Newbie on this forum, but have been diligently researching Hansa since first running across it somewhere (in all my Lyme research wanderings!!!)!! I wanted to share what I wrote in a note on FB to my friends about our first experience directly with the clinic.
First a quick introduction! My 17 yo daughter is the person in my family that has Lyme. All of her life she has been "different" from my other children. Rages, ADD, OCD, sugar cravings. . . Then came the physical symptoms--severe headache, GI problems, leg and muscle pain. Of course, the requisite years of doctors, tests, numerous CT scans (shudder!!), PT, etc, etc, etc.--aren't you all familiar with this??!!!! She was finally diagnosed this winter with chronic Lyme--perhaps, and maybe, most likely--congenital Lyme?? (I also tested positive, but have no symptoms) She has had to withdraw from school and has spent the most part of the past 9 months on the couch.
She has been treated with on and off again antibiotics--never can quite get up to a full dose, as she herx's terribly if we increase dose too fast. Then, about 8 weeks ago, had an appendectomy and WOW--that wreaked havoc on her body, which she is just now starting to come out of. We have been seeing a LLMD in Missouri.
Of course, our entire lives have been turned upside down. But the silver linings and God's hand is evident. Our family has drawn closer together. My daughter is happy to know that she (in her words) is "not a bad kid after all" (that broke my heart to think she has lived all these years thinking she was "bad"!!) We have lost friends and gained new ones, and have actually had angels on earth reach out to us! And finding this forum, along with a couple others, has been so very therapeutic!!! THANK YOU for that!! (What in the world did people do before the internet!! LOL)
Anyway, this is already probably too long, but here is our encounter with Hansa!! And, by the way. . . . now I know that the "blogger" who posted about Hansa, who pointed us in that direction, was none other than your "famous" member here --Gary!!! I hope he sees this as I am one of the MANY who have attempted to contact him recently!!! Thank you to his wife, whose mailbox was NOT full and actually sent a short message back to me, which also was a determining factor in our visit there!!!!
Here is the note:
Just wanted to write a little note about this place in Wichita, Kansas. I cannot remember where I have heard of it, in all of my researching and looking at all things "Lyme." But, somewhere, I stumbled across a site describing this clinic. It is called "The Hansa Center for Optimum Health" and is run by 2 doctors, Dr. David Jernigan and Dr. David Jowdy (funny--both drs. are "D.J.'s!!!!"). I researched it a bit, and also read a blog by a former patient that detailed each day of his 2 week stay there. The blog was amazing and the guy that wrote it experienced such a huge improvement in his health from the very first day there. The man that wrote the blog was literally on a "last ditch" attempt to improve his health. I attempted to contact the blogger before we left for our Missouri doctor appointment as it has been almost 2 years since he was at the center and I wanted to know if he was still enjoying good health. I finally heard back from his wife actually WHILE we were in Missouri--she said it was the best thing they had ever done and she still believed in their treatments 100%.
SOOOOO, the timing was perfect for just stopping by on our way home from our Lyme doctor visit, we were driving right through Wichita anyway, and the clinic was not far from our route. We stopped by, and everyone was so friendly, showed us around the clinic and bit, and as we were asking questions, the receptionist thought the doctors could better answer them. So we were ushered into a treatment room, BOTH doctors were there and SAT AND TALKED TO US FOR AT LEAST HALF AN HOUR!!!! Dr. Jernigan took one look at Caity and proceeded to tell her all of her symptoms. She was amazed (me, not so much, as I am sure that Lyme patients have many common symptoms. . . ). I WAS amazed however, that they took the time to talk to us, answer questions, and as they told us--it must have been a GOD-thing as they NEVER get to actually sit and visit with people who "just stop by" and it was amazing that they were BOTH available together to sit and talk to us. They told us about the clinic, their treatments and treatment philosophy and it MAKES SO MUCH SENSE!!!
In a nutshell, as much as I can simplify it, basically, instead of killing the spirochetes, they make the BODY an inhospitable place for them to live. In other words, we all carry around pathogenic microorganisms. But some of us are sick, and some of us are not. Some bodies are great places for the critters to grow and thrive. So instead of trying to just kill the bugs--and therefore, create other problems (toxic antibiotics, decreased immunity, destroyed liver, etc.), they try to get the body to be able to kill the bugs itself. Not just increase the body's immunity, but actually help the body to create energy frequencies in itself that the bacteria cannot live and grow in.
I may not have descibed this perfectly. And I have been a believer in natural medicine all along--but trying to let Caity have a say in which way to go as far as treatment. And there is a lot of positive press about long-term antibiotics in treating Lyme. It seems that Lyme treatment camps are pretty evenly divided. But this place takes a little different twist and it SOUNDS SO LOGICAL!!!!! The BEST thing is: CAITY IS SO ONBOARD WITH THIS!!!!!! And very excited! And THAT IS HUGE!!!!!
So, we are praying for God's direction. It helps that the clinic is Christian-based. I believe that God's hand was involved with us finding the clinic, stumbling across the blog, and being able to actually drive through the city where the clinic is located. And that we met the doctors, got to sit and talk with them and that Caity herself wants to do this. ALL of this appears to be God-orchestrated to us. At the same time, we do not want to ASSUME that, but will continue to pray about the decision to go here. It COSTS A LOT OF MONEY!!!!!! But, how much is your child's health worth. . . . Umm, yeah. . . . EVERYTHING!!!!!!