Toxic Waste

Okay, finally time for another Lyme-related update. I've been so caught up lately in processing everything else, I forgot how behind I am in logging health issues.

I think when I last left off I had just started on the antibiotics again after a couple weeks off to ramp up some new additions to my medication plan and I was already feeling fatigue-related side effects from starting up the antibiotics. Upon talking with my doctor about the severity of my symptoms, he decided to go ahead and pull me off the antibiotics AGAIN and try adding two more homeopathic remedies for toxin elimination. I have spend the last 2 weeks increasing the dosage each day on these new things and started back on the antibiotics today (which for me started at about 8pm last night--yes, my sleep schedule is still a nightmare incarnate). Annoyingly, it seems like the new detox drops have also been causing muscle fatigue even without the antibiotics, though it's difficult to tell for sure because I've also had a few cold symptoms this week so it might just be the extra strain of a cold virus on my immune system causing the fatigue.

This whole process is starting to really get on my nerves. For one, it is just plain confusing. From what I have seen and read about other Chronic Lyme patients, most doctors seem to assume that issues like the severe fatigue, muscle pain, blurry vision, memory loss, etc caused by the treatment are just a given. They are just normal side effects of treating a chronic lyme infection. So, though part of me appreciates the fact that maybe I am just one of a lucky few who have a doctor who believes that many of these side effects are avoidable, it is also frustrating to feel like my treatment keeps being delayed by this quest for a solution to a problem that no one else seems to be worried about solving. Truthfully, I would almost rather have all the icky symptoms and just plan on cancelling my life for a few months if it means getting this treatment over with sooner. On the other hand, if, as my doctor keeps reminding me, doing so will just cause huge toxin buildup that isn't being dealt with, not only could the treatment end up taking longer anyway, the toxins could also cause long term damage to my liver or other organs. I suppose that would be bad. So for now I keep jumping through the hoops of my on-again-off-again medication schedule hoping that eventually all the pieces will fall together and start cooperating.

In other news, my body seems determined to maintain a completely backwards sleep schedule the last few weeks, where I wake up late in the evening and finally fall asleep around 8 or 9 am. Of course every once in a while I'll have a totally ridiculous break from the cycle, like on Monday last week when I woke up around 7pm as usual but still could not get to sleep, despite trying all day, until 7pm Tuesday night--a full 24 hours of "insomnia"! I got all excited the next day, thinking maybe after a normal night's sleep I could start waking up in the morning again like a real person. :-P With some effort (and several sleeping pills) I did manage to pull it off for a few days, until last night (i.e. Saturday morning) when I woke up at 5am after about 6 hours of sleep in such excruciating abdominal pain (I think pms related) that I could not possibly fall asleep again. After a couple doses of pain killers and about 2 hours writhing on the floor, the pain finally subdued, but by then I was wide awake. I've survived on 6 hours of sleep before, though it usually causes a lot of neurological fallout when I do, but I figured to keep my happily normalizing sleep schedule I needed to just stay awake... which I managed to do until about 9am when my brain just couldn't function anymore and I fell asleep again. Big surprise, I slept till 8pm--sleeping through several alarms set to remind me to take various meds--and here I am again at 7am getting ready to have "dinner" in about an hour. So much for sleeping during nighttime. Well, it was fun while it lasted.

Good news is, I have another dr appointment scheduled in about a week, so unless he decides to push it back again depending on how this new attempt at antibiotics goes, I should get another chance soon to get some real answers about all this craziness. In the meantime, patience is a virtue...patience is a virtue...patience is a virtue...patience is a virtue...