Getting Rid of the Little Buggers Through IV Anti-Biotic Treatment

 Before I start this, I just want to reiterate that I am not a doctor and have no medical background.  This is just meant to provide insight into my personal battle and spread awareness of Chronic Lyme Disease. I'm in no way suggesting any type of treatment or protocol. You should always consult your doctor for all medical matters and if you have Lyme you should consult a LLMD before beginning any treatment. 

Also a warning, pictures to some might be slightly graphic but again, meant to show the TRUTH of this disease and help spread awareness!!!

  I will never forget the night that I tested positive for Lyme, it was around 9pm and I was waiting on a call from an old friend when my LLMD called me right prior.  Earlier that month my Dr had sent me to Connecticut to get a culture done to test for Lyme infection.  This culture is not legal in NY, where I live, but I did not hesitate to travel and get the test done.  After 10 years of testing negative, my Dr gave me hope that this was pretty much the only test out there at the moment that can ACCURATELY diagnose you (I will touch on this subject another time).  Normally the culture takes about 6-8 weeks to grow, mine grew in a week and a half!  Pretty evident that I have it and it's been in my system for a very long time!

  

So, I have my diagnosis, what’s next?  Besides for the overwhelming feeling of shock, numbness, happiness, and being scared all rolled into one, that was my first immediate question.  My Dr said Anti-Biotic's...  We started off with Oral Anti-Biotics, slowly, each week upping the Mg's, with the addition of herbal microbial defenses to help kill the buggers and build my immune system all at once.  

This is just 1 of 2 bottles prescribed to be monthly, I was on approximately 6000mg's a day.

 

Every day I started to feel worse and worse, which is exactly what my dr warned me about.  The Herxheimer Reaction he said (which I will touch on in another post as well).  After almost 2 months of the oral abx plus herbals and no improvement, my dr. then said I would need to start IV treatment.  My case, which is in some degree mainly Chronic Neurological Lyme, prolonged IV anti-biotic treatment is considered beneficial.  (I am also on 3 different herbal anti-bio tics and a multitude of supplements.)

So here comes the point of this POST....

I just wanted to give you a bit of insight into this world of IV treatment.  

At first I was scared, scared of everything... the procedure for putting my mid-line in, the thought of having something foreign in me for months and taking care of it carefully as to not cause another infection on top of everything, not to mention the act of having an IV treatment daily, yada yada yada...

 I just want to let everyone or anyone who is reading this and is about to enter this IV world or is thinking about it that it is NOT as scary as it seems.

With that said here are some visuals that might be graphic, but hey, this is real and this is the point of this right?!

What it looked like the day I got my Mid-Line placed and I ran my first treatment..

What it looked like the next morning, of course I immediately became anxious about the blood I saw thinking, was it a blood clot, do I need to call and have them remove and replace it, etc.  This is completely normal and no concern for alarm!  Just an FYI to those who need it....

 What it looked like when the nurse took of the gauze hiding where the tube was inserted later that day, AGAIN COMPLETELY NORMAL!!

 Running my very first IV on my own without my amazing nurse with me!!! A success!

After getting the area wet from not covering it well enough, waiting while the emergency nurse had to come and clean and re-bandage, the evening of Fourth of July no less.

Side Note:  Holidays and Celebrations become arbitrary during this process.  This treatment and healing TRUMPS everything, the sooner you realize and accept this, the easier it will be throughout this process

This is NOW how I cover the area before I take my showers and detox baths and sauna's... with another waterproof covering over the taped area for extra covering under this cover!!  Better safe than sorry!  You can get this PICC line cover on Amazon.  PICC Line Waterproof Cover.  You can imagine how thrilled I am every time I have to take a bath or shower, emphasis on "have to" because if I had the choice I wouldn't at this point!

And lastly, along with your nurse coming to you constantly for help and cleaning and changing the area, you have a weekly blood draw.  This is very important for your Dr to monitor EVERYTHING and make sure supplements are given in case of any low levels of important nutrients.  For example, my Potassium was tested low my first week, but then dropped even lower by week three.  Low is around 3.6, I was at a 2.3!  So now I take prescribed high dosed Potassium to bring my levels up! :-)

 I have now been on IV for almost a month now and I have about 2 more months to go, but we wont know till I go for another culture in my 3rd month.  I feel sick most days and I'm in pain still, but I'm starting to have some "better hours" or "better minutes" which is a vast improvement!!!  :-)

IV therapy or antibiotics in general is not for everyone, but it's working for me and I am so very grateful!!

Feel free to like my page on facebook, A Taste Of Lyme

 Contact me for ANY questions through there or this blog, no question is a silly or stupid one! We are all going through this together and I am here for any type of support needed as many Lyme Warriors such as ourselves have been here for me.