...AND NOW THE FIGHT BEGINS...
Today was a quick "in and out" visit to get a quick immune boosting IV (This happened each and every day; called my "Chelation" ['KEY' - lation] IV). This IV is what supped me up with all of my B vitamins, iron, and other goodies they've been slipping me all week.
** (The photos below also give a quick glance of what the main communal room looked like as well!)
** [Kizzy (that's me) 👀✌ concentrating deeply on her morning smoothie as a needle is jammed into her arm for the 78th time this week alone.]
On the topic of needles, I can't pass on the opportunity to applaud all of the clinic's nurses. They were absolutely EXCEPTIONAL and never had to poke twice... TAKE NOTE USA NURSES -- Cuz you suck. Sorry not sorry]
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Before we dive too deeply into today's activities, I have to give a shout out to one of the YUMMIEST DESSERTS I've had in my young adult life. Because this must be celebrated.....Yet, also mourned - because of course we found this DIME restaraunt on our LAST NIGHT.
(Doesn't it seem to always happen like that!?)
As it goes, after each day of my treatments (that always end in very painful shots), we typically went directly back to the hotel to rest before dinner. More often than not, this meant room service... as I was just WAYYYY too exhausted to even move from bed.
Last night, I fought through some pain and exhaustion and picked myself up out of a restless and painful nap I'd been trying to have and went to a restaurant that another patient had recommended to us.
And it did NOT disappoint.
First of all, after any stem cell injections, I was unallowed to eat beef or pork for 24 hours. There is a whole science behind this, but quite honestly, I can't remember the entirety of the reason and just ate chicken or fish all week.
(*CUE: Montana girl inside slowly dying ALL WEEK... since I got about 6-8 injections EVERY. DAY. - No yummy street tacos for me. But Rathen ate enough for the both of us combined! Lol)
BUT!! I was able to eat some coconut shrimp with a pineapple/peach sauce and it MELTED in my mouth.
This was by far my favorite meal of the entire trip... even though I didn't have many "meals" since I was usually so sick.)
To top it all off, here is the amazing dessert - Fresh pineapple ice cream that was served in half of a frozen pineapple with chocolate fudge underneath. Need I say more?!?! ❤❤❤❤
It was a great "last supper" in our little Tijuana week.
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Nowwwww!!
Back to the Nitty Gritty.....
Today:
I was well enough this morning to eat more of that delicious avacado toast for breakfast, along with my daily fruit smoothie!
So, we've talked about breakfast and we've talked about a little IV action... the only other thing on our check list was a final meeting with our friend Dr. Ben, as well as a meeting with the infamous and amazing Dr. Calzada himself.
As we "checked out" of the Clinic, we were given all paperwork and testing results I had participated in throughout the last 5 days.
Below are the images I mentioned seeing on our Day 1 summary! Using live blood microscopy (Also known as Dark Field Blood Analysis) these images can be seen of LIVE blood with just a small prick from your finger.
It was amazing how much knowledge there is in only ONE drop of blood. Below, I will try to explain what is being shown.
1. I'll begin with my devil friend, Mr. Lymie.
Here, we can see ONE of the millions of the little guys swimming around in my bloodstream (small spiral looking worm - two-headed! YUCK).
The GREAT news, however, is that Dr. Ben took several minutes under the microscope to find this guy swimming around. This means that the 21-day Doxycycline antibiotic I had just finished must have done some of the work for us. However, Dr. Ben highly suspected that the remaining Lyme were all still there -- just HIDDEN.
Those dirtbags.
Lyme is known as one of the SMARTEST bacteria, for this reason alone. The dirty bounders are so smart, they see a common antibiotic coming to doze them over and they have the innate ability to MUTATE and CHANGE/HIDE inside my cells and DNA until the antibiotic goes away.... then they come out to play again!!
This is why this road will be a long and hard one... they're tricky, smart, and have a superior self-perseverance reputation.
* Deadpan face after blood draw *
Dr. Ben: "One down, only 500 million to go...you're welcome."
**EXTREME close up of what the spiral-shaped Borellia Lyme Disease looks like.
2. Next, we look at the overall "health" of my cells.
Below, labeled as "Red Blood Cells," is actually my mom's live blood draw that shows relatively "healthy" cells!
Next, we see the photo labeled as "Lemon Cells" (from MY blood draw). These cells that have lightened centers and have lemon and/or teardrop shaped cells (in comparison to my mom's relatively circular shaped cells)indicate that there is:
A: Lightened center color = Low B Vitamin levels (very common for Lymie Patients!)
I was pumped FULL of a high dosed Vitamin B12 via Intravenous Therapy this week. Low B levels can cause a whole slew of issues, including, but not limited to: extreme fatigue, numbness, memory loss, tingling feet, mouth ulcers, mood changes, consistent low-grade fever. (Sounding familiar to my many symptoms over the last 4 years?)
B: The lemon and teardrop shapes = Severe INFLAMMATION.
Our favorite word, right?! Not. Inflammation = PAIN PAIN PAIN.
C. The far right photo labeled as "Bartonella" is evidence of one of the several co-infections that is the root cause of my symptoms such as muscle aches, joint pain, headaches, brain fog, etc.
Overall, we learned SOO SOOO much about this incredibly difficult and complex world I was so suddenly thrown into!
Lyme Awareness is absolutely laughable in the United States and I can't believe the conversations I experienced this week with some fellow Lymies about their own medical journey...
they were almost identical to that of my own!!
(ie: "You're perfectly healthy" and "You are faking this illness" or better yet "You're seeking attention!")
I am so grateful for my time spent with Dr. Calzada and his team this week. There were some very low lows, but there are always beautiful mountain tops as well.
Life is a rollercoaster already... I've just added a few more swirly swirls and loopty loops!! Lolll
(*GET UP 10 HANDS*)
Dr. Calzada has advised and warned that the coming weeks WILL BE HARD (known in the Lymie world as "herxing") and I will also be detoxing my body for a fresh clean slate!
Dr. Ben walked us to the door early this morning and said that I would most likely be "dead to the world" for at least the next full week, after receiving nearly 16 MILLION stem cells. But without a doubt, WE WILL BEAT THIS.
For now, I am just soooo blessed to have ANSWERS, to have medical, holistic, and dietic TREATMENT PLANS, to have the greatest and strongest SUPPORT SYSTEM by my side and to know... AGAIN...that when I was knocked down (HARD)??
I STILL GOT UP.
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