Help Pam get medical help for Neuroborrelliosis.

I used to have an organic herb farm and fitness business. I taught Pilates, yoga and dance. I rode bikes, kayaked, hiked and was almost always outdoors. About 20 years ago, I started feeling bad - fatigue, headache, body aches. My immune system was crashing, so I started getting shingles. A lot. Over the last 20 years I've seen over 20 doctors. Some tried to help, but ended up misdiagnosing and treating me for a plethora of ailments, and some essentially told me I was crazy and that it was all in my head. None offered to test me for Lyme disease, even though I had all the classic symptoms.

By then I had lost my fitness business, my certified organic farm and most of my friends because I was just too tired to interact and self-conscious about what my life had become. Then the neurological symptoms started - nerve pain (stabbing, stinging, aching) all over the right side of my body and involuntary movement (twitching, jerking of legs and feet). My mental cognition declined and my short term memory was zapped. In many ways, I was not myself. Then came the seizures.

Finally, about 5 years ago, I was diagnosed with Lyme disease. After a grueling battery of tests, I was also diagnosed with axonal motor and sensory neuropathy along with focal seizures - a form of Lyme disease called Lyme neuroborreliosis (LNB) in which the Lyme bacteria crosses the blood/brain barrier and attacks your nervous system.

These issues require me to be on a daily dosage of opioid painkillers, muscle relaxants and anti-seizure medication in addition to a strict herbal/supplemental regime and very austere diet. I had been in the emergency room multiple times over the years with an allergy response, near anaphylactic shock, but no one could tell me what was wrong. Finally, I found an allergist who diagnosed me with an Alpha Gal allergy to mammals, another gift from the tick. He said it's as dangerous as a shellfish or peanut allergy and gave me two epi pens.

I’ve been through 2 rounds of antibiotics which left me feeling much better for a few months, but then the symptoms returned. Then the disease attacked my gums. I have never had a cavity and have impeccable dental hygiene. Nevertheless, Lyme hides in biofilms, like the plaque in your mouth. I ended up having five surgeries in my mouth and losing a tooth from gum infection. I had to wait over a year before they would let me have a bridge, as my immune system would not allow an implant.

There are days I can’t get out of bed or off the couch. I still get shingles anytime I overdo it, eat something I shouldn’t, drink alcohol, don’t get enough sleep, am in the sun too long or am under extra stress. There have been some very dark years, times I don’t want to live. Having to be a burden to my family financially is the worst of all. I used to be a powerful family matriarch and support to my family, taking on my four cousins to live with me when they became homeless. I used to be strong, larger than life. Now, simply lifting my three-year-old grandson can cause soreness in my neck shoulders, and back for days, because my muscles have atrophied and our virtually nonexistent. I'm reduced to a small, withering shadow of myself, living with constant pain, fatigue and inflammation. That’s common with Lyme.

Reported cases of Lyme have quadrupled since 1990. The CDC says that every year 500,000 people get Lyme disease, and that tick bite is often full of several other co-infections (which my Lyme doctor says I have). Most people get over Lyme quickly, but there are 10-20% who end up with a chronic, persistent form that can leave you debilitated. Many can no longer work or function in their daily life. I won that lottery. In one way I'm lucky. Lyme testing is extremely unreliable with a tragic 50% false negative result. I tested positive on both tests.

The medical establishment doesn't know what to do with chronic Lyme sufferers, so they are completely dismissive. In internal memos, the board who set the guidelines for the disease calls us "Lyme Loonies". The infectious disease doctor confirmed my PTLD (Post Treatment Lyme Disease), then added "I'm sorry, there's nothing we can do for you. There are doctors who say they can, but they're just quacks." I wanted to ask him what he would do, if he couldn't crawl out of bed to see his patients every day. He then added "I know you were probably expecting more". But, I wasn't. I've done the research and knew that patients with persistent Lyme are often dismissed by the medical industry, causing them to seek treatments elsewhere that are not covered under insurance. We are often misdiagnosed and gaslighted.

I saw the infectious disease doctor 5 years ago and have been seeking relief since. It’s often said that Lyme doesn’t kill you, it just makes you wish you were dead. But, that’s not true either. Once Lyme attacks your heart, a form called "Lyme Carditis" can kill you very quickly. There is a high incidence of suicide in long-term Lyme sufferers and it heightens the risk of mental disorders. I have now also been diagnosed with major depressive disorder, generalized anxiety disorder and PTSD from the medical mistreatment and gaslighting. They continue to try to refer me to a psychiatrist and treat me with psych drugs. I'm not doing that. My present clinic fired me as a patient for this choice. The mental health symptoms are from the Lyme. So instead, I choose to treat the cause and not the symptoms. I'm on too many drugs already.

My present Lyme doctor says I will be on a perpetual detox with antimicrobial herbs and supplements, living a sort of half-life for the rest of my life. The problem with the detox is that your body is always experience a toxin dump called a Herxheimer response, from killing off the Lyme spirochetes. This causes fever, chills, myalgia, headache, gastro issues, hypotension, mood changes and just general irritability. So, you feel really sick on top of already feeling crappy.

That doesn’t work for me. So, I’m asking for your help to visit the Biologix Center in Franklin, Tennessee. They are having phenomenal results curing Lyme with phages, successfully eliminating Lyme bacteria in 92% of patients. There is no Herxheimer response to the phages. There is no negative affect on the microbiome, as with antibiotics. The phages cross the blood/brain barrier and break through the biofilms in which Lyme hides, eliminating the debilitating Lyme neuroborreliosis. This treatment is incredibly affordable and has now been approved by the FDA for compassionate use. That means for people like me who have tried everything else. https://www.cureus.com/articles/76183-induced-native-phage-therapy-for-the-treatment-of-lyme-disease-and-relapsing-fever-a-retrospective-review-of-first-14-months-in-one-clinic#!/

Micro-phage treatment has been around for over 100 years. It was in use successfully for bacterial infections back when antibiotics were discovered in the 1920's. However, antibiotics were easier to monetize and therefore, more profitable for the pharmaceutical industry, if not the more efficient way to battle bacteria. Now, with the alarming rate of antibiotic-resistant super bugs, phage research is on the rise. "Phages, formally known as bacteriophages, are viruses that solely kill and selectively target bacteria. They are the most common biological entities in nature, and have been shown to effectively fight and destroy multi-drug resistant bacteria. Namely, when all antibiotics fail, phages still succeed in killing the bacteria and may save a life from an infection." From UC SanDiego School of medicine.

It mortifies me to have to ask for help and is forthright, humiliating. I deliberated, long and hard before deciding to do this. But, I can't live like this anymore. I am exceedingly grateful for your consideration. I want to return to myself and to the life I know I can live, full of energy, hope and able to contribute to the world again, instead of asking for help. I’m writing a screenplay to dramatize the Lyme experience, because that is at least one thing I can do, in hopes that it will bring the debilitating struggle of Lyme sufferers into the mainstream and change their treatment by the medical establishment. I’m angry at what millions of us are having to go through on a daily basis and I want to do something to change it. I need to do something!

Additionally horrifying to me is living out loud in the form of social media. I'm humiliated that at 60 years old, this is the status of my life. But, as a donor to this cause, you deserve to see and know what Lyme does to ones life. So, I've set up a YouTube channel and will be speaking further about Lyme and sharing my progress with the clinic. https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCZjV1nfAwrsINmOEmVdy7Fw

The requested funds will pay for my treatment at the clinic, travel and lodging. I know there are others much worse off than me and that factored heavily in my decision to do this and my heart goes out to them. However, after much deliberation, my desperation was the determining factor. So, if my story speaks to you. I am asking for help.

From the bottom of my heart, I thank you for your consideration!