Lyme Into Lemonade

Yesterday was the first visit back to John's "local" Lyme clinic.  Local is in quotes because it takes 90 minutes to get there one-way.  We have been at this clinic for 3 months.  It's a neat place because they take a whole body approach, an East meets West take on healthcare.  John has seen the LLMD once, and was supposed to hold her plan for 6 months, but also see the homeopath there.  The homeopath has been a great experience for us.  She's very thorough.  Her remedies are all natural and easy to take.  She helps us work on one thing at a time, and realizes that there is a certain order we need to go in, based solely on how John's body handles the remedies.  Is that individualized or what? When we walked into her office, the homeopath looked over my son.  She thought he looked like he lost some weight, which when you're a 64 lb. 12 year old, is NOT a good thing.  I told her I didn't think so, and so we were off to the scale to ...

After finishing the two weeks at the FAR Clinic, we were supposed to continue the same general routine at home.  It's a bit more challenging at home, without the clinic staff encouraging John along.  We tried keeping the same morning routine as we did in Utah, but we found the hyperthermia was wiping John out too much to enjoy the rest of his day.  Since then, we have changed to doing our routine closer to bedtime.  It seems to be an improvement, as he's tired just in time for bed. We have been playing with the smoothie recipe a little. John's been having some tummy aches with the standard recipe, so I got in touch with Matt at the clinic yesterday to see what I should do.  I suspected the issues were either the peas or the pea protein, since we knew these were issues for John in the past.  I muscle tested John for peas and pea protein, and found that the peas caused him to be weak.  I reported back Matt about the peas.  He suggested we swap ca...

Our last day in Utah was a good one.  John was highly motivated to get everything done quickly to get home to his puppy, so the breakfast smoothie went down without a struggle.  He did his chest and back exercises, and then hyperthermia in the hotel hot tub.  His heart is still looking very strong compared to when we started.  We are very pleased with this, as it's the easiest change to see given that we have the oximeter.  Elanda gave John an uplifting, handwritten card and a Captain America t-shirt as a congratulations for completing his program.  She's so positive and fun to be around; we will miss her for sure. The health pod, PEMF bed with lunch smoothie, and G-force machine went as expected at the clinic. We had a brief chat with Rod, but honestly, we could have talked to him for much longer.  As an inventor, he has a lot of interesting projects that he's working on, and it's captivating to hear what he's creating.  With a couple hugs on o...

Today has been a bit of a rough day.  Treatment all went as expected, but John is not feeling well.  He has some migrating joint pain, and  he is feeling homesick.  He's been missing his dog fiercely today. We were hoping to go hiking this evening to check out Utah's scenic trails, by John just doesn't feel up to it.  Our last night was instead spent watching Seinfeld and the Simpsons.  Maybe we will get it later. We did have some good news this morning, though. During John's time with Elanda, we noticed that his heart beat looked significantly stronger on the oximeter. What used to be a tiny little beat and a farstr heart rate is now a stronger beat with a more normal heart rate.  This is about the only difference we have been able to note so far.  John's main complaint has been fatigue. His treatments are exhausting, so it's hard to notice a change there.  Here's hoping he will continue to improve. What upsets John the most is wh...

Today was a pretty good day.  John really kicked butt in the gym, increasing his reps on both exercises.  It was his last day in the hyperthermia suit, which he is happy to have behind him.  Everything else was standard.  His energy was pretty good, and his appetite is solid.  Things are still looking up. When I announced to family and friends that we would be in Salt Lake City for 2 weeks, one of my cousins told me he could hook John and I up at a virtual reality experience.  It is a Ghostbusters themed VR adventure that involved proton packs and simulated ghost fights.  We got faux slimed.  We torched the marshmallow man, which actually smelled like roasted marshmallows.  How cool is that?  John talked the whole way home about what he would design if he had the equipment and resources for himself.  Thanks for the fun distraction, Joe. We have spent a lot more time watching TV here than we usually do.  And since the...

Day 10 treatments are done for the day.  Everything went smoothly.  John slept well last night, and did fine on all his modalities.  The one thing we changed was his hot tub experience.  Elanda has been conferring with Rod about John's HR post-hyperthermia in the hot tub.  We have been noticing a pattern that he will spike at about 173 when he gets out.  Rod is concerned about the number, but Elanda and I aren't.    John recovers very quickly, and the spike is a pattern that is likely caused from the shock of his body going from the 103.8 degree hot tub and being rather still, to standing and moving out into the 85 degree room.  At the clinic, Matt hasn't been taking his HR after John gets out of the hyperthermia suit, so we have nothing to compare the spike to.  Today, we only got John up to 101.7, and we made his exit from the tub more gradual, but we still got a spike at 164.  I talked to Matt about it, and he didn't seem concern...

The last two days here have been challenging for us.  The fatigue for John has been keeping him on the couch after treatments the last two days, which means I am stir crazy.  When I am home, I can keep busy, but all I have to do here is eat, sleep, workout, read, watch TV or blog.  Sure, there's a good shopping mall right here, but after the month we have had financially, spending money at the mall seems foolish.  Something had to give. I am ecstatic to report that today was a breakthrough day.  John is sweating in hyperthermia more easily, and is less uncomfortable during the process. The smoothies are going down more quickly.  The stars are aligning.  Maybe we are getting him better?  Maybe there is less broccoli in the smoothies?  Today, we needed to get out of this lovely hotel and have some fun since he was feeling up for it. The highlight of the day by far was spending 6 hours with Elanda (FAR Clinic trainer and resident kid-a...