Ticks and Lyme Disease: The Next Steps

Chapter 1: The Bite
Chapter 2:  The Next Steps

The days between getting the bite and seeing the doctor were not idly spent. I turned my mind and will towards healing, cleaning, purging myself of any undesired presence. I kept thinking of holy fires and purifying flames!  Symptom-wise, I felt generally raw, tender, emotional, and physically fatigued. I was starving. I felt like I could eat all day and never fill my stomach, so I had to watch what I was taking in so I didn’t give up and gorge on junk foods all day.

Anahata Heart Chakra by Rebelbam

To support myself nutritionally, I ate a whole mess of garlic and took shots of my fire vinegar, as those are immune system boosters. Knowing that the spiral-shaped Lyme spirochetes were moving into my muscles, I wanted to make it as difficult as possible for them and ensure that my immune system was in top condition! I also increased my water intake and ceased all alcohol (sigh) and less caffeine. It also meant eating more raw foods, more simple green foods, good clean fats and a generally supportive diet. I drank a ton of ginger tea and devoured anything coconut.

Medicinally, I began taking teasel root tincture to keep the Lyme spirochetes out of my muscles and into the bloodstream, from where I could hopefully flush it out. With that in mind, I also started taking regular doses of vitamin C and echinacea tincture and also nettles tea to keep my kidneys flushed.

Spiritually, I could not ignore the placement of the bite. My heart chakra is a guiding light to me, and I found myself feeling wounded, hurt, and betrayed that the bite was there, that my blood was taken, that this experience was inflicted upon me. I sat in meditation and simple deep breathing at least once a day, generally when I found myself wrestling with flooding emotions. I wore mostly white clothing for those first few days, or at least the cloth that covered my heart was white. To me, white is a healing, cleansing, protective and reflective color, pure and focused. Green was a close second most comfortable color in that time, a gentle grounding energy that felt like sunlight filtering through green leaves onto my face when I meditated. I felt like I had to ask my Self for guidance on how to proceed to support my own healing.

When I went to visit my general care physician to ask about getting antibiotics for Lyme, I had fears. I was afraid that she might consider me an internet-addicted, Web MD-using, overly-researched hypochondriac, or a weird, grass-eating hippie. That last one is pretty true, but I really despise being scorned for taking my health into my own hands rather than leaving everything to the western medical professionals. I’ve had some bad experiences there that I don’t wish to recreate!  But even a ton of my fellow grass-munching herbalist friends acknowledge that if they are available, antibiotics are the best course of action for Lyme disease, especially when taken right after the bite.

Thankfully, my fears were unfounded this time.  My doctor is a good listener, and even though the ring and rash no longer appeared around the bite, she agreed that it was worth it to prescribe me a week of antibiotics. I picked up my Doxycycline and began to faithfully take them twice a day.

The downside of antibiotics is the fact that they are indiscriminate in their aim and kill off friendly bacteria in the body as well as the invading ones.  This can lead to issues with candida overgrowth, digestion problems, and a stressed-out liver. So after apologizing to my happy little body ecosystem, I’ve had to cut back on sugar again, start taking supplemental acidophilus and drinking liver-cleansing teas (Persephone’s Tea) and lots of water to keep myself as balanced as possible.

One week down, hoping that was all it would take…

In the meantime, here are some resources if you want to learn more about Lyme.

http://www.ladybarbara.net/ (web archive, as she and her site are now gone.)
https://www.facebook.com/TBDAlliance

Next…Chapter 3: The Basics of Lyme