Lyme And Other Drugs

In the 21 months I've had Lyme Disease it has consumed my life, much like love can, though I can say I prefer love to lyme disease any day of the week and then some.  With this disease, comes the amount of medications I assume any elderly person would take with health problems, though sometimes I feel like I take more.  It's not just the 12+ prescription bottles that line my night stand everyday, it's the 8-10 supplements and then the 4 different probiotics I take on a daily and weekly basis as well as a weekly shot of vit. B-12.

I'm on 2 antibiotics so far; the 17th of this month marked 2 months I've been on them, and when I get back from my vacation, a new prescription for another antibiotic awaits me when I see my doctor in a couple of weeks.  That will be 3 I will have to take, and as far as I know one of them I'm on already (doxycycline) already makes me sick a couple times a week as well as kills all the bacteria in my stomach and intestines, so I'm on daily high doses of probiotics to help.  Along with the antibiotics, I'm on thyroid medication, 2 different kinds as well.  I get my thyroid checked monthly, and my doctor isn't sure if it's the Lyme or my thyroid that's causing the problems.  Thyroid issues run in my family, so I get checked and each month my dosage usually changes, I'm not really sure if it's helping, but the combination of everything I'm taking at the moment seems to be making me feel better for the most part.

The other medications are to keep me from getting infections from all the antibiotics I'm taking, also a couple to help me get to sleep at night.  In the past 17 months I've tried 4 different sleeping medications along with 4 different anti anxiety medications. I need one to help me get sleepy as well as control the anxiety that showed up a couple months after my lyme along with the insomnia, and a medication to keep me asleep.  The other issue is that my body doesn't take to medications like most people, I usually have to take more than the normal amount for my body to respond to it properly.  I sometimes think my pharmacist thinks I'm a drug addict because of the amount of medications and different dosages I've tried over the past 21 months.  I have bottle of barely used medication because they never worked for me, and I've got bottles of medication that used to work for me but now by system is not responding to them.  I probably should take them back to the pharmacy and have them disposed of properly, just another thing on my list of things I need to do.

Then, there are the supplements.  I can't even tell you how many different supplements I've been on since October of 2009.  The protocols I need to take; detox baths, methylation protocol, Chlorella protocol, drinking stuff that tastes like A-l steak sauce but in a bad way.  Pills, pills, pills, and more pills. Fortunately I'd prefer taking 20-30 pills a day then having to drink my medications.  My new sleep medication is actually working, I can't really say that tonight is one of those nights, but that's because I'm a little restless, but between Trazodone, Ambien (trying to find the right dosage for months), Lunesta, and now Doxepin,  I finally fee like I'm getting my sleep that I need, especially since my Lyme meds kept me up for about a full month, and I got horrible sleep.  But my new medication, in the generic form has only liquid or capsules available and since I need less than the 10mg pills, I have to take the liquid which honestly tastes like grape kool-aid without the sugar and a bad after taste.

Fortunately through all of this, though I have some days like my "I Quit Lyme" post where I've had it.  People, friends of mine try to be encouraging and those with lyme or know someone who has lyme tell me their story or I've read their blogs, but honestly after reading all of their stories it makes me scared that I'm going to be living at home for the next year until my doctor thinks I'm well.  Coming up on 2 years here in a few months, I know people have been through a lot worse than I have, everyone's Lyme story is different, but I feel better than I have since starting on antibiotics.  I still have some lingering issues but I have a feeling they are more related to my non active lifestyle I've had the past year and a half.  So I'm going to start slow, I'm anxious to just join a gym and get active but I know I need to take things slow after not being able to be active the way I used to be.

Two summers ago, before I got Lyme, I played in a softball league in Southern California for the summer.  We had a couple of double headers, I played at all but one game that summer, we even won our divisions championship game, it was amazing and wonderful.  Last summer, I had the chance to play a church league (pretty non competitive compared to the other league) softball game. I was so excited to play my favorite sport, one that I'd been playing for 16 years of my life, and after the first inning I felt like I had played a triple header. I was so completely exhausted and consumed with fatigue. I did play through the end of the game but in all of my years of playing softball, even when I played a summer with a fractured wrist, I had never felt so defeated and useless in a softball game.

So there it is, my pain and my passion rolled up into one post for the evening, or I should say morning since it's 4 am in Texas.  I don't want pity, and honestly I don't want to hear the horror stories of people's friends and family who had Lyme Disease and it took them years to get over it.  I'm a fighter, I always have been, and I still am.  I'm going to beat this.  This will not take over my life and consume it into its fiery grasp. One day I will look back on this as if it was just a dream, or a nightmare that finally has ended.