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Chronic illness is a journey of peaks and valleys. When you’re in a valley, symptoms flare and life sucks. When you’re on a peak, your symptoms abate a little or a lot, your hope soars and you wonder for how long the good feeling is going to last.
Since the beginning of October, I’ve been headed towards a peak, after several months of being in a valley, (caused by me messing with my hormones in ways that weren’t beneficial, emotional stress, and lots of rain here in Costa Rica!).
My climb back up the healing mountain has been jump-started by several things.
Foremost, I have realized on a deeper level that God’s spirit is greater than my physical body, and that by living in communion with and in obedience to His spirit, I can feel better physically as well as emotionally. Living on this plane has been a challenge, requiring discipline in my thoughts, much prayer, and a continual affirmation of God’s truths, (which for me are found in the Bible), and which have been supernatural food for my mind, body and spirit. It has also meant believing God for all that I need, despite any circumstantial evidence to the contrary.
I wish I could say that all of the Lyme and chronic illness treatments I write about are the way to well-being, but the results they provide are often unsatisfactory. I’m not saying they don’t work, but sometimes, there is a better path in the spiritual realm; at least, I am finding that to be true for myself.
I’m also not treating Lyme disease right now because I don’t feel that I need to. I’m still treating symptoms of chronic fatigue, however, and with only moderate passion, because of my desire to rely upon God and not treatments, for healing.
Yes, I think God uses herbs and drugs and other stuff to heal Lyme disease, but lately, I’ve been set upon another path, based not on my intellect but on a different kind, and some would say, less rational, kind of knowledge; that is, revelation.
Revelation is a funny thing. It’s like information put deep into your marrow, that you didn’t go looking for but which instead found you. It bypasses belief and occupies the space of conviction in your soul. The information it conveys often cannot be explained to others in a way that makes sense, because it is too simple, but it is profound wisdom to the one to whom it has been given.
So has revelation from my god been seeping into my mind, transforming the way I understand healing. While I believe that the weight of my wellness rests upon God’s shoulders, and that I currently need to lean lightly upon any kind of treatment that I do, I yet continue to advocate different treatments for chronic illness because my path isn’t for everyone and sometimes, we gotta go the hard way of antibiotics and herbs and all the other stuff that’s out there.
Besides my God prescription, my current healing regimen includes a couple of new supplements which I have tentatively found to be helpful for my endurance, energy, sleep and POTS (postural orthostatic tachycardia syndrome).
The first is Baschetti’s licorice, which I purchase from the Clymer Healing and Research Center. See: http://www.healing.org. I have been taking this product over the past couple of months, and it has increased my stamina and ability to get up early in the morning. Licorice causes the body to retain cortisol, a major hormone responsible for a multitude of bodily functions. When levels are low, problems such as fatigue, low blood pressure, insomnia, brain fog and others result. When the body retains cortisol, the adrenal glands are given a chance to rest, because they don’t have to produce as much hormone, because it’s not getting used up as fast.
I love Baschettit’s also because it’s a powder that is made into a sweet-tasting beverage, and makes a nice replacement for coffee in the morning! It is also safe; the only risk it carries is potassium depletion, but this is easily remedied by regularly eating potassium-rich foods.
The second product I’m taking is P-100, an anterior pituitary glandular formula made from either a cow or a pig (I can’t remember which!). I am taking this product in an attempt to treat some hormonal deficiencies. It’s a bit of an experiment at this stage, but a recent muscle test revealed that the product is helping me. The anterior pituitary gland produces a number of hormones, including ACTH (adrenocorticotropic hormone), HGH, (Human Growth Hormone), TSH (thyroid-stimulating hormone), and a few others. I’m not sure whether most of my hormonal foul-ups begin in the hypothalamus or pituitary, but in any case, I’m hoping that the glandular will help to restore things.
Mate, a tea from Argentina, continues to be instrumental to my well-being. Although it has caffeine, it is also rich in potassium, containing over 1,000 mg per serving, and over 370 mg of magnesium! It’s chock-full of macrominerals. I drink it in moderation, however, since too much can deplete the adrenal glands.
Finally, I will soon be starting an herbal regimen to balance my endocrine, immune and other systems and which is based on TCM (Traditional Chinese Medicine), and C. Willis’ adrenal fatigue protocol as found on the Yahoo! group, Adrenal Fatigue.
Unlike previous remedies, however, I’m not staking my recovery from chronic fatigue and POTS on any of the above. I’ll rejoice if they work, but if they don’t, I won’t despair because it still means that there is a better path for me to follow and I will eventually get there.
In December I will be getting a gamut of blood draws, for the first time in three years, to test for Lyme and co-infections. I want to see how the results correlate with what I’ve learned about my condition through energetic testing so that I can let my readers know with greater certainty whether the bugs are still a problem for me. I tend to think not, but in the game of chronic illness, I won’t swear by anything.
Notice how my posts are peppered with words like “maybe” and “perhaps.” That’s the only way I can talk about Lyme, because I don’t have it all figured out (like most everyone!).
Only God knows, and I’m trying harder these days to hear His voice, because therein lies all the secrets of the universe. But since we live in a relativistic world, I will end this post with the words, “At least I think so.”