My website filled with important and helpful information for the chronically ill is up!

www.sunshinelyme.com


My newest post: Learn how to work from home

I made a separate website specifically aimed to help others, spread knowledge related to chronic illness, and give a peaceful relaxing space for those who need it.

I already have a few posts up like, things that actually helped me heal my Leaky gut!

I'll be posting about all kinds of things from how to make your own healthy deodorant, how to make money at home, to science that can help us get better, to treatments that are helping me, and tons of other things. As the blog grows, I will get more opportunities to give you guys bigger and better things (maybe some giveaways because free stuff is awesome stuff :D).

It's going to be a mecca of information and resources about anything relating to Lyme and chronic illness, which encompasses a whole lot. So go check it out and sign up to stay updated on new posts and happenings!

I will leave this blog up as a resource for those who are curious about what the treatment is like at Sponaugle Wellness Institute and want to see what I went through there. That's actually why I started this little 'project' . So others can see what it's like and so my lovely donors knew what was going on with me. Since I couldn't find any good blogs about it when I originally was researching Sponaugle's; I figured I would provide that so people can see if it is an option for them.

www.sunshinelyme.com

Have a good one guys!

I finished treatment at Sponaugle Wellness Institute and now I'm in recovery mode!

Weight: 115 pounds. Woo!! I was getting really low weight there for a while and it was scaring me. So I'm happy my weight is back up to a healthy range.

Notes: This is how I've been feeling the past two weeks and this whole thing is a very slow, gradual healing process. That is the nature of  having such an involved and complex medical problem. So always remember to be patient with your body and also you can't expect me to be at 100% either,but any improvement is promising and I am definitely feeling improvement. 

I finished treatment about a month ago, but wanted to wait a bit before I made any posts on how I was feeling. I wanted to give my body time to heal before I really assessed myself. Now I am in recovery mode and hope to see my body heal and symptoms to keep diminishing! I feel like my body is able to fight on its own now, my immune system is definitely stronger.

I am SO happy that I was able to get so much treatment and I am also thrilled that I am now done. Getting IV treatment, no matter what you're getting, is really hard on the body and mind, but it was completely necessary. My body just would not respond to anything ingested orally because my body was so unbelievably shut down. I am curious to see if herbals and oral treatments will work now that my body has been cleaned out.

Things are up and down, but I am having way more good days than ever before. Before treatment, I only had bad, incredibly bad, and oh-god-I-think-I'm-dying days. Now I have good days where I can actually do things and days where I feel crummy and just need to lay down and relax. That is much better, I do not enjoy the feeling of death 0.o.  This week I worked out, cleaned my room, made/recorded music with my friend Lauren, painted, rode a bike, WENT RUNNING. I didn't get very far with the running haha, but I mean that is unbelievable. I was unable to get out of bed and even though I'm not to the caliber of a normal person yet, it feels so so so amazing to be able to walk, cook for myself, shower, and even run sometimes! Right now I am in a lot of pain from the exercise and running, but it's actually pretty awesome to have muscle soreness from exercise instead of diseases, plus the fact that I was able to exercise is just so exciting for me.

So I hope that I continue this trend of healing. Its a bumpy ride and I'll have bad days. That is just the reality of having Lyme + co-infections + genetic defects. I just want to be functioning and have a normal life. I definitely am  much better than where I was at 8 months ago before I started treatment. Plus now I have so much knowledge and insight into various pieces of my medical problems. It's never just Lyme as many of us suffering from it know.

I had an incredibly shut down immune system, like an HIV patient, from a very toxic and damaged gut, which then causes low hormones, which also causes a low immune system. I tested positive for all types of mycoplasms, Lyme in multiple forms (cyst and spirochete), Bartonella, rocky mountain spotted fever, parasites, viruses. I was in menopause (from toxic gut caused by antibiotics and mold toxicity). My blood cells were ratcheted from black mold! I had 3 different kinds of mold toxicity in my blood. This also will eat eat at fatty tissues like the brain, nerves, and gut lining.

I had multiple vitamin and mineral deficiencies and my stomach absorption was almost nonexistent. I also have a genetic inability to move fatty toxins (like mold and environmental toxins) out of my system. So all of this works together to trash the immune system, trash the adrenals, heart, all the organs, destroy your nervous system, re-active viruses and be a breeding ground for so many different types of bacteria and parasitic infections.

I only knew I had Lyme and babesia and I figured my immune system was trashed. I knew my stomach was messed up because of my symptoms and I know the damage antibiotics can do. Everything else was totally new to me and the amount of knowledge and missing puzzle pieces I learned from Dr. Sponaugle made complete sense on why I have been sick for so long and couldn't get better. He also would go into depth with brain chemistry in relation to the gut.  One of the many things I learned at Sponaugle's with the brain chemistry is that excess glutamate can cause feelings like your whole body is buzzing, parkinsons, lyme rage, insomnia, anxiety, schizophrenia, alcoholism/drug addictions. When me and other patients at the center would feel these symptoms, we could see our glutamate levels sky rocket on the test results.

I still have systemic candida overgrowth issues, so I am curious to see if the rest of my symptoms fade once I get this into control!

Symptoms        /  Worse, better, or same than yesterday?

Fatigue/exhausted- Significantly better, am able to stay up during the day, exercise a little, and do things.

Vertigo- gone unless sometimes If I eat something that doesn't do well with me like meat or dairy for example, it can make me inflamed and bring this on a bit. 

Chronic migraine (literally has never stopped for over a year now)- This is doing better, but still here. I think this will be a stubborn one to get rid of, but should get better as my inflammation goes down over time.

Ear pressure/pain/crackling- This goes with the chronic migraine. Basically my entire head/brain/ears are inflamed and pressure feeling? So this is doing better, but still here.

Brain fog- this is better, but on and off. It's dependent on environmental stuff too. Cognitive symptoms are the absolute hardest to get rid of when it comes to Lyme + co-infections.

Nausea - gone unless I eat something that doesn't agree with me

Knees swollen (Lymph nodes)- gone for the most part. Normally when I walk, they blow up huge, but that hasn't been happening recently. But if I over-do it, they will get swollen. 

Muscle pain (everywhere)- better
Joint pain (all of them)- better

Stomach + intestines very bloated, sick feeling, acidic- Much better, I can actually eat now and eat much more food than I ever have before. I'm actually gaining weight (I lost a lot of weight previously from being unable to eat). I still have issues, but as my gut heals, this is improving.

stiff painful neck- a little better That has to do more with the fact that my axis/spine is tilted to the right and buckled forward 0.o. I have been going to a upper cervical chiropractor for this and its helping a bit.

Insomnia- gone, but once in a while it returns. I've been sleeping around 8-9 pm and waking up at 7 am. SO that is awesome. A few weeks ago though I was sleeping about 20 hours a day :o. So my sleeping is still pretty whacky! That's what happens when your body is in major heal mode I guess. Hopefully this awesome go to sleep early- wake up early schedule stays because I like it.

Racing thoughts (caused by over-electrified brain)- gone but returns once in a while
Hallucinating colors (over-electrified brain)- gone, but once in a while it returns
Depression-  gone, but sometimes shows its face here and there 
Anxiety- gone 

When I stand up I black out and feel like I will faint (I've always had this and most likely from the babesia)- gone

Weakness, can't stand for more than a few minutes, walking makes me out of breath (had this for a long time as well. Has come and gone in severity over 10 years)-gone

Sore throat and raspy voice- gone

Fever-like feelings- gone 

Light and noise sensitivity ( have had this for a long time): much better and is improving still.

heart palpitations: I was having some really bad heart issues for a while. If I moved my body at all, sat up, stood up, any movement, my blood pressure would drop and my heart rate would go flying up to 120-160. I got checked out by a cardiologist and my heart looked fine so that's good. I am not having this problem anymore! I hope it stays away!

I will do periodic updates on how I'm feeling and I'll probably make other Lyme and health related posts. So feel free to check back :D.

So thankful for all the amazing people who donated money for my treatment and thankful for the Sponaugle Wellness Institute for not giving up on me. I've been a very difficult case. Here's to healing!

I will always be needing supplements and treatments to maintain and continue to heal, so my donation page will remain active! Check it out at www.youcaring.com/curesarah

Sponaugle Wellness institute: Overview of last 3 weeks

Jan 14th 2014

I felt really decent from Jan 11th to about the 23rd. I still had all my symptoms, but they were much less severe. I wasn't able to go out or anything, but I was able to be at home comfortably and able to do things in the house like drawing, reading, and stuff like that. That is a major improvement!

I have been building up on the new medicine to target the protomyxzoa rheumatica to the full dose and so far I was not feeling any die off reaction.

I feel like this treatment has been like climbing up various platforms connected by a staircase. You go up the stairs to the first platform, then you go back down a few steps (herxing), then you climb up to the second platform, go down a few steps (herxing), and you continue climbing up the platforms. So I feel like I'm making the climb to much higher platforms than ever before.

I am so unbelievably grateful that I am getting treatment by Dr.Sponaugle and that he hasn't given up on me all this time. I am so grateful that I am making progress. I feel that if you have Lyme/co-infections/mold, then this is the place to be, so I am just floored that everything has worked out so I can get treatment here.



Around Jan 24th to today Jan 30th 2014

This is when the herxing began. I got up to the full drops, 60 drops, which is amazing because last time I couldn't even get up to 5. So this means that the IV kill drips must of cleared a lot of stuff. This also can be why I'm still having those symptoms lingering because there is still more bugs to kill. So that is encouraging to me.

This herx is actually slightly different than the one where they were targeting the bacterial stuff, which is interesting. It seems like the protomyxzoa rheumatica is causing all of my intense migraine/vertigo/head ear pressure stuff.

Today, Jan 30th, was not a good day for me. I almost had a full on panic attack at the center, so the nurses took me into a quiet room and added some things to my drips to calm me down. My entire body was shaking, but whatever they put in the drips made me feel a lot calmer about 20-25 minutes later. These bugs are dying and are causing a big stink as they go, which is expected. I'm handling this much better than last time!

I will continue the full dosage and continue detoxing at the center, as well as doing things at home and taking the supplements given by Dr. Sponaugle. This will help me get through all of this and I should feel pretty good when this is all said and done.
                                           
My wonderfully talented friend Lauren put together a video of me getting my weekly bandage change! We actually made the song in the video too :D:

Thanks to everyone who has been following my time here. Please check out my fundraising page and spread it around if you can @ www.youcaring.com/curesarah.

Back at Sponaugle Wellness Institute after two week break!

1/7/14

I started at the center again yesterday and I'm very happy to be back.  I herxed through the whole break, meaning my immune system was breaking open bio-film and killing bugs. So I felt pretty crappy and toxins were building up, since I didn't have any detox drips. I was slowly becoming more over-electrified and toxic. So yesterday was incredibly bad for me. I became VERY over-electrified from the toxins, I hit a tipping point with what my body could handle. My whole body was twitching, I didn't sleep a single second, the pain was excruciating. I was so over-electrified and wired that I couldn't sleep at all.  My blood pressure and pulse were high. Luckily the center opened that day (Monday).  30 minutes into the drip my bp and pulse went down, I stopped twitching, and I finally became tired. It made me feel MUCH better.


So today I am feeling a little better, but still have a lot of toxins. I'm feeling very nauseous and whenever I feel like this my mold tests pop up with a bunch of mold, so I know there's mold being released in my body. The drips do wonders though.

Before the break, I was still herxing but I also felt stronger in other ways. Pain was lessened as well.

This is one of those rare times in life where you are HAPPY to be sick because that means your body is kicking butt. When bio-film is being busted open and bacteria/protozans are being killed, its like releasing pandoras box. Tons of gunk, toxins, and mold will come out of the bio-film. Plus bacteria itself makes ammonia and toxic byproducts, THEN when you kill the bacteria it releases all types of toxins! This is what we call the herx-heimer reaction. So yes I'm going to be feeling crappy for a while, but its worth it. After ten years, my body is finally killing on its own. I've just been getting detox for months now, so my body truly is killing on its own thanks to Dr. Sponaugle.

The plan:

According to Fry test (and a few other testing that I cant remember the names) have Lyme (spirochete and cyst form), bartonella, babesia (I had it and may still),  protomyxzoa rheumatica, rocky mountain spotted fever, and some weird unidentified bacterias. A lot of this has been killed, but my bio-film is so thick that there's still a bunch left over (according to my Fry months ago though, so who knows how much I have killed by now!). I was not able to tolerate the medicine for protomyxzoa rheumatica when I was getting my triple kills, so I still have tons of that!

Dr. Sponaugle believes that the bug protomyxzoa rheumatica is what is causing the most of my issues, which also creates a biofilm and causes complicated chronic illness. It is in the family of malaria and babesia (which I also have). It causes a lot of nasty neurological symptoms as well, which I have a bunch of those. He told me that in another patient who went through this treatment, his cd-57 stayed low (meaning there is still a lyme infection), but they took care of the protomyxzoa rheumatica and he felt significantly better. So he believes that in some people, the co-infections are causing worse symptoms than the Lyme bacteria. Also, the Lyme bacteria likes to work with other bacteria, so this could be a reason as well, its the cumulative effect of all these various bugs.

So the plan is to start on medicine that will kill protomyxzoa rheumatica. I couldn't tolerate it last time while on the triple kills, partly because I have a lot of protomyxzoa rheumatica so it was causing a really nasty herx and I couldn't handle that along with the triple kills.

I should have started it this week, but I am so filled with toxins from the break that I need a week of detox first. So next week I will start the protocol and go from there.

After this protomyxzoa rheumatica is killed, then I should start to feel relief from symptoms.

But why are you still sick?!
In the end, this really is a chronic illness because no one has the science or technology to eradicate such a complicated slew of bacterias and other complications (leaky gut, hormone problems, genetic glitches, mold toxicity, etc). Dr. Sponaugle is a pioneer in tackling something so complex in the way that he is. So what we have to realize is that I have been sick for TEN YEARS, with mass amounts of bio-film thickening up, sucking in and protecting all types of bacteria, protozoans, toxins, benzine s, molds. My immune system has been like an hiv patient for 10 years. So now Dr. Sponaugle got my immune system to wake up and now its kicking serious butt. So imagine these weird clotted lumps, filled with all types of terrible things, just floating around in the blood, THEN there is active bacteria in various forms (Lyme has a couple of forms: cyst, spirochete, flattened out, it also HIDES IN YOUR TISSUES when it wants), then there's bacteria in your brain and every organ and tissue you can think of.  Just think about the lyme, 8 co-infections, years of mold just layered in all the bio-film, all of that working together! Not to mention my damaged leaky gut from antibiotics and mold toxicity. Plus this ENTIRE time my immune system has been shut down completely (actually seen with testing). I don't make the antibodies to kill Lyme either. I also have the mthfr genetic glitch where I do not methylate properly so I do not detox well. More complex than you realized initially!

This is why this condition is typically chronic, but people successfully get it into remission and keep the left over bacteria at bay and not take over their body by keeping their immune system very strong. Some people seem to eradicate it completely, but the longer you have had it, the more likely it will be chronic. Specifically at the center, I have seen people completely clear mold, Lyme, and some co-infections. I have seen people get out of wheel chairs. But as I said, it's all really individual and dependent on what you have, how long, your genetics, if there is permanent damage, etc. Some may have it forever, some may clear, some may stay very sick, some may get it into remission. It's a very difficult thing and if you know anyone with these illnesses then give them a giant hug.

We can't force nature and if we did then it would probably kill me, so that's why I'm 'still sick'. The body has to kill this and clean this up and its going to take a while. The drips and supplements help with this whole process and its what got my body to do this in the first place! I'm extremely fortunate to be here. There isn't really much else out there for us, everything with Lyme is experimental and trying to find something that works. So to find Dr. Sponaugle gives me so much hope for myself and everyone with vector borne illness because it means we are moving in the right direction. He is a pioneer and he is helping very hopeless, sick people, that don't have many options because the treatment isn't there for us. Lyme and co-infections have become a political issue and we are suffering for it. So I'm just so glad he exists or I honestly don't know what I would do.

I'll continue updating! Thanks everyone.

Donation page: www.youcaring.com/curesarah

Day 87 at Sponaugle Wellness Institute

Day 87- 12/4/13

11:30 AM: Detox IV drip

Symptoms        /  Worse, better, or same than yesterday?

Fatigue/exhausted- same
Vertigo- same

Chronic migraine (literally has never stopped for over a year now)- same
Brain fog- same
Nausea - same
Ear pressure/pain/crackling- same
Knees swollen (Lymph nodes)- same
Muscle pain (everywhere)- same
Joint pain (all of them)- same
Stomach + intestines very bloated, sick feeling, acidic- same
stiff painful neck- same
Insomnia- same
Racing thoughts (caused by over-electrified brain)-better
Hallucinating colors (over-electrified brain)- same
Depression-  same
Anxiety- same

When I stand up I black out and feel like I will faint (I've always had this and most likely from the babesia)- same

Weakness, can't stand for more than a few minutes, walking makes me out of breath (had this for a long time as well. Has come and gone in severity over 10 years)-same

Sore throat and raspy voice- same

Fever-like feelings- same

Light and noise sensitivity ( have had this for a long time): same

How are you feeling overall?

My symptoms are here, but I'm still feeling improvement. VERY tired though because I didn't get much sleep last night. I think getting my body into a normal sleep cycle will take time and probably be really annoying haha. I'm happy to have another day though where my symptoms feel less severe.

Thoughts:

Tomorrow I have an appointment with nurse Amy, so we will see some new lab results! 

Donation page: www.youcaring.com/curesarah

Day 86 at Sponaugle Wellness Instiute

12/3/13

10 AM: Colonics with Deborah at Wellness from Within

11:30 AM: Detox IV drip

BP : 112.0 / 83.0 mmHg

Pulse rate: 104.0 bpm

Symptoms        /  Worse, better, or same than yesterday?

Fatigue/exhausted- same
Vertigo- same

Chronic migraine (literally has never stopped for over a year now)- same
Brain fog- same
Nausea - same
Ear pressure/pain/crackling- same
Knees swollen (Lymph nodes)- same
Muscle pain (everywhere)- same
Joint pain (all of them)- same
Stomach + intestines very bloated, sick feeling, acidic- same
stiff painful neck- same
Insomnia- same
Racing thoughts (caused by over-electrified brain)-better
Hallucinating colors (over-electrified brain)- better
Depression-  same
Anxiety- same

When I stand up I black out and feel like I will faint (I've always had this and most likely from the babesia)- same

Weakness, can't stand for more than a few minutes, walking makes me out of breath (had this for a long time as well. Has come and gone in severity over 10 years)-same

Sore throat and raspy voice- same

Fever-like feelings- same

Light and noise sensitivity ( have had this for a long time): same

How are you feeling overall?

All my symptoms are here as you can see, but they are lessened. I'm still have problems sleeping though, so that makes me extra tired then I usually am. 

Thoughts:

What I find really cool is that my symptoms always match up with the lab results. If I feel really tired, or really depressed, almost manic, or really nauseous. Then it always shows in the tests. My serotonin will be incredibly low (depression) or it will be VERY high (manic) and whenever I felt really nauseous, mold always shot up in my tests.

It just makes you feel less crazy when you feel a certain way and then the tests come back and the doctor can actually see with numbers why you were feeling that way.

I'm happy to feel improvement this week. That's how you have to take this type of thing. It's not as simple as, oh here we go,  now I'm getting better this is it. It's a matter of having just a good day and how many can i have and will the bad days lessen. So I'm having decent past few days!

Day 85 at Sponaugle Wellness Institute

12/2/13

11:30 AM: Detox IV drip

BP: 97.0 / 76.0 mmHg

Pulse rate: 82.0 bpm

Symptoms        /  Worse, better, or same than yesterday?

Fatigue/exhausted- better
Vertigo- same

Chronic migraine (literally has never stopped for over a year now)- same
Brain fog- better
Nausea - same
Ear pressure/pain/crackling- same
Knees swollen (Lymph nodes)- same
Muscle pain (everywhere)- same
Joint pain (all of them)- same
Stomach + intestines very bloated, sick feeling, acidic- same
stiff painful neck- same
Insomnia- same
Racing thoughts (caused by over-electrified brain)-better
Hallucinating colors (over-electrified brain)- better
Depression-  better
Anxiety- better

When I stand up I black out and feel like I will faint (I've always had this and most likely from the babesia)- same

Weakness, can't stand for more than a few minutes, walking makes me out of breath (had this for a long time as well. Has come and gone in severity over 10 years)-same

Sore throat and raspy voice- better

Fever-like feelings- better

Light and noise sensitivity ( have had this for a long time): same

How are you feeling in general?

I'm feeling improvement and a lot stronger. I can stand for longer periods of times and it's easier to walk.