Well, friends, the rubber hit the road on Wednesday and Thursday of last week. My parents and I were in the car for a roundtrip total of 11 hours as we made my medical trip to see Dr. L in North Eastern PA. Praise God for safe travels!
I had a thorough appointment with Dr. L that lasted 90 minutes. Obviously, we discussed a lot during that long appointment, but the summary is that we are making several medication changes. Currently, I'm decreasing my thyroid medications, and in the coming weeks, I'll be switching out 2 of my antibiotics for stronger ones. I'm staying on Mepron, the Yellow Paint Medicine, and I'm on the full dose now! I also need a baseline EKG before I start one of the new antibiotics due to possible drug interactions.
Please pray for strength for me as the treatment is about to greatly intensify, and we expect it to cause a lot of herxing and to make me feel much worse initially. The treatment is extremely difficult, but between herxes, I do feel improvements. Honestly, being diagnosed with Babesiosis has been a breakthrough for me. I've been sick for over 6 years, and with the exception of correcting hormonal problems, I've made more progress since we began treating me for Babesia in January of this year than I have with treating anything else. My diagnosis of being infected with Bartonella is still correct, but it seems Babesia has always been the main cause of my illness. Babesia odocoilei, the strain I have, is carried by 20% of deer ticks in PA, and it's the only tickborne illness where the larvae are born infected. I have no known history of a tick bite, but the larvae are tiny and often go unnoticed. I am one of the first diagnosed cases of a human being infected with this particular strain, but Babesia odocoilei is not rare and my doctors expect to see more positive results now that we finally have testing available for it. Dr. M, my doctor in the D.C. area, is the one who invested in the equipment to test for this.
We know I'll need treatment against Babesia until I feel well and no longer herx on the anti-babesial antibiotics, but Dr. L told me that he doesn't know how long that will be. Everyone responds differently, and the infection is hard to kill and may be impossible to fully eradicate. However, I am blessed that Dr. L is determined to help me, is constantly researching Babesia, and is going to be teaching other doctors about everything he's learned at a large medical conference in Florida in October.
Fortunately, I held up better on this medical trip than I did on all previous ones, but I was pushing myself and crashed afterwards. I'm so thankful for my mom and dad who took me and prepared for being away. Our route home took us through Ricketts Glen State Park, and we were able to stop for 20 minutes and enjoy an easily accessible waterfall. It was so refreshing and beautiful to see. I hope someday I can go back and hike, but first I have a metaphorical mountain to continue climbing. It's an uphill battle, but I'm climbing it one step at a time.
I had a thorough appointment with Dr. L that lasted 90 minutes. Obviously, we discussed a lot during that long appointment, but the summary is that we are making several medication changes. Currently, I'm decreasing my thyroid medications, and in the coming weeks, I'll be switching out 2 of my antibiotics for stronger ones. I'm staying on Mepron, the Yellow Paint Medicine, and I'm on the full dose now! I also need a baseline EKG before I start one of the new antibiotics due to possible drug interactions.
Please pray for strength for me as the treatment is about to greatly intensify, and we expect it to cause a lot of herxing and to make me feel much worse initially. The treatment is extremely difficult, but between herxes, I do feel improvements. Honestly, being diagnosed with Babesiosis has been a breakthrough for me. I've been sick for over 6 years, and with the exception of correcting hormonal problems, I've made more progress since we began treating me for Babesia in January of this year than I have with treating anything else. My diagnosis of being infected with Bartonella is still correct, but it seems Babesia has always been the main cause of my illness. Babesia odocoilei, the strain I have, is carried by 20% of deer ticks in PA, and it's the only tickborne illness where the larvae are born infected. I have no known history of a tick bite, but the larvae are tiny and often go unnoticed. I am one of the first diagnosed cases of a human being infected with this particular strain, but Babesia odocoilei is not rare and my doctors expect to see more positive results now that we finally have testing available for it. Dr. M, my doctor in the D.C. area, is the one who invested in the equipment to test for this.
We know I'll need treatment against Babesia until I feel well and no longer herx on the anti-babesial antibiotics, but Dr. L told me that he doesn't know how long that will be. Everyone responds differently, and the infection is hard to kill and may be impossible to fully eradicate. However, I am blessed that Dr. L is determined to help me, is constantly researching Babesia, and is going to be teaching other doctors about everything he's learned at a large medical conference in Florida in October.
Fortunately, I held up better on this medical trip than I did on all previous ones, but I was pushing myself and crashed afterwards. I'm so thankful for my mom and dad who took me and prepared for being away. Our route home took us through Ricketts Glen State Park, and we were able to stop for 20 minutes and enjoy an easily accessible waterfall. It was so refreshing and beautiful to see. I hope someday I can go back and hike, but first I have a metaphorical mountain to continue climbing. It's an uphill battle, but I'm climbing it one step at a time.
1 comment
Yellow Paint medicine! That’s so much more of an uplifting moniker than I call it—Toxic Waste (😬). Thank you for sharing more bits of your journey—I too was a patient of Dr M then now Dr L and am one of the first Babesia odocoilei (not the first) diagnosed in humans. I am so glad to hear of your continued progress. ❤️🌺