New treatment plan, Doxycycline and Metronidazole

After suffering for years and years with different types of treatment plans my doctor and I stumbled across a new one that works really well for me. I'm taking Doxy at a smaller dose to not upset my stomach, and Metronidazole which treats other forms of bacteria such as coinfections. With this combination I'm feeling a decrease in almost all of my symptoms.

Completely unrelated, my heart symptoms of palpitations, fast heart rate, dizziness, etc. became worse for the first time in months. I went through a Holter-monitor test, another Echo-cardiogram, and a physical to try and diagnose the source. After finding nothing, it was decided that my Bartonella has now moved into my heart and is running wild creating symptoms that can't be caught on film with no rhyme or reason to them. I feel the aching pain in my heart, my sternum, and my collarbones still. Sometimes I run my hand down my sternum and feel the permanent ridges protruding from a bone that was one sawed in half. I feel the claviculae joint pop and crunch as my collarbones shift around. I even feel a knot at the top of my sternal incision scar that still had bit faded yet and remains a bright red bump. I perform scar therapy on all of my scars by massaging them and applying a silicone liquid that's supposed to soothe them away. Most of my scars are already disappearing, fading away into small white lines. I know the knot will subside too in time. My mother's research says maybe 2 years, but it will one day be barely visible. I see actors on my favorite shows with faint white lines down there middle of their chest and feel so much more relatable to them, like we have so much in common. Maybe one day even my significant other would be able to understand what I've been through from first hand experience, though I do not wish for that.

These battle scars will be reminders of where I came from but mostly what I can overcome as I push myself to future goals. I pray that my Lyme symptoms stay under wraps as I take the next journey forward in my life. I know stress can make it come back full force once again, and I know exercise and diet may be keys to successful future treatments.
Tonight I remember where I was at the beginning of the year, when I signed up for my first gym membership and how I thought the year would go. I never knew it would have turned into this, and I haven't returned to the gym because of my pain and undiagnosed continuous heart symptoms, but I remember where I was so I know how far I've come and what is left for me to still experience.

Been a Long Time Since I Posted

It has been a long time since I have updated everyone. Basically my life had spun out of control and I needed to get a hold on things. Here is where I'm at, bear with me as my scatter-brain leads you up until the current events in my life. The Zio patch test came back fine, which is a good sign. I stopped the blood pressure medication and attended the gym on my own to restrengthen my cardiac stamina. I stopped the cardiac rehab with the heart monitors and was relieved to go back to a more normal lifestyle. My Lyme symptoms all got increasingly worse. My regimen of Clindamycin, Omnicef, and Tindamax did not do anything for me as I got increasingly worse. I just recently visited my LLMD who put me on a regimen of Paxil for the anxiety (finally working with no worsened side effects), Amoxy, Doxy (good because the sun sensitivity won't be overpowering in the fall and winter seasons), and Flagyll. These medications are supposed to attack the cystic form of Lyme, Bartonella, and Babesia. I also still take probiotics, Nystatin, Axid, and Zyrtec. I visited my hematologist who said my second Lupus Anticoagulant tests came back negative, so I have an unnamed clotting disposition that could be a problem worsened by the Lyme. It will keep me from ever getting IV medication again, or ever taking hormonal birth control. I go in for the Paraguard IUD, because it's non-hormonal, next week. Also I will stay on daily baby Aspirin to keep clotting instances from happening.

My symptoms currently include the worst fatigue I've ever felt, tendonitis, overall pain mainly in the torso area and lower back, headaches which I just got glasses to assist with, ear problems, nausea, dizzyness, fainting spells, joint inflammation, brain fog, memory loss, confusion, narcoleptic episodes, loss of concentration, anxiety/depression, and lack of appetite, Those are the major symptoms not including the occasional episode of night sweats, sleep insomnia, or muscle spasms. I can say that starting the new medications two weeks ago have already shown they are keeping symptoms from getting worse. The pain has subsided a small bit, while tendonitis worsened. I am hopeful they will work to keep me from my usual winter seasonal decline in symptoms. Currently I have been too tired to think about going to the gym. I fall asleep in classes or while driving, and go to bed as soon as I get home. I long for naps during the day, and have no motivation to move from the couch or bed, I sleep 10-14 hours a night but still want nothing more than to sleep. It's hard to hold a social life when you feel dead by nine, can't stay away to drive home, and feel like taking a nap instead of eating dinner. In fact I choose not to eat when it means walking to get the food, and instead doze off in my seat. This is a new profound exhaustion then I have experienced before. I know I need to gain cardiac stamina but just find it too hard to think about a walk or exercise. I feel distanced from many people and have to choose whether I socialize or do homework. In fact, most of the time I skip my homework and try to leave early from my new part time job because even though I'm smiling, I'm dying inside. My anxiety wake me up first thing in the morning, shaking and nauseas until I get the Paroxetine in my system. I also head to bed at night fighting depression and wanting to just never wake up. Hopefully I have more positive updates soon for all my faithful readers.

Two Steps Forward, Three Steps Back

After four weeks of being on IV Doxycycline, the last medication left I had to try for IV, I still felt no better. My memory betrays me just as it does those around me, and I forget the exact reason why I stopped IV Doxy. I remember a phone call with the nurse at the doctor's office saying it would be best to stop the medicine, maybe from me still not improving? They wanted me to start back on Mepron for the month, and I only remembered to take the yellow paint-like liquid once. In fact for almost an entire month I completely forgot probiotics, Nystatin, B12, and Magnesium which are all important supplements I take to help me get through from day to day. I was told to wait another month and see if just the Clindamycin would do anything, however I knew in my heart that it wouldn't. Why sound so pessimistic? Well, I know I've been on the medication in the past, two separate times. I know that once you do a medication seriously and then stop, the bacteria tends to seem more immune to the substance in the future. Some argue that fact with the idea of pulse therapy where you start the medication for a short bit of time, then stop it long enough for the bacteria to be caught off guard when you restart two weeks later. Pulse therapy is a very common treatment plan used by New York specialist Dr. Horrowitz, I believe, not something that ever worked in my situation. For some people, those more sensitive to medication changes that feel Herx type reactions with treatment, Pulse therapy can be the difference in successful treatment. I have always been difficult to treat, with a poorly absorbing stomach and impossible Lyme symptoms. Very few medications made me feel a possible Herx, and very very few made me feel better. There was a total of two summers I did very well with no rhyme or reason, and I am beginning to think it was more heat and mild weather related than it was medications. Beside all of that, I also know that the second time I tried Clindamycin back in the spring, I felt no effect from it. My main hope in my treatment after leaving my LLMD's office was for the Iv Doxycycline, keeping at the forefront of my mind its effectiveness in treating Lyme and Coinfections like Bartonella and Babesia, both I'm suspected to have. For now I slowly decline until I see my Doctor again, dealing with other issues in my personal life, and trying to survive a more normal life as a student and part time employee.