Well hello stranger!

If you’ve visited this blog in the past 8-ish months, I am sure it’s obvious that I’ve been taking a break. I made the decision last fall but I never wrote an “official” hiatus post…..so here’s the “official” post 🙂

**Disclaimer** this is a LONG post but I’m covering lots and this will probably be my last post for a few months!

My hiatus is NOT due to health issues or a relapse of Lyme! I still do not have any Lyme symptoms, that’s right, ZERO Lyme symptoms!

I did wear out my adrenals during my 2015 road trip and realized taking that trip was too much, too soon. It took me almost a year to get things back to normal and the month leading up to that trip was extremely stressful, which added to my adrenals being exhausted.

I’ve learned a lot since that trip! I’ll share more about that later in the post. I will say this, if I had to do that trip over again, I’d focus on minimizing blue light exposure at night and renting a RV, so I wouldn’t be sleeping in a different bed every few days.

Here’s more about why I stopped updating my blog, emailing, and chatting with people about Infusio. 

My primary love language is ‘Acts of Service’ which means “helpful acts are seen as very powerful expressions of love and devotion. Actions like cooking a meal, setting a table, washing dishes, vacuuming, taking out the garbage, mowing the grass, etc.” and means I have a strong desire to want to help others.

Unfortunately, the negative side of this love language means I tend to put others needs above my own. If you’ve read the book “The 5 Love Languages” this will make more sense, and if you haven’t read it, I highly recommend it!

I realized after communicating with people for almost 2 years about my Infusio experience, that phone calls plus writing content for my blog was keeping me from focusing on two very important things in my life

1. My desire to be a mom
2. My need to finish my nutrition consultant program

I needed to make those two things the top priorities and often talking with people about Infusio tended to fall in my “top priority” category.

On average, I’d spend 2 hours talking to one person about Lyme/Infusio! Times that by upwards of 2-3 people a week that takes a lot of time and everyone I spoke with usually asked similar questions, so I ended up having the same conversation over and over!

Now some info about my family building plans 

I was extremely hopeful that getting Lyme into remission would be the last thing my body needed to finally allow a pregnancy to occur naturally. So far I’ve gotten close but it’s just not “sticking,” so after much prayer and thought, my husband and I have decided to pursue gestational surrogacy to build our family. It’s taken us over 2 years to finally make the decsion.

Gestational surrogacy means the baby is 100% genetically ours but we are using another women to carry and deliver the baby. Besides being a huge emotional and financial drain, the surrogacy process takes up a ridiculous amount of time, almost as much as a part time job!

I have lots of thoughts and advice for women of child bearing age diagnosed with Lyme who want children but haven’t had them yet. I would’ve done many things different, especially regarding fertility preservation when I was diagnosed at age 36. I hope to compile a post with my suggestions in the next couple months.

I mentioned blue light exposure earlier and learning more about it has been enlightening.

Last fall, I stumbled upon a post by Dr Jack Kruse. He’s a brilliant and controversial neurosurgeon, much of what he shares on his blog is high level science talk, like quantum biology, and WAY over my head. He’s been blogging for 10 years and the information on his site in extensive. With the help of a Facebook group, reading a couple books, and listening to several podcasters interview him, I’m beginning to understand more the importance of managing my light environment and my circadian biology.

I’m 100% certain my adrenals were affected drastically during my 2015 road trip because I had very little knowledge about the negative health consequences of “fake light” and exposure to non-native sources of electromagnetic fields (nnEMF), like cell phones and wifi. I knew those things could cause sleep disturbance but didn’t know much else.

The simple way to explain what happened during my road trip is that I was exposing myself to blue light at night (while driving), the light told my brain it was midday instead of night time, that messed up my circadian rhythm, which in turn affected my adrenal function. Non native EMF’s cause mitochondrial dysfuction, which is not a good thing for any of us but especially those of us trying to heal from Lyme or other illnesses.

After I learned of the importance of exposing my eyes and skin to natural sun light during the day, blocking blue light, and reducing non native EMF exposure things started to improve. Here’s a few simple things that really helped.

• Ditched my sunglasses
• Try my best to see every sunrise and sunset
• Expose as much skin as possible to midday sun, nude sunbathing, when possible 🙂 Yes, there are health benefits to doing this! I also use D Minder to help track the best time for sunbathing and helps determine how long I need to be out for.
• Go barefoot when it’s safe
• Avoid blue light, I use filters on all my devices and we bought a third party device call Drift TV to use while watching TV in the evening
• Stopped using wifi, this first started by just switching it off while sleeping and morphed into wiring our house with ethernet, so we never need to use wifi
• We’ve never had a smart meter and if you can opt out, it’s very helpful

The results are nothing short of amazing!  My lab work looks amazing, here’s what’s changed.

• My thyroid labs are the best they’ve ever been
• All hormones are in balance
• Moderate eczema on my face and neck I’d been struggling with for over a year finally went away. I had tried everything!
• I feel really, really good, EVERYDAY! I feel like my health is stable.
• I sleep well and feel rested when I wake up. I’ve haven’t struggled with insomnia but I often felt I didn’t sleep deeply, adding blackout curtains and getting morning sun in my eyes has me getting the most restful sleep I’ve ever experienced.

I now realize how my avoidance of the sun beginning in my early 20’s had a detrimental affect on my health. As I’ve mentioned in previous posts, I’m 99% sure I was infected with Lyme as a kid. My diet as a kid wasn’t the best and I grew up in a home with parent’s who smoked, however I was not a sick child! If I did have Lyme symptoms back then they were mild. I truly believe growing up in the country, running around all summer barefoot and without sunscreen kept me healthy.

My symptoms began to show up in my early 20’s, around the same time I began working full time, indoors and in front of a computer, while I attended community college at night. My outdoor time was severely reduced. Even as a teenager who worked part time, I still spent time outdoors without sunscreen. I became an avid “sun avoider” when I moved to California and spent less time outside. I think I probably got more sun exposure as a teen during summers in Michigan than I did the last 20 years I lived in sunny California!!

I now firmly believe that conscious sun exposure and grounding is necessary for optimal health. The things I’ve learned from reading blogs and forum posts on Dr Kruse’s site have been very eye opening. I encourage you visit his site, keep an open mind, and realize most everything we’ve been told about the sun is false – yes, false! I will share links to my favorite podcasts and blogs at the end of this post.

Besides all the new stuff I’ve been learning and applying, here are the things I’ve continued or added since Infusio that I believe are helping me stay in remission. 

• Weekly acupuncture, I go weekly because I’m trying to conceive and our insurance covers it. I think once or twice a month would be helpful if a weekly option isn’t in the budget.
• Dry brushing and monthly lymphatic massage
• Epsom salt baths and sauna when I can
• Continue to follow a Paleo/WAPF way of eating, I began changing my diet to WAPF style in 2010, which I believe helped me tremendously. I typically avoid gluten but I’ve never had a sensitivity or issues with gluten, I avoid it because I know it’s inflammatory. Plus most wheat and other grain based flours contain added folic acid, which is also inflammatory, especially for people like me with MTHFR.
• I focus on eating seasonally, this is easier than it sounds, joining a CSA helps.
• I began to drink nourishing herbal infusions, these are a great and inexpensive way to get needed vitamins and minerals.
• Yoga, 2-3 times a week
• Daily walking, I have dogs so walking is pretty much mandatory!
• Continued participation with our church community group
• Prayer and visualizations of health
• Try to laughing each day
• I had a few EFT sessions to help deal with the pain of not conceiving yet. EFT is awesome for releasing “stuck emotions.”
• A few supplements to support my methylation pathways, I take no where near the amount supplements I did pre-Infusio.
• Aim for at least 8 hours of sleep a night and be in bed no later than 11 pm. My bedtime goal is between 10-10:30 pm.
• Do not get vaccinated unless absolutely necessary.
• Don’t live in fear of ticks, this has gotten easier the longer I’ve been in remission. I just tent camped for the first time since I was diagnosed!

Now more about Infusio and how to connect with others who’ve gone.

There are some active Facebook groups to help you get information and talk with other’s who’ve been to Infusio or had stem cell treatment elsewhere. If you are considering thymus and stem cell therapy, I recommend joining one or all of these groups.

The Infusio Exchange Facebook Group is full of people who’ve been to Infuiso or those who are considering treatment there. This group was set up and is admin’d by Infusio. Phil Battiade holds weekly Facebook Live event’s to answer questions. Several employees who’ve also had treatment are in the group and participate regularly.

The Stem Cells 4 Healing Lyme/Aids 2.0Facebook Group is for people who are looking to connect with other’s who’ve have had stem cell treatment elsewhere or are condisering other stem cell clinics. This group was set up and is admin’d by a RN who has Lyme and is considering stem cell treatment. Michael Wittstadt who worked at Infusio Frankfurt for 5 years and opened his own clinic, Medigrun last year, is in this group and often answers questions. You contact him directly via his Facebook page Villa Medigrun. He currently does not have a website.

Life After Stems is a small but active Facebook group has all kinds of info on how people who’ve had stem cell treatment at various clinic’s.

A blog by Erika, who works at Infusio called The Trail to Health and Julie’s Journey with Stem Cells shares their experiences at Infusio Beverly Hills. Three other Facebook pages, Kristina and Michelle’s Stem Cells, Tanis and the Ticks and Health and Wellness with Rana, share information regarding their recent treatment at Villa Medigrun.

I was invited to be part of both Infusio Exchange and Stem Cells 4 Healing Lyme/Aids 2.0 and periodically share info in both groups.

I’ve had many people ask me about Infusio and cancer treatments. I know of one person who’s shared their experience at Infuiso, here’s the link to their blog post. She was treated in 2015 and it still cancer free. I recommend reading the comments, as there is lots of good info there.

I’ve also had lots of people ask me about what specific Lyme symptoms I had. Lucky for you, I found a “Lyme tracker” spreadsheet a fellow Lyme warrior shared with me, they recommended I use it to help track if my symptoms were getting worse or better. The last time I’d updated it was in September 2014, a month prior to going to Infusio. Here’s the link to the spreadsheet.  I probably had more symptoms than those on the spreadsheet, I just didn’t realize  they were Lyme related.

If you are interested in learning more about the principals of Dr. Jack Kruse, the Facebook group Biology Reboot – Logical Actionable Mitigation is run by a great admins, who are open to helping beginners understand more. I recommend joining and reading posts before asking specific questions. I have learned a TON from this group.

Since joining the Infusio and Stem Cell groups last month, I received several emails, messages, and comments. I’ve made a separate post that you can read the questions and answers here.

The question I probably get the most is if I believe healing from Lyme is possible for everyone. 

Yes, I believe healing from Lyme and co-infections is possible for everyone.

It takes some people longer than others but I think it is possible. The human body is amazing and it wants to function optimally.

Getting there may not be easy and may require lifestyle changes that may seem “weird” to most of society. I think most of us who’ve been undiagnosed for years already seem “different” because of all the “crazy” things we do while trying to figure out why our health is failing.

I will say it again, I truly believe healing for everyone is possible, I believe it takes a multifaceted approach. Finding a knowledgeable Lyme literate doctor, following the principles recommended by Dr. Kruse, and possibly receiving treatment at Infusio or Villa Medigrun can get you there!

For myself and fellow Lyme peeps, I’m an excited for what the future holds! Wishing you healing and long term health!

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P.S. Here’s links to podcasts I mentioned earlier.

This podcast does a great job explaining why conscious sun exposure is good for you http://www.lukestorey.com/lifestylistpodcast/nadine-artemis-the-great-sunshine-swindle-6/

Here’s some link to great podcasts interviews with Dr. Jack Kruse

http://ancestralhealthradio.com/podcast/mitohacker

http://livethefuel.com/044-cancer-paleo-sleep-kevin-cottrell/

https://selfhacked.com/2015/04/12/interview-with-dr-jack-kruse-emfs-biohacking-water-dha-and-blue-light/#comment-12625

http://fattofitmyquest.com/75-dr-jack-kruse-on-his-leptin-prescription-theory-as-neurosurgery-without-the-scapel/