Day 6: FAR Clinic
Day 6&7 are supposed to be the toughest, and today is Day 6. The medical smoothie was met with the stubborn demeanor of a 12 year old hell bent on resisting it. Even with bacon, the smoothie wasn't going down today. We were at an emotional breaking point. Seems like when we start hitting it hard, the Lyme fights back and shows up in John's emotions. He feels these feelings: why me, why do I have to take all this stuff, for how long do I have to do this, why doesn't my brother have to go through this too, why don't you understand that I don't want to do this right now or basically ever. It brings me to tears because as a parent, you never want to see your kid suffer. And Lyme is pretty much all about suffering. There's no hidden superpower here. I want to take all his hurt, disease and pain and take the burden from him, but it doesn't work that way. The best hopes we have are that God is preparing us for something better. A medical career? A pathway to inventing our own cure? We will be enlightened some day, but for a 12 year old, some day isn't soon enough.
Elanda came for morning exercises, and she was able to help him power through the smoothie. She didn't say anything different than I did, but sometimes you don't want to look like a wimp in front of anyone besides your mom. He powered it down, chased it with trusty bacon. Gym time was shoulders and legs, and the 3 sprints. From there, hyperthermia in the hotel hot tub. It was hard to monitor John's temp because he was drinking cold water. We knew we were getting inaccurate readings, and pulled him out when he began to get frustrated. It's important to know yourself or your patient with hyperthermia. John has definite tells. At 100, his face flushes and turns pinkish red. About 101 degrees, he gets a headache. Frustration sets in at 101.5. Anything above this becomes he becomes belligerent and uncooperative. When he got out past the belligerent stage, Elanda as measuring his HR. That spiked at 176 and he got dizzy getting out of the tub. Remember that 176 is not dangerous, as his max HR should be 208. I was at 180 on the elliptical this morning, so I wasn't concerned about the spike. When he was dizzy, his oxygen level was about 92, but with canned air, we were able to get him back to 97 with 3 deep breaths. Back into his robe, we went to see Matt at the clinic.
Matt did the usual routines after hyperthermia... health pod, PEMF (no Rife), smoothie, G-force. I asked about why we weren't going to Rife today, and Matt said it works best after suit hyperthermia. The blood is thinner and moving more quickly, and Rife works better under those conditions.
Because the PEMF chair is a 30 minute activity, I took the time to talk to Matt. I asked him a little more about the FAR Clinic and its goals. Once they get through this study and hopefully get some financial backing, they are hoping to expand. This is music to my ears. Having a branch in the hotbed of Lyme in the northeast seems like a no-brainer. I added my two cents that Madison, WI would be a good place to grab MN, WI, and IL patients, or maybe Duluth, MN to help out the Canadians too. Regardless, having more options for Lyme patients is always a winning situation.
I don't know if you know, but wait times for Lyme care can be up to 6 months. Insurance typically covers no chronic Lyme treatment. Heck, the CDC doesn't event recognize the diagnosis. Something has to change. I can say our family has spent well over $25,000 on supplements, doctors, testing, and treatments in roughly 3 years for 1 person. Lyme is basically HIV-AIDS without the lifestyle component associated with AIDS. Your immune system is toast. It cannot find the problem, let alone attack the problem. Even if it did recognize it, it is too weak to win the battle. I've heard doctors and articles say that Lyme is a tougher diagnosis than cancer. It's hard to find. The treatments for Lyme aren't obvious or wildly known. It cannot be operated on. It can be spread.
Hold. The. Phone. What do you mean Lyme can be spread? You read that right. Lyme can be transmitted mother to baby. It can by transmitted between partners. I know personally a mother whose baby got Lyme in utero. I know a family in our prior community that Lyme travelled between spouses, and then each of their 5 kids got it too.
Well did you know it's not just ticks that carry Lyme? It's also not just Lyme that ticks carry. First off, Lyme can be spread by any biting insect: mosquitoes, spiders, bedbugs, etc. Most people with Lyme did not get a bullseye rash (the rash happens in 30% of people) and most never saw a tick. Also, ticks carry other diseases too. Bartonella, aka Cat Scratch Fever, is a common tick borne illness. There are a wide variety of tick borne illnesses, with new ones still being discovered. The most recent one I've read about makes the patient unable to consume beef. Crazy!
Elanda came for morning exercises, and she was able to help him power through the smoothie. She didn't say anything different than I did, but sometimes you don't want to look like a wimp in front of anyone besides your mom. He powered it down, chased it with trusty bacon. Gym time was shoulders and legs, and the 3 sprints. From there, hyperthermia in the hotel hot tub. It was hard to monitor John's temp because he was drinking cold water. We knew we were getting inaccurate readings, and pulled him out when he began to get frustrated. It's important to know yourself or your patient with hyperthermia. John has definite tells. At 100, his face flushes and turns pinkish red. About 101 degrees, he gets a headache. Frustration sets in at 101.5. Anything above this becomes he becomes belligerent and uncooperative. When he got out past the belligerent stage, Elanda as measuring his HR. That spiked at 176 and he got dizzy getting out of the tub. Remember that 176 is not dangerous, as his max HR should be 208. I was at 180 on the elliptical this morning, so I wasn't concerned about the spike. When he was dizzy, his oxygen level was about 92, but with canned air, we were able to get him back to 97 with 3 deep breaths. Back into his robe, we went to see Matt at the clinic.
Matt did the usual routines after hyperthermia... health pod, PEMF (no Rife), smoothie, G-force. I asked about why we weren't going to Rife today, and Matt said it works best after suit hyperthermia. The blood is thinner and moving more quickly, and Rife works better under those conditions.
Because the PEMF chair is a 30 minute activity, I took the time to talk to Matt. I asked him a little more about the FAR Clinic and its goals. Once they get through this study and hopefully get some financial backing, they are hoping to expand. This is music to my ears. Having a branch in the hotbed of Lyme in the northeast seems like a no-brainer. I added my two cents that Madison, WI would be a good place to grab MN, WI, and IL patients, or maybe Duluth, MN to help out the Canadians too. Regardless, having more options for Lyme patients is always a winning situation.
I don't know if you know, but wait times for Lyme care can be up to 6 months. Insurance typically covers no chronic Lyme treatment. Heck, the CDC doesn't event recognize the diagnosis. Something has to change. I can say our family has spent well over $25,000 on supplements, doctors, testing, and treatments in roughly 3 years for 1 person. Lyme is basically HIV-AIDS without the lifestyle component associated with AIDS. Your immune system is toast. It cannot find the problem, let alone attack the problem. Even if it did recognize it, it is too weak to win the battle. I've heard doctors and articles say that Lyme is a tougher diagnosis than cancer. It's hard to find. The treatments for Lyme aren't obvious or wildly known. It cannot be operated on. It can be spread.
Hold. The. Phone. What do you mean Lyme can be spread? You read that right. Lyme can be transmitted mother to baby. It can by transmitted between partners. I know personally a mother whose baby got Lyme in utero. I know a family in our prior community that Lyme travelled between spouses, and then each of their 5 kids got it too.
Well did you know it's not just ticks that carry Lyme? It's also not just Lyme that ticks carry. First off, Lyme can be spread by any biting insect: mosquitoes, spiders, bedbugs, etc. Most people with Lyme did not get a bullseye rash (the rash happens in 30% of people) and most never saw a tick. Also, ticks carry other diseases too. Bartonella, aka Cat Scratch Fever, is a common tick borne illness. There are a wide variety of tick borne illnesses, with new ones still being discovered. The most recent one I've read about makes the patient unable to consume beef. Crazy!
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