I wonder...

And Sharyn and Mr P!

I see aaron has posted in this thread that he's on vacation. Don't know about Sharyn. It has been a while since she's been around.

Hey guys... Just wanted to check in. I have been on vacation, but I am also dealing with some health problems. Turns out I have chronic Lyme disease and while I was on vacation it got a lot worse. Haven't been able to sleep very much or eat very much and my anxiety problems have reared their head again... So I have been a bit distracted. I am ok though. I am going for my first visit to a highly recommended specialist next Wednesday.

I've missed your posts, Aaron, but it's no wonder you've been scarce. You must be exhausted. I hope you get better soon.

p.s. It must be all those vacations you take. 

Thanks guys, you are all the best!! I am still exhausted but hanging in there. Going to my doctor this afternoon to see if he can give me anything to help me sleep/stay calm.

I've been waiting for months for a major deal to come through at work (which finally happened in June) so I would be able to use my commission to be able to see this specialist (of course they are very expensive and because the CDC doesn't really acknowledge chronic Lyme, they can't take any insurance). I've known that I have Lyme for a while, and thankfully it's been relatively manageable up until this vacation. Turns out that the combination of heat and the physical activity (which I don't get a ton of) of being in the water is really effective at killing Lyme bacteria quickly... But with Lyme, you have to kill it slow, because when Lyme bacteria dies, it releases toxins into the body, and if it dies too much all at once, your body can't handle the toxic flood, which is what happened to me on vacation. Everything was great for about 3 days, and then suddenly my symptoms got way worse and were no longer manageable, specifically the insomnia... and it seemed like eating anything made me feel like my blood was sludge.  But I've lost over 10 lbs already, which is a bit scary, but kind of great nonetheless

Anyhow, I think the toxicity is getting better and things seem to be improving. Sleep would be nice though... Lyme insomnia is vicious-- as soon as I start to fall asleep I suddenly feel like my finger is in an electrical socket. Blah!

Sorry for all the complaining guys... thanks for listening and for just generally being awesome.

Chronic Lyme sounds pretty nasty. Sorry that you're going through that. Hope the specialist will help and you'll be feeling (and sleeping) better.

So I had my appointment last week, and it went pretty well. For the first 6 weeks they are focusing on stabilizing me emotionally and in terms of sleep... So they've prescribed some meds and a whole slew of supplements, but I'm not going to be starting on antibiotics for a bit. When I do, they are using something called "pulse therapy", which is basically a certain number days of antibiotics out of each month, and a certain number of days off (or on different antibiotics in some cases), which gives the body time to recover and ultimately tries to teach it how to deal with the Lyme by itself... they said on average it takes about 8 months of this treatment.   Of course then it can come back, but I was relieved to learn that I won't have to be on antibiotics continuously, which is what I have typically heard from people in similar situations.

They did inform me (which I basically knew) that they feel chronic Lyme is very hard (or maybe impossible) to truly cure, and the goal is basically to eliminate enough of it that you become asymptomatic, and your body's immune system can functionally keep it at bay. But some people need to return for further antibiotic therapy every few years. This might sound depressing, but the prospect of being able to live relatively normally is exciting, so I'll take what I can get. The name of the game is keeping yourself as healthy as possible with a strong immune system in the long term.  

So that's the deal. Onward and upward!