FAR Clinic Opportunity
Most people with chronic illness, particularly Lyme, research tirelessly to find what to do next. While they may have a current plan that works to a varying degree, many believe that it's only a matter of time before what's working great now isn't working at all. February tends to be the worst time for John because his body is tired from trying to play hockey and his brain is tired from trying to keep up in school. This isn't challenging for a typical healthy 12 year old, but for a Lyme patient, keeping afloat takes all their energy.
It was February when I started grasping for options. I had looked into a clinic in Germany that uses hyperthermia to treat both cancer and Lyme. Hyperthermia happens when a fever, or increased body temperature, is induced on the patient. Some clinics use saunas, some use wet-suits that they heat up, some even give a patient malaria to make the body go into a fever on its own. The point of the fever is that certain cells and bacteria do not do well out of a certain temperature range. And with cancer and Lyme, the body's immune system is so poorly functioning that it doesn't react (produce a fever) to fight the harmful cells that shouldn't be there. The Germany clinic, while successful, does not treat children. This led me to search for a domestic clinic that would consider treating my 12 year old.
There are many theories and many recommendations out there for chronic Lyme. I typically hear or read of something once, and then store it and wait for a 2nd or 3rd recommendation to pop up. THEN, I research further and pursue the ideas seriously. There's a LOT out there. If I acted on every idea immediately, we would never know what exactly was helpful. When looking into the Germany clinic, I stumbled on the FAR Clinic near Salt Lake City, UT. I called and talked to the staff about my son, and heard they would treat children. About the same time, we finally got into a local Lyme Literate Medical Doctor (LLMD). Because I was distracted with the new clinic locally, I put the FAR Clinic on the back burner.
From roughly March to July, the FAR Clinic was trying to reach me. But, I've been avoiding calls from places I don't recognize. "Julia" has been hounding me about a business loan since 2012, and "she" likes to call me from every area code in America. If I don't recognize the area, I don't pick up. I'm also pretty distracted with all the things I dabble it, so I'm not real good at voicemail. Email or text - YEP. Voice calls - NOPE. Anyhow, Wil at the FAR Clinic wanted to talk to me pretty urgently because they had a program to offer me. The short story of it is... they know their treatments work. They have an independent research company coming in to validate their results. They need patients to partake in the study. John is young and they need young patients for their study so they can show their treatments work on all ages. Wil asked me if I was interested in participating at a reduced treatment rate, and the study starts in 3 weeks, and John and I would need to be there for 2 weeks.
Woof. What a quick decision to make. Thankfully, we were well versed in the treatments offered at FAR. Thankfully, my husband Paul works for a company that still believes in bonuses and we had the ability to pay for it. Thankfully we didn't end up getting a mid-life-crisis convertible. Thankfully, my part-time job is very flexible and Paul works from home (so he can stay with Patrick). Thankfully our schedule was clear. We discussed it with John, who usually is too stubborn and tired to be spontaneous. To my surprise, he said "Let's do it! I'll go."
Fast forward 3 weeks and today is the day John and I leave for Salt Lake City, UT to receive Lyme treatments at the FAR Clinic. He's so hopeful and excited! We start tomorrow with a medical smoothie and some exercises in the gym. I will update this blog as we go along.
Here goes nothing!
-Denise
It was February when I started grasping for options. I had looked into a clinic in Germany that uses hyperthermia to treat both cancer and Lyme. Hyperthermia happens when a fever, or increased body temperature, is induced on the patient. Some clinics use saunas, some use wet-suits that they heat up, some even give a patient malaria to make the body go into a fever on its own. The point of the fever is that certain cells and bacteria do not do well out of a certain temperature range. And with cancer and Lyme, the body's immune system is so poorly functioning that it doesn't react (produce a fever) to fight the harmful cells that shouldn't be there. The Germany clinic, while successful, does not treat children. This led me to search for a domestic clinic that would consider treating my 12 year old.
There are many theories and many recommendations out there for chronic Lyme. I typically hear or read of something once, and then store it and wait for a 2nd or 3rd recommendation to pop up. THEN, I research further and pursue the ideas seriously. There's a LOT out there. If I acted on every idea immediately, we would never know what exactly was helpful. When looking into the Germany clinic, I stumbled on the FAR Clinic near Salt Lake City, UT. I called and talked to the staff about my son, and heard they would treat children. About the same time, we finally got into a local Lyme Literate Medical Doctor (LLMD). Because I was distracted with the new clinic locally, I put the FAR Clinic on the back burner.
From roughly March to July, the FAR Clinic was trying to reach me. But, I've been avoiding calls from places I don't recognize. "Julia" has been hounding me about a business loan since 2012, and "she" likes to call me from every area code in America. If I don't recognize the area, I don't pick up. I'm also pretty distracted with all the things I dabble it, so I'm not real good at voicemail. Email or text - YEP. Voice calls - NOPE. Anyhow, Wil at the FAR Clinic wanted to talk to me pretty urgently because they had a program to offer me. The short story of it is... they know their treatments work. They have an independent research company coming in to validate their results. They need patients to partake in the study. John is young and they need young patients for their study so they can show their treatments work on all ages. Wil asked me if I was interested in participating at a reduced treatment rate, and the study starts in 3 weeks, and John and I would need to be there for 2 weeks.
Woof. What a quick decision to make. Thankfully, we were well versed in the treatments offered at FAR. Thankfully, my husband Paul works for a company that still believes in bonuses and we had the ability to pay for it. Thankfully we didn't end up getting a mid-life-crisis convertible. Thankfully, my part-time job is very flexible and Paul works from home (so he can stay with Patrick). Thankfully our schedule was clear. We discussed it with John, who usually is too stubborn and tired to be spontaneous. To my surprise, he said "Let's do it! I'll go."
Fast forward 3 weeks and today is the day John and I leave for Salt Lake City, UT to receive Lyme treatments at the FAR Clinic. He's so hopeful and excited! We start tomorrow with a medical smoothie and some exercises in the gym. I will update this blog as we go along.
Here goes nothing!
-Denise
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