treatment – Anna Down South

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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.

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The news of Kate Spade’s suicide has rocked the internet this week. It rocked me too, because like others, I associated her with the happy, quirky, and glittery line that shares her name. It struck a lot of people because she had the fame, the fortune, the family and could still bare such sadness that she wanted to end her life.

I don’t want to write a think piece on a families tragedy, so I won’t, but I did want to talk about a topic that this tragedy brought to my mind, and that’s untreated mental illness.

There is a strong stigma around mental health treatment. Some of it has to do with the fact that there is still a stigma around mental health, but some of it has to do with the person who should be seeking it.

I often hear the pitch about how we don’t think negatively about blood pressure medication so we shouldn’t about anti-depressants, and I agree with it 100%, but what I keep hearing from individuals is “I think anti-depressants are great, I just don’t need them. I’m just a little sad.”

We downplay our own problems and dismiss them, because they’re inconvenient to face. It’s scary to say we’re not okay, to have to step back from things so we can take care of ourselves. So, we push through and things get worse and worse, then suddenly, there is no return.

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