healing naturally

I’m a Lyme-y on a healing journey. And I got COVID-19. 

I did “all the right things,” was still exposed, and got it along with a few unmistakable symptoms and the pleasure of what feels like a never-ending quarantine at home. 

This was most definitely NOT how I had planned to usher in the beautiful month of September. You may have seen that I talked about it on social media as my quarantine began, and throughout. But it’s almost been harder to talk about as time goes on. 

I think it’s important that I talk and keep talking, though. That I bring the hope I’ve always been called to bring. That I break free of being “the public health threat” and “another statistic,” as I’ve so often felt I’ve been reduced to these past couple weeks.

I’m now at the end of my quarantine, technically, and yet symptoms linger on. Kind of like a taunt. A slap in the face of the healthy, smart things I’ve done to stay well, get well fast, and NOT have to carry COVID with me any longer than necessary.

On one hand, COVID made me nervous because of the unknown, particularly in a person such as myself. See, no one really knows what to expect with COVID/Coronavirus/SARS-CoV-2 in a patient with chronic illness, autoimmune conditions, etc. Which is me - I am that person. I’m your fun little “corona with Lyme” joke, which don’t get me wrong, definitely makes me chuckle. And made me REAL nervous to personify. 

But I’m here to say I did ok! I believe I’m truly through the thick of it, and I’m happy to walk you through how this whole adventure started. 

I got some cold symptoms first. In fact, I kinda laughed at the thought that they even COULD be COVID-19, they were so generic and subtle. But knowing I had had an exposure and had a job to get back to, I was tested. Then I developed complete loss of taste and smell. Then shortness of breath started occasionally, and I was definitely fatigued - I felt like I could never get enough sleep. Headaches joined the fun - nearly daily - and some debilitating. Throw in some intense, keep-you-up-all-night leg pains, and I was starting to feel like a Lyme flare mixed in with a dose of Coronavirus. Who knows if that’s what it was. To me, it honestly was just a bunch of annoying symptoms thrown into the mix, but within a couple days they were resolving.

Thankfully I’m almost completely better now, 2wks later. I’m just left with persisting, and sometimes worsening, shortness of breath. I can’t talk well for long, or do much around the house because of it. It only goes away with rest and some serious huffing. As a nurse, I promise I’m really good at knowing if it needs medical attention. AND I’ve got a LOT of healthcare professionals and parties with a vested interest checking up on me almost daily. But I can’t be released to work and I certainly can’t fully get on with life until I can breathe well again.

All that to say, you have NO idea how grateful I am for the tools I have to help me manage recovering, symptoms, and allll the “joys” of COVID-19. Yes, it involves a slew of vitamins and supplements. It also involves intentional usage of essential oils, detox methods, and clean eating to fuel my body to fight. 

To discuss a few basic tactics I used to fight, here's a non-exhaustive list. :) I eliminated sugar, upped my antioxidants and NingXia Red consumption, and took extra/additional supplements to my current regimen (so this list is NOT exhaustive) including Quercetin, high dose Vit C, Vit D, Vit A, Multigreens, Selenium, NAC, Glutathione, Curcumin, and Inner Defense. I used key essential oils in the diffuser and topically to help with support my lungs, support my body to fight inflammation, and to boost my natural immune function. I used detox baths and foot potatoes liberally. (Go HERE for more foot potato info!) I drank PLENTY of water daily.

And knowing this could have gone WAY worse, combining an existing condition with something new and relatively uncharted, I really couldn’t have asked for a much better recovery. 

Cheers to not living in fear. To properly caring for our body. And to always ALWAYS being much more than a statistic in this life. 

Oh, and if you’d like to start boosting your immune system right now, grab my free guide to 5 Ways I Boosted My Immune System to Fight Lyme (and now COVID too!) to help you get started easily. Be well!


**Disclaimer: I am not a medical professional here to diagnose, treat, cure, or otherwise influence your medical journey outside of the guidance of a medical professional. I am simply sharing my own journey and what I have learned along the way. Please find a doctor you trust and discuss any medical concerns or treatments with them. Also, please know, as an Amazon Associate I earn from qualifying purchases through my site at no extra cost to you.

With chronic conditions, Lyme, and any other time the body is particularly stressed, I find one of the MOST important ways to manage and increase overall health is through diet and gut health. Taking charge of this in my own life, admittedly through baby steps, was one of the PRIMARY ways I finally started to experience increased healing. 

This is where working with a Functional Medicine provider can be quite helpful! There’s a reason our Standard American Diet yields the acronym S.A.D.  The standard way of eating in our society IS sad. It’s high on inflammatory foods, and low on actual nutrition. This can lead to a whole host of problems within our bodies that may manifest in a variety of subtle or obvious ways. 

What are some bodily signs of poor gut health and inflammation stemming from the GI system? This article sums it up nicely! 

A healing diet will look very different from what society tells us in acceptable eating habits. Typically, a healing diet will include food that promotes healthy cells, fuels the body, encourages detoxing, and reduces inflammation throughout the body. 

To recap the article linked above, our gut has its own microbiome (the organisms living in our bowels, stomach, and digestive tract.) We NEED a balanced microbiome for maximum health throughout our entire body. This includes our immune system functions, mental health and hormone production, and SO much more! I'll keep saying it - the gut is where lots of our health starts, my friends. What we eat, put on, in and around our bodies, and our stress levels and mental state ALL impact our guts and our overall well being. 

The 7 signs of an unbalanced gut from the article above include:

    ~Upset stomach

    ~A high-sugar diet (I’d go so far as to say ANY processed/white-based foods contribute here!)

    ~Unintentional weight changes

    ~Sleep disturbances or constant fatigue

    ~Skin irritation and rashes

    ~Autoimmune conditions

    ~Food intolerances

So what can you do to improve your gut health if you are suffering in that area for any reason? Here are THREE quick changes you can start implementing right away to help!

1. Start taking high quality pre and probiotics, and consider digestive enzymes as well - do your research to make sure you are getting the best quality possible. NOT all supplements are worth your money, and some can do more harm than good. For probiotics especially, look for a good mix of bacteria strains, and I would definitely recommend Bifido strains especially! Look 'em up - they do some great things for our bodies! Check for colony forming units (CFUs) too, and at least 1 billion bacterial strains is considered most ideal.

2. Check for food intolerances - ideally working with a knowledgeable provider. But if you are taking matters into your own hands, an elimination diet can pretty quickly tell you if you have food sensitivities.
   
   This is where working with a Functional Medicine provider can be extra helpful, in terms of tailoring dietary changes to your needs and also getting proper gut tests done to help guide you and get you answers, but in the meantime, consider temporarily eliminating the top allergenic foods such as gluten, dairy, corn, soy, legumes, and eggs (and possibly even more, such as sugar, grains in general, shellfish, etc...definitely is an individualized approach here, but starting SOMEWHERE is better than not starting at all!) 
   
   If you go this route, the key will be to eliminate chosen food(s) entirely for 1-3mo, and THEN, reintroduce by eating just one eliminated food at a time, a few times a day for a couple days before reintroducing another. Keeping a food diary here helps tremendously as well!

3. Change your diet - consider low inflammatory and gut-health-based ways of eating such as Paleo/Whole30, Autoimmune Protocol (AIP), GAPs, Specific Carbohydrate Diet (SCD), Ketogenic, Low Histamine, or Mediterranean (and I’m sure there are others out there!). I also recommend you look at what Weston A. Price discusses, and possibly grab the book Nourishing Traditions, written by Sally Fallon. It is my goal to have my household eating this way comfortably at some point (tolerating soaked grains and proper forms of dairy, etc). Every body is different and needs different nutrition, so you will want to tailor a way of eating to YOU. 

Changes like these can seem hard, overwhelming, or impossible. But I promise, even baby steps are steps in the right direction! What small changes in each category can you make TODAY to better your health for tomorrow? 

If you enjoy baby stepping this health journey as much as I do, here’s my guide to quickly taking charge of your health journey NOW, along with a recipe I think everyone can use! Cheers!


**Disclaimer: I am not a medical professional here to diagnose, treat, cure, or otherwise influence your medical journey outside of the guidance of a medical professional. I am simply sharing my own journey and what I have learned along the way. Please find a doctor you trust and discuss any medical concerns or treatments with them. Also, please know, as an Amazon Associate I earn from qualifying purchases through my site at no extra cost to you.

I have had Lyme, co-infections, and autoimmune conditions more than half of my life now. While I would never consider myself an expert, I've learned some tidbits along the way that may be helpful to those wondering where to turn next if they have reason to be concerned for Lyme themselves. 

To continue to expand a bit on what I mentioned in my last post, let’s talk about Lyme and co-infection related issues and what to do if you have concern or diagnosis and don’t know where to turn. 

You can easily find out TONS about Lyme through many reliable resources via Google, etc. There are suggested “stages,” symptoms, treatment regimens, and more out there. But the bottom line is, any good Lyme Literate MD (LLMD) will tell you that a) a lot of the current Lyme info for providers is outdated, unreliable, and not patient-centric and b) that Lyme testing is relatively unreliable, but the most reliable tests we have are worth doing and treating any unusual symptoms (especially in the presence of a tick bite) is paramount.

What are symptoms? 

This is important - as I listed in THIS POST, nearly ANYTHING *could* be a symptom because Lyme can literally “attack” any body system, and it can fluctuate over time. Symptoms can be neurological (often mimicking many different types of autoimmune and other neurological conditions), mental health related, skin issues (yes, some people get a bullseye rash, but not everyone does, and other rashes or skin issues can happen too), gut issues, certainly pain and flu-like symptoms, fevers, exhaustion, cardiac arrhythmias and multiple other heart-related issues, numbness, memory issues and brain fog, arthritis...the list truly could go on and on. 

I consider this both hopeful AND helpful - I/you are NOT crazy, and yes, no matter what the test says, if you were bitten ever and certainly if you are at all symptomatic, you should be treated by a specialist. Know that you can find a variety of treatment recommendations out there, and my BEST advice when it comes to that topic is to do your research and work with a LLMD (and preferably a functional medicine provider too, if you can) to tailor your treatment to YOU. It is NOT one-size-fits-all. 

So what to do if you’d like to tackle Lyme head-on:

• Find a LLMD in your area. Check out ilads.org to help you with that if needed. They should be able to work with you on natural option vs antibiotics to treat Lyme. Standard treatment is antibiotics, but some LLMDs believe in treating with herbals only, and some use both herbals and antibiotics for treatment (mine does). 

• Get proper testing done for Lyme and co-infections. Typical ELISA and Western Blot tests are what MOST providers may use, but they are VERY unreliable, historically. In fact, no blood test is perfectly full proof, and a good LLMD will treat symptomatically if you've had a bite no matter what the test results conclude. However the IgeneX is what I currently know to be the most comprehensive testing at this time. And it can be pretty darn helpful, when in the hands of a LLMD. Testing should ideally be done around 4-6wks after a tick bite. Treatment should be ongoing prior to testing, especially if symptomatic. 

• Start supporting your body holistically NOW. Don’t wait, even if you opt not to be treated right away. There are lots of easy steps you can take immediately to change your health long-term. Boost your immune system, raise the vibrations of your cells and body, get savvy about gut health, prioritize nutrition (look into anti-inflammatory ways of eating and ditching sugar if you don’t know where to start), find ways to manage your stress, tend to your emotional health, get rest, drink gobs of water to flush your detox system, consider detoxing gently and naturally, and ditch all toxins in your life ASAP.  (I’ll be blogging more about all of these things, and touching on them in my Facebook group if you’re wanting to run with these ideas)

• Get knowledgeable on some treatment basics. HERE is a very quick and helpful article about the latest research in herbals for Lyme disease treatment. The ILADS guidelines for treatment can be found HERE. Bear in mind that co-infections (which are OFTEN present with Lyme) can change the treatment course up a bit, and is another reason why working with a LLMD is SO important. 

• Get your bloodwork done outside of Lyme labs - find out more about your health from the inside out. (Bonus: this helps you tailor your treatment approach too!) Consider checking all of your body systems. A good LLMD should easily help with this. 

• Work on your mindset - know that you CAN do this and practice ditching a poverty or “lack of” mindset for an ABUNDANCE mindset! That right there is SUPER healing! 

Ready to start your healing journey NOW? Here’s a great resource I created to help you get started! It's FREE! 

Be WELL! 


**Disclaimer: I am not a medical professional here to diagnose, treat, cure, or otherwise influence your medical journey outside of the guidance of a medical professional. I am simply sharing my own journey and what I have learned along the way. Please find a doctor you trust and discuss any medical concerns or treatments with them. Also, please know, as an Amazon Associate I earn from qualifying purchases through my site at no extra cost to you.