Lyme? Most likely...

Yesterday after going in the Spaceship, my mom met me at Mitch's office and we got to talk to him for a little while.

Basically, the western blot test checks for various protiens that could show up in your blood if you have lyme (and some can show up for lyme OR other reasons, so you never know). What is showing up is actually what shows up when your body is FIGHTING OFF the lyme. That's why there are so many false positives. I also read that not only can the lyme bacteria hide in your tissues, organs, and bones instead of just staying in your blood... They can ALSO take your body's collagen (which is found like, everywhere in your body), and coat themselves in it to hide from the antibiotics! Ugh! Little brats! They can also go into a dormant/sleeping state which I believe only one kind of antibiotic is able to kill those ones off. Those little bugs are relentless! In the later stages of lyme (which is what I'd guess I have since I've had symptoms for 10+ years), it's more likely for the bacteria to have found hiding spots by then or become dormant, so sometimes the worse the lyme, the harder it would be for it to show up positive on tests. LAME!

Anywho, my test was borderline because you're supposed to show a certain amount of protiens, but I believe I'm only showing one. The test they did most recently looked specifically at the protien band that shows up on my test to determine whether it's probably lyme causing it or if it could be something else. He told us that the newest test indicates that it probably IS lyme. He also explained that my C-reactive protien is a whopping 28.something (normal is like 0 - 3.5), which isn't necissarily Lyme specific BUT it definitely indicates there is some sort of inflammation/infection in my body - no question. So, based on all of that stuff we're pretty sure I have Lyme. The only thing that he questions is that we did about 2 months of antibiotics about 18 months ago, and I felt no difference - better or worse. To me, 2 months doesn't seem that long because often times people do it for a year or even more. This time I'm on antibiotics AND we're doing the hyperbaric chamber so I reallyyyy hope it works this time!

I'm scheduled to go into the hyperbaric chamber next week. I wasn't sure if he'd schedule me for an additional week, but he did, and we'll see how much longer he schedules me for after next week. I want to go as many times as he'll allow because the more times I go, the more chance I'll have of it killing off the bacteria.

I was talking to Robin about everything today and basically trying to explain all of this stuff. It's kind of hard to explain when you don't understand it fully, and when there's SO MUCH stuff involved with it. But anyway, I was talking about how WEIRD it would be to be all better. Healed. Fixed. I mean, I've had my symptoms since AT LEAST Jr. High age, but maybe it was even earlier? But pretty much it feels like my whole life - or at least MOST of my life. I don't remember what my body even felt like when it was "normal". And I think it was such a slow change that I kind of got used to it, so it has been my "normal" all of these years. But to feel no pain, or little pain... it will be INSANE! I told her, "hey, maybe I'll become a runner or something!" and she said "don't go crazy on us!". She said "uhh, I don't like to run and I don't have pain like yours", but I explained how it would be like if an old person all of a sudden felt like they were in their 20's or teens again! It doesn't matter how other 20 year olds feel... it matters that they felt like crap and now they don't! You know what I mean? But in all of these years I've never had a day, or an hour, or a minute where my body felt pain-free and normal. That's a lot of years to be able to forget what pain-free & normal really feels like. So I think if I get better it will be pretty mind-blowing. Heck, if anything I hope I at least have enough energy to get off of my butt and lose some weight. I'd also like to have more energy to be a better wife, and someday a great mommy. Kids take lots of energy, and I simply don't have energy. :-/

Anyway, that's the latest. We're on like movie #100 now. They generally turn on a movie in the hyperbaric chamber since we're in there for almost 2 hours. This morning we started watching Juno, and I guess we'll finish it up on Monday. Let's see... what else have I seen in JUST the last two weeks?? Taken, Along Came A Spider, Frequency, De JaVu, The Family Man, Meet the Parents, Wild Hogs... Hmm, I think that's it. Let's just say, I probably don't need to see a movie for a LONG time after this. I still have at least another week of movies. I'm really tempted to bring in Lost and force everyone to get addicted to that show. It's the BEST! Plus, we're watching it over starting with season 1 anyway, so it'd be like 2 birds with one stone, right? I wonder if they'd go for it. It's kind of smart to watch a show in there instead of movies. Because people generally go for at least 3 weeks at a time, sometimes longer. So a show makes sense because it's ongoing. Plus, we wouldn't have to choose a new movie every day, which for some reason is the most difficult task ever for everyone. Hmmm.

Well, I've got to go now. I'm SO glad it's Friday! I wish I could see the boys (my nephews - James and Josiah), but I think Nae went to Ashley's this weekend. :( I miss those lil cutie pies!!!!!!!!!