the dreaded Lyme’s disease

In the late summer of 2014, I found an unusual bite on my leg, just above my knee.  There was no tick, so I thought nothing of it.  At the time that is.  Because two days later, a strange tell-tale bull’s eye rash began to form.  The bite and an area a centimeter in diameter was red, and then there was pale colored skin for another 1.5 cm ring, and then there was a red outer ring.  It was disturbing to say the least.  I have a tendency to dissociate (leave my body or at least drift away from my heart) when it comes to personal health problems.  I have Chiron, the mythological wounded healer, at the MidHeaven of my astrology chart.  It would make sense that I am somehow able to heal others when I am wounded.  I am a wounded healer.

Even still however, I knew the potential serious ramifications of Lyme’s Disease and I went straight to the doctor.  She assessed the lesion (rash) and put me on 15 days of doxycycline, a potent antibiotic.  I felt better for at least six months.  I was staying busy with work – working full time while taking prerequisite classes to get into the nursing program at Piedmont Virginia Community College.  I spent hours studying Microbiology (where I learned more about the Lyme’s bacteria) and Anatomy and Physiology and I got straight A’s.  Of course I got into nursing school – I’m a male with great grades, emphasis on male.  I was also busy with a new inspiring relationship in my life.

Anyway, I forgot all about that rash, that bull’s eye shaped lesion on my leg.  Yes, if a practitioner asked me about Lyme’s, I would remember and mention it.  They might ask me about aches and pains, but at the time, I was feeling fine.  I was too busy with school and life.

So the Spring of 2015 rolls around, and I slowly – I mean very very gradually – begin to notice new aches and pains.  If I sat with my knees bent, on the floor for more than half an hour, they were very achey and tight.  And then Summer of 2015 rolled around.  I was starting to notice slight aches in my finger joints.  Just little things that were barely noticeable.  I brushed them all aside.

But then the Fall of 2015 came around.  Now I was super busy with nursing school.  I was spending 30 hours a week studying outside of class.  I was spending 12 hours in class.  I was spending 8 hours in the hospital doing clinical rotations.  Plus I was practicing another 6 hours / week doing lab skills – learning how to take and listen for blood pressure, how to change colostomy devices, etc etc.  I did not have time to notice that my elbows and knees and wrists were beginning to feel arthritic.

Then the winter break rolled by.  I had four weeks off.  I had been busting my butt in a manner that I had never known before.  I had somehow pulled off 2 A’s and a B in nursing school – which is difficult to do by the way!  So I decided I was going to let loose and play a new computer game.  So some days I played 4 – 6 hours – maybe 2 or 3 days / week.  At the end of winter break, I started noticing that the inflammation was creeping up my arms, specifically my ulnar nerves.  And by the time school restarted in January, I was scared that I might lose feeling in my pinky fingers – it had started to decline – the sensory feeling, not the motor control.  I am sure that all that screen time did not help, but playing a hundred hours of computer games should not cause nerve breakdown and serious neuralgia?!  Right?

So I was scared and concerned that my nursing path would be jeopardized.  And I withdrew from school for the semester.  It was a knee-jerk reaction, but I definitely needed to drop something.  I was working full time and my nerves were shot.

A good friend of mine is a nurse practitioner.  When I told him what I was experiencing, he got very concerned and asked me to get all these tests run.  Blood tests to determine if I had Epstein-Barr virus or Crohn’s Disease or Lupus or HIV, etc.  He tends to worry.  But he had a right to be concerned, as there is / was a serious problem within me.

Fortunately, I met an acupuncturist who does bio-energetic testing and he works with homeopathic medicine, along with using nutritional therapy to bring the body and the gut (and the nervous system) back on line.  He tested me and sure enough, Lyme’s disease is present.

His name is Michael Jabalee and I will detail more about the session with him in the next post.  I feel good about the protocol he has put me on.  It was not cheap (considering I am a student working as a waiter living in the high-cost-of-living-Charlottesville), but I would gladly pay twice the amount if I can actually rid myself of these pesky symptoms for good!

Michael Jabalee’s Website

Thanks for reading and I will post more soon!  May all illness be pacified and may all beings know happiness and its causes.

~KM