*Originally published 2/25/20*
I’m back! It’s been a little while so let me give you all the full re-cap.
I was doing pretty amazing over the summer—I made it through the whole LEAF tour 2019, all 11,000 miles. I was doing great at the beginning of the fall semester at MC, but things started declining a bit in October.
After a bunch of testing, it was determined that I have pre-Crohn’s disease. To treat this, they wanted me to do antibiotics which I was super against out of fear of how it would interfere with my Lyme. So, they gave me some stomach anti-inflammatories.
Well, after two weeks on those, my symptoms were much, much worse. One day I left class early because my stomach was bloating and hurting so bad that it hurt to breathe. I called the doctor’s office and they said “there is a small group of people who have an adverse reaction to the medication and their symptoms actually get worse. That must be you.” Why on earth would we think anything would ever be easy when treating Cassidy?
So the only thing left was the antibiotics which I was still very much against. So we worked with my nutritionist and tried to heal my gut that way. We restricted my diet even more and I was still having problems. In December we came to our last resort—the elimination diet. For a week, the only thing I was allowed to eat was chicken, turkey, olive oil, salt, cumin, cinnamon, sweet potatoes and green beans. Even when doing this my stomach pain got unbearable, so I had to bite the bullet and take the antibiotics.
Throughout all of this, some of my Lyme symptoms re-emerged. I started getting random paralysis, tremors and extreme fatigue. The antibiotics made this all worse and then some.
I flew down to SC to visit my best friend, Payten, and the only way I can describe the trip was that I was a zombie. I was so nauseous from the antibiotics I barely ate anything except gluten free pretzels. I was so cold that my entire body was shaking even under layers and layers of blankets.
While I was there, my Lymie friend Abby came to visit. I am so thankful that Payten and Abby get what I am going through. We were supposed to go out, but I physically couldn’t handle that, so we stayed in. We sat and talked for hours but I was too tired to open my eyes, so we had an hour long conversation with my eyes shut. They are the best and I am so thankful for them!
After the trip, the holidays (and the 7 birthdays my family has right after) came roaring in and I just pushed through. My stomach was killing me and other symptoms kept worsening—I was feeling very lost and hopeless. I just kept thinking “how much longer do I have to go through this?” This year will mark 8 years I have been fighting this horror. 8 years.
I reached out to one of my Lymie mentors and friends, Jess—Jess is my Lyme encyclopedia. She researches everything and I trust her more than I trust the doctors. I called her to ask about the Whole30 diet, but after telling her everything going on, she recommended the Dr. Rawls Lyme diet.
Dr. Rawls is a Lyme doctor who actually had Lyme himself. He made this whole diet guide up and it is amazing. In his book, he outlines different components that make up different foods—like lecithins and oxalates. He then created a several step process in healing, and rebuilding the gut. I started the healing phase about a month and a half ago and noticed improvements within a week! It was amazing! I even started adding in some more food this past weekend!
But the diet wasn’t enough, so I told my parents I wanted to go back to my Chinese medicine doctor. I started back there about a month ago and I am already seeing improvements, as well. We are treating me for parasites with herbal supplements as my constipation issues have come back along with my rapid weight loss—I’ve lost 20 lbs. in a month.
I have been doing this new protocol for almost a month and have noticed improvements! I have also been able to slowly add in a few more foods to my diet (hello eggs, shrimp and cooked carrots!). The thing that has helped the most recently in my healing process is practicing gratefulness and meditation—but that requires it’s own blog so stay tuned for that one!
In the midst of all this, I graduated from Montgomery College with a 4.0, and started at the University of Maryland. I am LOVING it! I am already learning so much and happy to say I have chosen the right major for me—communications.
I will try to keep up with my posts and progress!
2020 is off to a great start and fingers-crossed it continues to climb upward!
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