Hey, Doc! You're Just Kidding, Right?

Yesterday Jess drove us over to Georgia so I could go to my appointment at the Fibromyalgia & Chronic Fatigue Clinic there. We left early, the trip went without incident, and that put us there over an hour ahead of my appointment. That worked out fine, as it gave us time for a light lunch before going over to the clinic.

First up was talking to the doctor. She had a bunch of lab results back from the 12 vials of blood they drew last time. OH. MY. WORD. That was a real shocker and an eye opener for me. I knew my thyroid was messed up, I had low levels of vitamin D, and a couple of other things, but these blood tests were showing viral and bacterial infections. Not just one, nope, how about half a dozen???

It seems a compromised immune system can allow all kinds of things to pop back up that have been latent in your system. Like way back in college, I had mono. That's caused by the Epstein-Barr Virus. So who knew it could reactivate and cause chronic illness, like Chronic Fatigue Syndrome? (Okay, maybe YOU knew it, but I sure didn't. But it says so even on the CDC website.)

And no, I am NOT contagious with any of these - I made it a point to ask the doctor about that.

In a simplified explanation of ONE of these tests, you're supposed to have a lab value of no higher than 10. Gee, mine was 5,120. I guess you could say that test was positive. (That was a little sarcasm in case you missed it.)

Besides the 3 virus's lurking in my body, there are 3 types of bacteria. One was for a type of pneumonia, which from what the doc was telling me about it, could explain the asthma-like symptoms I get sometimes.

And then, let us not forget LYME DISEASE.

Oh yeah. It's true. When the doctor asked to test for it last time, I almost refused because it's a really expensive lab test and I figured it was a waste of time. Guessed wrong on that one.

So there we are looking over all these lab results, positive for 3 bacterial infections and 3 viral infections, and the doctor looks at me and says, 'No wonder you're feeling bad!"

She'd written by every one of them "causes fatigue" and by one "causes flu-like symptoms". Her summation of upcoming treatment is to "get rid of these infections as quickly as possible while maintaining a balance of not doing it so quickly you feel terrible all the time."

If that doesn't make sense to you, it's because of a Herxheimer reaction. See, the problem is that when killing off infections, sometimes the toxins from their dying off are released faster than the kidneys and liver can remove them. This can cause fever, chills, headache, and muscle pain - a Herxheimer reaction.

I knew about this from my shepherding experience. The vets give special meds along with antibiotics to help counteract the shock. In acutely ill animals, it doesn't always work and the animal dies.

Hmmmm, well, if yesterday's treatments and today's feeling is any indication, we're not doing so well on that one. I had medications by IV (only took 3 tries this time to get one started, yeah, only) and two shots.

And today I feel like I've got a bad case of the flu.

So can I have a little cheese with this whine? Because this is rather depressing. We're spending a bunch of money trying to get me well, and right now I feel worse, and can't help but worry that I'm just wasting all this money.

And one thing I'm coming to realize, this is NOT a short-term project. It's going to take longer than I'd hoped, and again, in the mean time I have to wonder if it's actually doing any good, or I'm wasting a lot of money.

I'm sick and tired of feeling sick and tired.