Detours Along the Way to Heaven: Garden productions and Lyme Disease

Our landlords have been so good to us and have been sharing the veggies from their beautiful garden. We've been so lucky to have lots of tomatoes, peppers, cucumbers, herbs, collard greens, lettuce, eggplant, kale and more. It's been so wonderful to have fresh, organic garden veggies in the kitchen for snacks and meals.

As you can guess, the theme with dinner lately has been tomatoes. :P

With all the tomatoes and peppers, I was able to make and can my own salsa again this year. The making and canning process wasn't easy and took a long time as I'm still trying to figure it out (not to mention the fact that I don't have a big enough pot for water bathing the salsa :P). Doing it on a humid day in a kitchen that hit 90 degrees while pregnant isn't the smartest idea either, but I was determined to do it. There's nothing more satisfying than opening your cabinet to see the fruits of your labor. :)

Now for some news. I had seen the naturopathic doctor about a month ago who did some tests to get a general idea of what's going on. Much to my dismay, although I can't say I'm surprised, I tested positive for Lyme Disease. All of my sisters have been struggling with this disease for a little while so I have a good idea of what the road ahead looks like and I've already done a lot of research on it. After a few days of feeling pretty low about it, I've come to terms with the fact that I have Lyme and now I have to do something about it. Zenith and I are in the midst of a 54-day Rosary Novena for guidance with it since there are still a few decisions to be made regarding treatment.

One thing with Lyme, it's not cut and dry, one size fits all, and follows no rules. And despite common belief, it isn't "cured" with a short series of antibiotics and you can have it without having had the initial symptoms of a rash or fever. Lyme is a long road of strange, seemingly unrelated symptoms which is why it's so hard to pick up on. Without having to open a can of worms here, I'll just give you the short story of where we're at right now.

The doctor I'm seeing is a Lyme Literate Naturopathic Doctor (LLND) (this link is a video of her giving some general information about Lyme Disease and her work as an ND) and I first went in to see her because she has also taken a course in a genetic mutation which I wanted to look into. Both my parents have this particular mutation (MTFR A1298C) and several of my sisters have tested homozygous (have 2 copies of the genetic mutation) for it. Some of the concerns with this mutation are that your body can't process the B vitamins properly, so you're always deficient in them, especially folic acid which could lead to birth defects and even miscarriages. Taking the B vitamins in supplement form doesn't help since our bodies aren't able to methylate them. So I went to see her about the mutation and find out if there was anything I can be doing about it.

She tested me for that, and of course I came out homozygous for it so I am on some really good prenatals that methylate the B vitamins for me so I can process and absorb them. Everything in the prenatal is in its most natural form to be the most beneficial. Another test she did was for Lyme, which I didn't expect to test positive for, but a couple weeks ago I got the results that yes, I do have active Lyme Disease. It explains all of my weird symptoms and even possibly the miscarriages.

Antibiotics were not a route I wanted to take since it does quite a job on your system. But after a lot of research, prayer, and talking to this doctor (who I just love because of her broad knowledge and experience in Lyme as well as her sweet, caring approach with her patients), I'm come to the conclusion that seeking an herbal, alternative route just isn't enough when it comes to a disease this complex. In the case of someone who has come down a fresh, new Lyme, maybe it's an option. However, in my case, we believe this is a chronic condition that needs a pretty intense treatment to uproot the Lyme bacteria in my system.

Just a little background for those of you who are new to Lyme (my more experienced sisters can correct me or add to this). The bacteria is spiral shaped and can burrow from your bloodstream into any of your systems. This is why it's so tricky to detect in blood work and why it presents so many symptoms. It can attack any of the body's systems and present itself as joint pain, cognitive issues (brain fog, memory loss, etc.), digestive problems (my gluten intolerance), headaches, extreme fatigue, and can mimic other disorders like thyroid problems and autoimmune disorders. Once it has burrowed into your system, it's very hard to stir it up and kill it, which is why herbal treatments and special diets alone aren't always enough.

I've done enough research to see how long it can take to get rid of Lyme and with the possibility of passing it onto my children in utero and even through breastfeeding, it's something I want to take care of as efficiently and fast as possible. I'm on a light antibiotic now (along with a very strong probiotic) that is safe during pregnancy which will hopefully give my body a head start to treating it as well as decrease the chances of passing Lyme to the baby. We're not making any more decisions as to what the next step will be after the baby is born until we see how I do on the antibiotic. I have a follow up with the doctor at the end of October and we'll go from there.

For now, I am eating as whole food as possible in the hopes that a good diet will help my body fight Lyme and deal with the antibiotics. I am off refined sugar (I now stick with raw honey, pure maple syrup, or coconut palm sugar for sweeteners), most grains (just keeping rice and quinoa in my diet for now), caffeine, processed foods, and dairy except fermented, low lactose dairy (like yogurt, kefir, and well aged cheese). Right now my food focus is good fats (animal fats, avocado, olive oil, coconut oil), meat, lots of veggies (esp dark leafy greens), fruits and nuts.

And while I'm taking antibiotics, my goal is...

Daily smoothies! Here we have a green smoothie made with my homemade organic yogurt, kale, ginseng, and cucumber all from the garden, an apple, grated ginger, squeeze of lime, and a couple tsp of raw honey, all blended together. It's quite tasty too! I'm also looking into making my own kombucha to have daily. I'm determined not to let the antibiotics wipe all the good bacteria from my system!

Ok, enough of all this medical stuff. Pregnancy! (does that count as medical?...naw) I am 30 weeks today and have an appointment with my midwife later. Everything is going great and baby is still very active. I pointed to my ever growing belly and said "baby" to William, and now he walks around, pulling up his shirt, pointing to his tummy and saying, "baby"...lol! Oh well. I can't believe how fast my due date is approaching and I grow more and more excited to meet this little one. My restless legs have gotten better since I started taking the full dose of my prenatal with the methylated B vitamins and folic acid (folate), so hooray for that! I'm more tired, even with the extra sleep, but such is life and pregnancy.

William is becoming a little boy and is well into the toddler stage. His vocabulary continues to expand with both signing and speech and he understands a lot of what we say to him. He is learning how to pick up after himself and is starting to put his toys back when prompted. He loves his books and now signs and says "book" when he wants them from the shelf. He's great about signing "help" when he needs something or is frustrated with something not working.

Daddy reads him a bible story every night after the rosary. He's been doing a great job staying on the mat we lay out and flipping through his books while we say the rosary. We tell him "time to say the Rosary, William" and he runs to the statue of Our Lady where his rosary is and reaches for it. Once we put the mat down and give him his religious books and rosary, he hops onto it and sits down. We're still working on getting him to stay sitting through the whole thing without having to be told to sit back down, but at 18 months, I think he's doing pretty good. He's just such a good natured little tyke.