sleep or almost to sleep I could not rest. So kind of weird to be tired and wired and at the same time. But maybe that is a sign of things to come. Then during my massage, it was also hard to relax and I was thinking of some random and not so great stuff. I realized that this was probably a release from the emotional stuff. It was all starting to make sense. It was kind  of enlightening. I do some things to deal with or let go off. Hopefully this new remedy will help.

To end with I want to go over my top 20 list of problems. This is what I mentioned I was going to ask the doctor to go over with me from my first day. It is actually two top 10 lists. I will just run down the lists and will probably have more information on it later on in the weak. Oh and before I forget my massage therapist said her type of massage is called "custom"...she uses all the techniques as I need. Her suggestion is to go the schools when I get back and want a massage. They will be trained in it all and I will be good practice for them and they are cheaper. Good idea. Ok back to the lists.

Top 10 organs in order of most important to least (again this is what the body revealed to the doctor on the first day in the BRS)
1. Adrenals 2. Spleen 3. Liver 4. Heart 5. Ovaries 6. Pituitary 7. Pineal 8. Hypo-thalmus 9. Thyroid 10. Bladder

Top 10 chemical/nutritional issues body revealed in order of most to least important
1. Virus (things like EBV, HHV6, and my pneumonia's) 2. Bacteria (Lyme, etc) 3. Deficiency (I am deficient in something...could be the Vit d) 4. Toxicity 5. Hormones (Interesting that ovaries and hormones are both number 5) 6. Enzymes 7. Metabolic (absorption) 8. Yeast 9. Fungus 10. Allergies

So that is it for tonight. Now to try and go to sleep in the next hour or so. At least I don't have to get up to early. I don't go in until 10 and don't even see the doctor until 4 so tomorrow will be a late day. Thanks for following along on my journey. Keep the prayers coming.

Hansa- Some Explanations

For many of you this post will be one you just skip because it might not be exciting. For some of you this may be what you really want to know. My plan is to put together as much information as I can find and feel up to about Hansa, the doctors, the treatments, the science, etc...I have so much still to learn. Believe me, this is a whole new way of thinking for most of us. Like I said before, this is really opening my eyes to a different approach to how my family and I live. It is a lot to absorb but I hope you get something out of it.

Dr. Jernigan (the founder/owner of Hansa) is nationally recognized as a leader in Biological Medicine and treatment of chronic illness.
(biologicalmedicine.info)- Biological medicine is holistic in that it holds the view that the living system is a matrix of interconnectedness- physically, mentally, emotionally, spiritually. Self-healing is the primary goal.

Dr. Jerinigans philosophy and the goal of Hansa: Providing treatment and education that works with God's natural design of the body, empowering the body to heal itself. I believe that true healing cannot occur by simply masking symptoms, so we seek to treat the cause of the illness utilizing extensive, non-invasive treatment in conjunction with supplements to help the body rid itself of disease. "Health in a bottle" is a myth- if you must continually take a pill, it is not correcting what is necessary for your body to heal. (This is a large part of what drew me to the Hansa Center)

CRT- Computerized Regulation Thermography is the first test you do at Hansa and is very revealing. Here is a website that explains it really well. http://www.doctoryutsis.com/services/computerized-regulation-thermography.html

Bio-Resonnance Scanning is the second test done at Hansa. The test or type of testing is used continually throughout your time there by the doctor and massage therapist. They use it to determine things wrong and what your body needs. BRS enables the dcotor to determine highly specific information- not only the presence of a pathology, but its degree of priority for healing in the patients body. You can visit this link for some more information http://hansacenter.com/brs.php  One of the reasons I loved this test was because Dr. Jowdy was able to determine the top 10 issues that needed to be addressed in order based on what my body told him. I am going to ask him to run down that list of 10 things we made on the first day so I can share that with you.

Here is a list of the treatments utilized at Hansa, along with websites for vendors they use. Again detox is a priority:

FIR Sauna- I have talked about this plenty. Used to help the body detox. I have been in there for 30 minutes almost every day. http://www.hightechhealth.com/

Ion Cleanse Footbath-Basically an array placed in the water creates negatively and positively charged ions in the water which neutralize charged particles in the body. The charged particles are then pulled out through osmosis and diffusion. Really would like to get one of these to use for the whole family .http://www.amajordifference.com/

ST8- A machine used to help the lymphatic system function properly and dump all of the junk out of your system. It uses four different therapies. 1. Cold-gas photo therapy: Photons pass through an intricate glass coil filled with 5 noble gases. The energized photons liquefy old gelatinous or mucus material to open clogged lymph drainage. 2. Scalar potentials: Opens up and separates old cells in the lymph tissues that are stuck together, and plumps up old damaged cells of the lymph nodes, so that there is room for the lymph fluid to wash around the cells, clearing the toxins out of the area. Known to block the frequencies of negative emotions, making it difficult to think negatives, and they have been shown to dramatically boost the immune system and the body's overall energy production. 3. Transdermal ozone therapy: Provides oxygen to the tissues. Ozone is a molecule consisting of three oxygen atoms loosely stuck together. This ozone is almost instantly converted into separate oxygen atoms in the body. Increase oxygen to a cell, and you increase its ability to function properly. Oxygen may also help kill any anaerobic bacteria, and some types of cancer are impeded by the presence of oxygen. 4. Rife frequency generator: Constantly broadcasts and sweeps through many different electromagnetic frequencies, each of which performs a different task. Many of the frequencies are believed to energize specific tissues in the body, while others have been shown to destroy various viruses and bacteria, which is a good thing when attempting to take the strain off of your lymphatic system.  http://www.elflabstech.com/tgt-products.htm

Bio Mat- I truly love this thing. The massage therapists use it on their tables. So you lay down for your massage on this amazing heated mat. Would love one of these too. The mat uses FAR infrared light, negative ions, and amethyst quartz to basically open pathways and promote DNA repair. http://-2.thebiomatcompany.us/home/

Essential Oils and supplements- Used mostly in massage therapy but also by the doctor. They are supposed to do some great things. They test my body using BRS to see what it is saying it needs. They are usually really soothing and smell good. http://www.youngliving.com/en_US/index.html

LUX- This machine basically uses gemstones and colored filters with light to target different areas of the body and promote healing. I don't have a website for a specific vendor or that Hansahttp://www.positivehealth.com/article/energy-medicine/gem-lamp-therapy-for-health

Theralumen- This is the one machine I don't like. It is a pain to use. You have to hold it in your mouth, kind of under your tongue but it can't touch anything either. You use it about 15 minutes at a time. It is a type of laser light therapy. I believe it helps kill bacteria, etc... http://www.advancedlightdevices.com/theralumen/

Massage- I keep forgetting to ask my therapist what type of massage she does. She uses some different techniques than what I am used to and as I said before she really works some stuff out. She is awesome and that is probably my favorite therapy. I will get more information for you. I know she helps with muscle tension of course, but she also gets things moving and I believe helps move some of the lymph fluid and other stuff along.

Water- There is an amazing "water fountain" in the lobby of Hansa. I so want one. Not only is it healthy water is so cool to look at. I believe the water we drink at Hansa is considered living water. I will post a picture of the water fountain at some point but you may see one on their website. http://www.vibrantvitalwater.com/index.html Here is a picture of the fountain http://www.vibrantvitalwater.com/zen-cart/index.php?main_page=popup_image&pID=79

I know I could go into a lot more about energy medicine, bio-photons, the medical uses of light but I think this is enough for now. It comes down to light, love, and being positive.  There is a book I was told to check out called that I believe is called Messages in the Water. Anyways, it talks about waters makeup etc...and how research shows being positive, negative, an so on towards water can affect the actual water crystals. A lot of the girls are walking around with positive messages on their water bottles. May be worth a try. I will have to look it up but thought you might look to check it out as well. So enough for today. I am doing ok. I have a slight headache on and off,some pain, all the normal stuff. Other than standing up straighter, having an easier time regulating temperature (my feet are a little cold today), and having less muscle tension in my shoulders, I don't "feel" much different. However, I know we are making some progress and it took my a long time to feel this bad so I know the changes I notice may not be over night. Still have high hopes and I am glad I had the chance to come.

Hansa Day 5- Half Way Through

Well my first week of treatment is done. What an experience this has been. I slept a little better last night but I still woke up tired. I also had the creepy crawly and weak feeling in my arms and legs but especially in my right forearm. When I have that feeling I usually end up of having a twitching/seizure episode. This morning was no different. It started a little while after I got to the center. I decided to push through it during my first treatment because I was going to see the doctor next. It wasn't horrible but I didn't want it to get any worse. As happens sometimes they ended up having to switch my schedule and I was going in for a massage and not seeing the doctor until after lunch. In order to try and calm things down I had to take some magnesium. I didn't want to accidentally punch my therapist. Luckily between the magnesium and the massage things calmed down. It ended up being a busy morning and I didn't get much of a break for lunch.

When I did my foot bath today it was a little different and I seemed to be getting rid of some yeast and cellular debris plus some heavy metals. Just more detoxing which is always good. When I went into to see Dr. J we went over my symptoms as usual and I told him about the seizure and the awful feeling in my arms and legs. He went to work using the percussor and the BRS. It was discovered that I had a tilted sacrum (I believe that is how he put it). It took us quite a while to get it back into place. We then worked on my right shoulder which didn't get much attention the other day due to my port. he carefully worked around it and we definitely seemed to make some progress moving things around. Hopefully that will help with the weak feeling. Although as I type this I can feel it coming back in both of my arms. We will see how things go over the weekend.

We then did some interesting neurophoton therapy with colored lights. I guess my body wasn't really absorbing red light. So seeing red light stressed me out even though I was testing deficient in it. We did the same with blue and green light which wasn't as bad as the red but needed some correction. When that process was done it opened up some new heart issues. I tested for a new remedy to be added that is supposed to help with chest pain and shortness of breath caused by cardiac asthma. I am glad we are getting somewhere with my heart. I am hoping this helps of course. I asked Dr. J if he had pinpointed what was causing my heart issues. He said no but basically for me they were able to get the microbes, bacteria, etc...under control and this is what he considered damage control. He said for many of their patients this is what ends up happening. The therapies and remedies show those causes are under control and maybe not causing any more  damage so when things show up as problems now it is damage that has been caused already. I am starting to believe that the sinus tachycardia has always been there, maybe since I was born, but wasn't bothersome so they it would have never been treated. Then over the course of my life getting different viruses or things like Lyme, they found the weakness in my heart and went there and caused some damage. What will be interesting is if this is damage that can be repaired like will I test that it is gone next week. I mean I have seen a lot of cardiologist and none of the tests they have done are showing any visible damage to them so I am not sure if this is something can even be picked up by them or just through energy medicine. I can't wait to see how things go.

As for now, I am tired, with a little headache and just kind of sore. I am going to dinner with my new friends who I have been blessed with having met here. The plan for the weekend is lots of rest, hydration, and detox baths. I did get some some copies of some of my test results to share with you and the cool thing is I will get a copy of my whole file before I leave. I also got a sheet on the ST8 lymph machine I will share with you. Hopefully I will have lots of pictures for you this weekend.

Continue the prayers, not only for me but the other two girls here. It has been a rough week on all of us but we are optimistic. Our healing is coming!

Hansa Day 4- Marching to the Beat of a Different Drum

Today has been a little rough although I made some good progress. I don't know why it is but when fatigue is front and center it certainly makes everything else harder to deal with. I had a really rough time falling asleep last night. Finally I did and I slept better than my average but not as good as the night before. I woke up really tired. It wasn't evident immediately but within an hour I knew that this would be one of my rough days. As I explained to the doctor, if I was at home I would be napping today. So being so tired definitely set the tone for my day.

I started with a machine called the ST8 for the lymphatic system. Like I said yesterday I am going to try and come up with some good in depth descriptions of each of these therapies this weekend. In any case, this helps get the lymph system moving all of the junk out. It uses 4 different methods. I remember 3 of them at the moment. A lot of my friends with Lyme will understand what these mean. This machine uses cold-gas photon therapy, a form of ozone, and rife frequencies. I need my doc in San Diego to get one of these. Then I went in for my massage. I told my awesome massage therapist how she was right on with what oils I needed yesterday. I also showed her the nice bruise that had developed on my back in the area of my colon. These massages aren't the typical total relaxing kind in a day spa. They are there to do some business and even though at times it hurts I push through it and I think it has paid off. I can literally feel knots and tension breaking up under her fingers at times. The best thing about the massage is this thing called a biomat. I am determined to get one someday. It is a mat that uses infrared technology, amethyst crystals and is heated. To lay on in it is amazing. Love it. I did the lux next which is the gemstone light therapy. That one is really relaxing.

After lunch I met with Clark I mean Dr. Jowdy. We discussed symptoms which of course was fatigue and tiredness, some muscle aches, I had developed some sinus stuff and jaw teeth pain since my massage, and muscle spasms. The usual really. We were focusing on the cranial sacral (I'm sure it is spelled wrong) fixations today. Dr. J used the tool called the percussor again. It is like the action of a jackhammer but with a mallet instead if that makes any sense. It basically beats on you which usually feels more like a vibration. It helps to align things. This is what he used to help move my organs back to their rightful place. So in addition to the spine and all he was going to focus mostly on my skull/head and where the plates of my skull may be bound. It the areas that are bound up the machine jumps up and down and as it releases it moves into the vibrating feeling. Believe it or not it didn't hurt. It actually felt good in some spots. He worked on my sinuses the same. Then he went back and moved my spine, pelvis, and even each tooth (those he did with his finger) and beat on my head again to release anything that had bound back up by what he touched. When it hits the bound up parts you almost feel like your head is a drum and someone is beating on it. Every ones head would certainly have it's own beat based on what was bound up. It was really interesting.

He did some muscle testing as well and tested some stuff with my eyes. Those can be crazy because you can see instant results when something is fixed. I took two different homeopathic remedies that my body indicated I only needed once and and issue with my eyes and another thing were fixed instantly. The doctor was very impressed overall and said that my body took over and corrected somethings on it's own so he got to jump ahead. That made me smile. Last he had me get up and do a couple of balance tests that we did on the first day. Night and day difference on my ability to balance on one leg. It was almost unbelievable. So I am making  progress it seems. We also discussed having this permanent retainer removed while I am here. It really depends on cost but I have had it for about 20 yrs and I have wanted it out. It has been hard to find a dentist to remove it and then it is usually more than I wanted to pay. Although Dr. J doesn't feel it is a huge interference things like retainers and braces have caused huge issues and it would be great to do final cranial fixations adjustments with it out. So we will see if we can pull that off. I finished up the sauna and foot bath. I am not feeling horrible and I obviously have made some improvements. My feet weren't really cold today either so I count that as a step in the right direction. I can even tell I am standing up straighter without much effort. I am really just worn out, a little sore, and have a pesky headache starting to come back. I am hoping to eat dinner and have much better luck sleeping tonight. Hopefully I will feel better in the morning. I am still really so excited and thankful to be here and I am learning so much everyday. Let me just say that my mind and way of thinking about health, western medicine, etc...has completely changed. I am really go do some things different for myself and my family. Don't hesitate to leave me messages, ask questions, and of course keep up the prayers. Love ya all.