My Relationship with Lyme Disease (Part 1 of 2)

In the December of 2016 on the northern end the Santa Cruz Mountains of sunny California, I was out hiking when I was bitten by a tick. I remember the subject matter of the “conversation” I was having with a good hearted acquaintance of mine. I was talking at him about a business I was setting out to launch in the coming months. I was going to open a “Movement Gym” under the umbrella of the “movement guru” Ido Portal. I was obsessed and wanting to spread my obsession to who ever would listen. Looking back now, especially with the hindsight of COVID and it’s effect on movement facilities, it is likely that this gym this have been a very expensive failure. 

But the universe had bigger plans for me, and my destiny was sitting on an overgrown branch of scotch broom in the form a parasitic arachnid smaller than my pinky nail. I found the tick imbedded in my shoulder a few hours later upon getting home. My girlfriend at the time (now wife) pulled it out with tweezers and flushed it down the toilet, as if flushing it down the drain absolved me of any potential ill fate. And then we went back to our busy lives.

Over the coming months, I began having weird health issues. First, a really bad bout of the flu where I had an unbelievably stiff neck, body aches, and a strong fever for several days. About a month later, my elbow swelled up during an intense week of physical training out at Bondi Beach in Sydney, Australia. I figured it was all the hand balance training I had been doing, so I took a week off and things seemed to resolve. Two months after that, my knee swelled up so much that I couldn’t walk, and then as my knee got better, my shoulder got so inflamed I couldn’t lift it. Two weeks later, I began to struggle using basic words such as “table” or “bowl” and my elbows swelled up so much that I couldn’t bend them enough to touch my head. My personality began to change. I went from a fun loving ray of sunshine to a grumpy asshole. I forgot things constantly. My body would oscillate between that of a 27 year old man in his physical prime and that of a man of maybe 70 years and failing health. I was bedridden for days on end. My girlfriend and I were scared. I had no idea what was wrong with me. 

It was during this time that I began to regularly see a wildly talented new acupuncturist. She had only been in practice for a year or so, but had a rich blood lineage of great healers and a gift for seeing energy. She didn’t exactly know what was going wrong with me, BUT every time my system was flaring up, she’d treat me, and without fail, over the next 24 to 48 hours, my system would stabilize. Without care, my “flare ups” would last a week or longer. One spring day on my drive to her office, I received a ping, a download, a message: “You should become an acupuncturist”. It had been something I had circled around for years, but ultimately had opted against for many reasons (education costs, lifestyle, feeling it was arrogant to self proclaiming oneself a healer, etc). But that day, when I was on my acupuncturist’s table, she stopped and said, “I think you should become an acupuncturist”. 

It was during this time that I stopped for just enough time to actually listen. Listen to what was happening. In one day, three different friends suggested that I might have Lyme disease. The third time I heard this suggestion, it finally cracked through my thick skull. 

I had fucking Lyme disease.

I called up my acupuncturist and had her order me an ELISA blood test and Western Blot Test, which test for antibodies and antigens of pathogens such as Lyme disease. The results came back a couple weeks later resoundingly positive for Borrelia (Lyme disease) as well as two co-infections (Babesia and Bartonella). My health mystery had been solved; I had a chronic illness that for many plagues them for a lifetime. I couldn’t have been more relieved. At least now I knew what I was dealing with. Unfortunately because months had passed since the pathogens were introduced into my system, the infection had taken residence in me in a way that a simple 2 to 3 week course of doxycycline (standard antibiotic treatment) would not work.

Over the next few years, I used a variety of different methods to treat my tick-borne infections. First, I went to a Lyme Literate MD as they call them, and he prescribed me a high dose of a couple nasty antibiotics with the expectation that I’d take them for the next 2 to 3 months. I lasted about 6 weeks on the drugs until I threw in the towel. My gut, and thus my overall health, was beginning to suffer too much to warrant these heavy hitters. That said, my Lyme symptoms had improved, but it was clear that the ill effects of the infections would come creeping back. It’s hard describe, but I could still feel the creepy little crawlers hiding in my joints. I was still getting dizzy upon mild exertion. I felt at the core of my being I was still very much “sick”. Fortunately, I had an appointment with an unconventional doctor with a long waitlist and a reputation for treating Lyme disease with some success. She loaded me up with  grocery bag full of antimicrobial herbal tinctures, minerals, vitamins, binders and other nutritional supplements. 

I should mention that during this whole time (since the onset of my conclusive diagnosis), I also read some great blog sources on healing Lyme from fellow curious voyagers that outlined their healing journeys. I took ownership of my health and sought to empower myself as much as possible to reclaim my health. I did a multi-week organ meat and bone broth fast, I did an extensive elimination diet, I modified my wellness practices (i.e. exercise, recovery techniques, internal practices) to maximize blood & energy flow of my system while minimizing stress.

Over the next year I improved dramatically, but every time I took a couple week off of my extensive herbal remedy and supplement protocol, little symptoms would begin creeping back. That’s the way Lyme disease (and co-infections) works for many of those that it afflicts. You feel “fine” while on treatment, aside from the side effects of the treatment, and then as you taper off of treatment, symptoms of the disease begin to come back. First subtly, and then not so subtly. This is because of the nature of the these bugs. They are able to lie dormant in your tissues (i.e. non-vascular like joints and nerves, and vital organs such as the heart and the brain). In their dormant stage, these bugs, known as spirochetes, are incredibly resistant to medications such as antibiotics or antimicrobial herbs.

My recovery had plateaued. I was doing ok, but I was not thriving in the way I knew I could. I was fighting my infections with moderate success, and yet I had a deep intuition that I would have to evolve my relationship with my spirochete guests. And, that is when I met my mentor who would change my life forever… 

Stay tuned for PART TWO