My Journey
My “adventure” with Lyme started in the summer of 2017. After a family trip to Anna Maria Island we came back to North Carolina as my son was getting ready for the new semester in kindergarten. It was late August and we had one more exciting endeavor to experience: the Solar Eclipse. That’s right. If you remember, on August 21st 2017 we had a total solar eclipse, which was visible within a band that spanned across entire United States from Pacific to Atlantic Ocean coasts. For that venture I took my family in a small airplane to a local airport in Greenville where group of spectators witnessed this once in a lifetime experience. I remember back then on the tarmac somebody saying that the “energy has shifted and things will not be the same”.
Sure enough, that was certainly the case for me. About 10 days after that historical event I came down with symptoms similar to flu or a more severe case of a cold. Within a week the severe and acute symptoms started to subside, but I was constantly tired and weak. My numerous visits to a doctor’s office did not yield much success in diagnosing the problem. As days passed, I started to feel worse with more neurological symptoms including mental and physical fatigue and even depression.
At one point one of the doctors suggested to test for the Lyme (presence of borrelia burgdorferi and common coinfections) but I simply dismissed the idea since I have not recalled any ticks on my body… As I learned much later that is absolutely not a dismissible cause for Lyme disease as the spirochetes can be carried by many other insects.
As I continued to consult with more and more specialists (infectious disease doctors) I was “experimented on” with multiple antibiotics that would reduce the level of suffering for the duration of protocol but soon after I finished the medicine, all of the symptoms would return with additional ones to appear as well. Based on my personal research and simple method of elimination I began to believe that I was suffering from Lyme Disease, so I submitted myself to more testing.
Throughout this ordeal I would go through number of tests including IgG, IgM, ELISA, IFA, Western blot and even more advanced CD 57 lymphocyte subset testing. Certainly, there was no more doubt regarding the culprit. I decided to go through few more “targeted” antibiotics protocols only to learn that in my case, the efficacy of this medicine is limited and not permanent.
It was well into 2 years of battling the Lyme condition when another family member suggested a less traditional approach with herbs recommended by Dr. Stephen Buhner. I purchased his book, “Healing Lyme” and started studying. I soon ordered the herbal tinctures recommended in Buhner’s extended protocol for neuro-borreliosis and started the tinctures according to suggested dosage.
Just two days later after taking Andrographis (among other 8 herbal tinctures) I started to feel extremely weak, almost exhausted. As I learned later it was Jarisch-Herxheimer reaction of my body to the dying spirochetes. Two weeks later 80% of my symptoms were gone! I could not believe that after 3 years of horrible struggle such a positive shift could come in such a rapid manner. This was certainly another turning point in my life, this time in a very desirable direction.
That year I traveled to Europe where I planned to work and have some time off with my family. When I ran out of my tinctures that I brought from the US, I ordered some locally. What I found was that the concentration of the local mixtures where higher in herbal content than I previously had thus the efficacy turned out to be greater as well.
I believe nothing in this Universe happens without a reason. A few years prior to my Lyme adventure I met a person who owned several salt rooms and developed unique salt therapy protocols, which happened to be effective in reducing my son’s asthma symptoms. That person, now a friend and a business partner, happened to be an herbalist who was willing to take on the challenge and developed customized herbal tinctures with higher concentrations of herbs according to Dr. Buhner’s protocol.
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I am sharing this personal story because I am a living testimony to what nature holds in its native apothecary. I am an engineer by education and training and while deeply admiring western medicine advancements I can no longer dismiss the power of nature.