Boy first I should apologize. Like most people who get better, I quit posting. Only hearing sick folks posting I know is very discouraging to us as it makes it seem like none of us ever get better. That is not the case. Take heart!

I'd say my symptoms have been about 90% reduced for about 8 or 9 months now. No rx meds and no bank busting clinics. Only thing left is some brain fog, but as long as there is some remaining infection I'm killing, I know there'll continue to be some fog.

Kill the Funk

The Borrelia and Babesia killing treatments I've used are heating and oxygenating....over and over again. Specifically a "personal sauna" FAR infrared unit I got for $199 off an Ebay merchant store. THIS IS HANDS DOWN THE BEST $200 I'VE SPENT ON MY TREATMENT IN 4.5 YEARS OF BEING SICK. The other treatment is food grade hydrogen peroxide (H2O2).

Start slow with the sauna. It's a powerful antibiotic. Here's a good, cautious method. As soon as you've been in long enough to feel sweat begin to run down your body, count that as minute #1. At the 10 minute mark, get out. Ensure you have a bottle of water on hand right there. If at any time you feel nauseous or lightheaded, get out immediately. Take a cool shower and wash your hair immediately.

Food grade H2O2. Folks THIS is the only type of hydrogen peroxide product you should be absorbing into your body. Pharmaceutical grade H202 from your supermarket is NOT intended for internal use. It says so right on the label for a reason. This site has the best prices I've ever found on food grade H2O2
http://www.dfwx.com/h2o2.htm. Two gallons shipped is only $88.
Method: add 12oz to a standard sized bathtub. Mix well and fill water line just high enough to cover your torso when you slid down. Soak 30 minutes in warm water. This product is 11 times more concentrated than that pharma grade stuff, so DO NOT add more than 12oz, and avoid getting any on your hands. The heavy exposure to oxygen will kill both Bb and Babesia. You may add vitamin C to declorinate the water and a cup of baking soda to alkalize the bath.

Get the funk out of your body
Depending on how sick you are, thoroughly detoxing all your major organs of elimination (GI tract, kidneys, liver, and gall bladder), may need to be done before killing any of the infections. If you've been sick a long time, do this first.

A FAR infrared sauna can be double duty, both a killer and a detoxer. The die-off symptoms you are experiencing today are coming from yesterday's infection killing sauna, and the symptom relief you feel immediately after getting out of the sauna is coming from the fat soluble toxins you just released. Sauna no more than 3 times weekly, with at least one day between saunas. Yes it is detoxing, but doing it too often will also have a powerful antibiotic effect too, and you need to go slow until you see how it is going to effect you. Once you get much further along in your treatment, you can be more aggressive and do it 7 days a week.

Products I've found to be clearly effective for cleaning out the major organs of elimination. (not iffy effective or "I think this might be helping", but definitely helped)

Bentonite clay - for "mopping" out the intestinal tract. It grabs and absorbs as it passes through.
Psyllium husk powder. for "sweeping" out the GI tract. All natural, unflavored kind, not Metamucil
Liver cleansers- (supplements) choline, methionine, artichoke extract. (food) raw beets 2x daily
Kidney cleanser- vitamin C. For me it was about 8,000mg two times daily.

Some tips on your liver health folks. It is CRITICAL you keep that little guy cleared out. Lyme can end up completely destroying you if you allow it to sludge up your billiary ducts with it's toxins. That will back up all those toxins in your liver and slowly poison it. You must keep your bile production high and the bile itself thin. That means NO saturated fat and very very low cholesterol. You should have a full, firm bowel movement with sinking stools at least once every 24 hours. If not, the toxins that are getting released by your liver in it's bile salts are getting reabsorbed because your food is sitting in your gut too long before you move your bowels.

Please any questions, ask! I've been horribly slack by not coming back to share the method I've found that works.

Thank you so much for posting. How long did you have lyme, and did you try other treatments before the ones that worked? I'm very happy for you, thanks for giving the rest of us hope!

Take care, diana

diaba said...
Thank you so much for posting. How long did you have lyme, and did you try other treatments before the ones that worked? I'm very happy for you, thanks for giving the rest of us hope!

Take care, diana

I've been symptomatic since Jan '06. Yep I did the Rocephin bologna. And orals. And Zhang. And TOA Cats Claw. Etc, etc. The Rocephin helped some, but geez seriously the sauna and food grade H2O2 have helped far more.

Bumping for any questions people might have.

Sulma - Thanks for your post. I wish you'd write a book about this; it all makes so much sense and reminds me of a book I read when I got IC. Cleansing is so important. I am glad you talked about the infrared sauna. I've been considering the purchase and didn't know if it was really very helpful. Not sure how I feel about eating clay. That sounds like it's pretty hard on the body. But I do have some to use in the bathtub and should give it a try. Yeah, it's great to hear a success story. Happy for how well you are doing!

Rose

Hi Sulma,

I'm so happy for you!  Yeah!  I also bought an infrared sauna and I bought mine from Amazon, works great:

I also dry skin brush before I get into the sauna.

http://www.amazon.com/Infrared-Portable-Foldable-Sauna-Detox/dp/B002POAYDW/ref=pd_sbs_hpc_1

I also drink the Bentonite Living Clay, I bought the dry powder and the bottled type, both work really good.. 

The Great Plains actually tastes good:

http://www.amazon.com/Bentonite-Great-Plains-32-oz/dp/B0016J6XAA/ref=sr_1_7?ie=UTF8&s=hpc&qid=1279972430&sr=8-7

Dry Clay for internal use (some clays are not meant to be taken internally so please do your research):

http://www.bulkherbstore.com/Bentonite-Clay-Powder

http://www.healingdaily.com/detoxification-diet/bentonite-clay.htm

Keep up the good work!

Denise

What a great post Sulma! Congratulations on your progress!!!

PattiB (or anyone else who doesn't have a bath tub)-
I don't have a tub in my house either, but I was desperate to do detox bathes. Don't laugh too hard now, but what I did was go down to the farm supply store & found a water 'trough', black plastic maybe?, that was about 2 1/2 ft wide & 3 ft long - now understand, I'm all of 5 ft. 1 1/2 in. tall & I soak my lower half of my body, then my upper 1/2 with my feet/legs hanging out.

Yes I know the visual on this must be quite funny!! Like in an old cowboy movie

Anyway, hubby drilled a hole in the bottom just big enough to fit a regular tub stopper into it securely, to make it easy to drain the water out.
Funky little tub?? Yeppers! But it DOES work!!

nasalady said...

Sulma said...

diaba said...
Thank you so much for posting. How long did you have lyme, and did you try other treatments before the ones that worked? I'm very happy for you, thanks for giving the rest of us hope!

Take care, diana

I've been symptomatic since Jan '06. Yep I did the Rocephin bologna. And orals. And Zhang. And TOA Cats Claw. Etc, etc. The Rocephin helped some, but geez seriously the sauna and food grade H2O2 have helped far more.

As to Rocephin being "bologna", you might want to read the series of blog posts written by Sarah Olson on LymeNet Europe. She did IV Rocephin for at least 9 months (maybe longer) and it did the job. But she persisted and did not stop even when everyone else told her to stop because it was not working! They had to take out a second mortgage to pay for the medication. She says that the Rocephin saved her life. Note that she did have to use other abx as well to clear up some remnants of the disease (or maybe coinfections?).

Here is the link....it is a LONG story but worth reading!: www.lymeneteurope.org/forum/viewtopic.php?f=10&t=157

I'm on Rocephin right now. My husband and I had to make a choice: pay the mortgage or pay for the Rocephin. So we're losing our home. But I'm still hopeful that the Rocephin might make a difference. I've only been on it for 5 weeks though. I'm doing Rocephin, plus zithromax, Alinia, and Mepron. Also Cats Claw, Dr. J's NeuroAntitox, well you name it I'm taking it!

BTW, I am SO happy for you that you have had so much improvement!! That's great!

I didn't mean to suggest that rocephin might not potentially be curative for some people, but rather it ultimately did not help me. I think that anything that is harsh, expensive, and only reduces symptoms temporarily is not the way to go.

I urge you to get a prescription for Actigall/Ursodiol immediately if you are on Rocephin. You need to greatly increase bile flow to protect both your liver and your gallbladder.

nasalady said...

Sulma said...
I didn't mean to suggest that rocephin might not potentially be curative for some people, but rather it ultimately did not help me. I think that anything that is harsh, expensive, and only reduces symptoms temporarily is not the way to go.

I urge you to get a prescription for Actigall/Ursodiol immediately if you are on Rocephin. You need to greatly increase bile flow to protect both your liver and your gallbladder.

Do you feel that Actigall is still necessary for people who have already had their gallbladder removed? Mine was removed more than 15 years ago.

Definitely. You are still just as much at risk to develop intrahepatic and billiary duct obstruction from the dramatic thickening of the bile that will occur from the die-off.

nasalady - thanks for including the link to Sarah Olson's blog. It was wonderfully written, so honest and complete, and so inspiring. I sure have a different perspective since reading it. Mostly it reinstilled something I'd lost along the way - hope.

Rose

I am finding this thread very informative, too. I've copied a lot of information to my Lyme diary for further investigation and so i won't forget it. I look forward to reading the answers to your questions, +Lyme. Are you on any special diet? I've had the intestinal issues you mention and had to make changes in my diet, and step up my probiotic intake, but now I am like the people on the colon cleanse commercials. If you are not actually eliminating completely, that could be a part of the reason why you are swollen. For me, eliminating certain foods and getting my yeast infestation under control took care of the excessive gas problem. I will be interested to read what Sulma and others say about that.

Sulma, what else, if anything, did you do to get rid of the babesia and Lyme? Do you think both were still active when you went off of rx meds? It's been my plan to treat babesia and bartonella with rx meds and then try a natural approach for the Lyme. My LLMD told me at my last appointment about an almost newly available herbal approach to babesia and bartonella that enables a lesser dosage of rx meds. I see him because he is a holistic MD; I didn't want to end up with a doctor who doesn't believe in natural healing because that would not align with my own beliefs. He has told me that he didn't think there were effective natural ways to get rid of the coinfections I have so I am extremely interested in learning more about what you did for babesia both for me, and to share with him.

With regard to the IR sauna, could you tell me what kind you used and what research you have regarding its safety? I have multiple chemical sensitivities and can't afford to expose myself to toxic fumes.

Thanks so much.

Rose

I just received this excellent article on today's Google alert for lyme:

http://www.thesuburbanite.com/features/x2069641660/Steve-Green-tests-Hydro-Heal-on-himself-for-Lyme-Disease

Anyone have heat intolerance to the max? I cannot stand being in anything up above 73 degrees, our air conditioning bill is killing us....So what to do, when you know sweating/saunas can help? I do have tachycardia (95 beats per minute, used to be worse).....