A day in the life of a Lymie: Pills, Pills, Pills...

 My arsenal of weaponry that I use to fight the Lyme spirochetes and co-infections:

When life hands you Lyme, you have to start taking medicine...and a lot of it. I stopped counting the number of pills I take a day because it was messing with my head and making it harder to take them. I have several of those plastic 'weekly' pill containers that are divided into 4 different times of the day.

Besides prescription drugs, I take a lot of vitamins and herbal supplements to keep my body as healthy as possible and to help fight the Lyme (these were prescribed by my LLMD). I also have several tinctures that I put into water and drink on a daily basis and two powdered vitamins (that are best absorbed by the body when mixed with water) that I have to drink 2-3 times a day. Additionally, I give myself a shot every 2-3 days (which quickly got me over my phobia of needles!) and go to the doctor once a week for a transfusion. This does not include the herbal therapy and non-traditional treatments that I do daily (I will save that for another post).

Other Lyme patients are on a much more aggressive treatment (my body cannot handle an overly-aggressive protocol unfortunately). They have ports or pic lines placed in their body to take IV antibiotics. My father had a Groshong Catheter (click here to read what that means) surgically implanted into his chest that would go straight to his heart. He would sit for hours a day with an IV drip of antibiotics connected to his chest. He has finally progressed far enough in his battle that he just had his Groshong line removed. Since he could not get his chest near water for so long, our entire family is eagerly awaiting his first cannon ball into Lake Martin to celebrate!

I hope that this provides you a little insight into the daily life of someone fighting Lyme. It truly is a full-time job!

Please Note:

As you can see in the first picture, I have all the vitamins, supplements, and RXs turned to the side. I want to remind everyone who reads this that I am not a doctor and have no medical background. I cannot safely disclose what all I take--it may be misconstrued as me giving medical advice. Please be sure to talk to your doctor before you begin taking and vitamins or supplements, even if you don't have Lyme. 
This blog is purely anecdotal, meant to provide insight into my personal battle and spread awareness of Chronic Lyme Disease. In no way am I suggesting any type of treatment or protocol. You should always consult your doctor for all medical matters and if you have Lyme you should consult a LLMD before beginning any treatment.