Another Lyme Disease update?

I bet you thought after three years I might be done with it. That would be lucky, but I haven’t been that lucky as of yet.

The truth is I’m on what we’re hoping is our final stand with the disease. I’ve said that before, but I’m actually feeling optimistic about it this time. For the last five months I’ve been doing great on medication, almost feeling 100%. I was certain that it was the end and that I could go off them. But the second day off medications I felt terrible again- not to the same degree as when I was at my sickest, not even close- but enough that I felt extremely discouraged.

I’ve been on more natural medications lately, but about three weeks ago my doctor put me back on antibiotics for the final flush. We’re pulsing the medications, which gives the bacteria time to come out of the woodwork before we kill them all. Lyme goes into a biofilm, which is a dense layer around the bactira that keeps it safe from antibiotics. Pulsing the medication helps it dispose of that biofilm because it thinks it safe to grow and reproduce again.

The first pulse of antibiotics and I felt as terrible as I did when we pulsed my natural medications, which did not give me the warm-and-fuzzies. But then, we did it again.

We’ve been ending the antibiotics and starting the pulse on Saturdays, and then by Sunday I have felt bad. Last week was one of my pulse off weeks. I stopped all medications Saturday and I didn’t feel bad till the next Sunday. That’s eight days! Which means that we’re finally getting that last layer of biofilm protected bactira. We’re finally killing the end of it.

This means more than you can even know, not only because this constant illness has plagued me for three years. Not because it’s been so freaking expensive. But because when we get this dormant Chris and I can start thinking about starting a family, which probably won’t happen right away, but it couldn’t even be thought about while I still had an active infection. I couldn’t be on the medications pregnant and I could give Lyme to the child.

I’ve felt like my life has been put on hold in a lot of different ways over the last three years, luckily the last year most of that has lifted, but getting this disease dormant means more to me than I could ever say. I need to gone. My body needs it gone.

We’re ready, and for once, I’m hopeful.