The real significance of this trip is far greater than the pictures show.
I am sharing this because it is so huge. It is very exciting and we tend to share a lot more than just wine making, but there has to be one person on here, or a family member or friend, that will benefit from this story.
I have alluded to some things in my posts, not being able to eat beef, and I did a whole thread on chemicals in wine, but I have glossed over much of my reality. When I was 27 I got the dreaded tick bite. I can only pin point that time frame by tracking symptoms, I never noticed the bite. I got neurological issues first, Migraines, involuntary movements and muscle twitches, stabbing pains in my muscles, and as the years progressed I got more and more random symptoms.
I saw a few dr's and every test came back clear. I was never given a hint that there could be anything other than random genetic traits that caused my inconvenient little issues. Moving forward 10 years with little symptom after little symptom I was completely unable to function. I was in constant pain, I had physical reactions to everything. I couldn't wear deodorant, I would get a rash. Gas fumes, or any chemical, would give me a migraine. I got dizzy spells. One day I was driving down the main road in town and the world turned upside down. I had no bearing on anything. I was luckily rolling through a light as it turned green and just kept it straight until it passed.
After that I wouldn't drive.
At my worst I was very angry and confused. I would completely lose words, simple things like the name of that thing out there... The building? Yes, thank you! I would be talking about Edmonton and say Vancouver, and then during a conversation my mind would completely wipe and I would have no idea what we were talking about.
I found a Dr. in town and wrote down everything I could think of, when this started or that. He laughed and asked why I wrote it all out. Well, I couldn't remember or articulate my point. I got some blood work done, and my liver levels were through the roof. His professional advice. Stop drinking. Nothing more. I asked to see a rheumatologist because fibromyalgia was the only thing I could find that checked any of the boxes I was experiencing.
I was diagnosed with fibromyalgia and then ignored by the medical system, even thought the rheumatologist was holding two positive Lyme tests. He said he didn't know what they meant. I was offered a pamphlet to a support group because there is no known cause or treatment.
We saw a post of an acquaintance who was dealing with Lyme on Facebook around the time of the first visit to the Dr. That got me on track. I found a Lyme literate naturopath and got an appointment. The only MD I could find was a 6 month wait. We sent blood samples off to Germany and it came back positive for Lyme. I went back to the Dr. and got a lyme test thinking being in that system I would get more support. It came back positive, but was ruled abnormal/negative because Lyme is not considered to be prevalent in Alberta. I was in BC when I got bit, but I only include this to demonstrate how hard it was to identify the cause. Once I knew it was Lyme, I pretty well spent the next year on the couch doing treatment protocols of some sort and looking for the next miracle cure. The next two years were very slow increases in function and this April will be 2 years since I moved to Edmonton for a month to do ozone treatment. When I came home I was at 90%.
We were on year 10 of our 3 year plan to put in a house and decided to fast track it. Prices were skyrocketing. I went back to my regular self, working long hard days. Clearing trees, moving dirt, digging well and power trenches, rerouting septic lines, etc etc. For the last 16 months I have been getting more and more symptoms back, and I have been completely unable to figure it out. 6 months ago I went on the auto immune diet, which eliminates the foods most common for upsetting the immune system. As inflammation drops you are supposed to add food back in. I started reacting to more and more things instead of getting less sensitive.
I decided to retest and see where I was, if Lyme had not been eliminated, or if I had missed co-infections. About a week later I found DNRS. I saw a success story of a young man that had Lyme. He was unable to walk or function at all. He managed to push the infection back, but like me he had lingering issues he couldn't move past. DNRS is a neural retraining process that uses the principles of neuroplasticity to rewire the neural pathways in the brain.
It turns out that with at least a 15 year infection my body locked itself in fight or flight mode. My brain had 'written' so many associated pathways with illness that although the infection was removed or reduced it still associated the threat to those items. This included my behaviours as well, as the symptoms really piled on while I was developing my property and building a business. Long hours and stress piled on an already floundering system. As I continued to work hard on the house I began to trigger old pathways and reactivate the stress response of the brain.
Since starting DNRS on Dec. 5th I have eliminated most of the food issues. My energy levels are up. If I get a migraine it is minor and short lived where before they would keep me in bed all day, and bad ones have made me consider a trip to the ER.
So obviously for me this is great. If you are limited by food restrictions you can't travel, and here I am only 2 months later. But, this is not just a Lyme thing. The pandemic was so overwhelming with the isolation and restrictions, for some people that was enough to set this off. They call it long haul covid. Chronic fatigue, fibromyalgia, IBS, Chrones disease, mold illness, balance, anxiety disorders, depression, chemical sensitivities, electromagnetic sensitivities, and food allergies are a few off the top of my head. The list is long. My understanding is that celiac disease is one of the mildest forms of a malladaptive stress response. So maybe for someone you know the answer is with the brain, and not the body.
In a fight or flight state the body moves resources from the digestive system and changes body chemistry to move focus away from joy and excitement to survival. Anything digestion or mood related can be a result of a chronic stress response. All the way to serious and debilitating symptoms. Disease/infection doesn't create a symptom, the brain creates a reaction to a perceived threat. A fever for example, the bug or virus doesn't cause the fever. The body detects a threat and the brain sends out signals to heat the body up to a temperature high enough to ward of the threat. The pain and misery is the stress reaction, the body's attempt to heal itself.
So to make a long story short, here I am in Mexico. No longer restricted by my capabilities, we decided to celebrate the victory and freedom by taking this trip.
Hopefully someone reading this is thinking that this could be my answer. For the first time in years I am fully confident that I am on my way to 100% recovery.
I am sharing this because it is so huge. It is very exciting and we tend to share a lot more than just wine making, but there has to be one person on here, or a family member or friend, that will benefit from this story.
I have alluded to some things in my posts, not being able to eat beef, and I did a whole thread on chemicals in wine, but I have glossed over much of my reality. When I was 27 I got the dreaded tick bite. I can only pin point that time frame by tracking symptoms, I never noticed the bite. I got neurological issues first, Migraines, involuntary movements and muscle twitches, stabbing pains in my muscles, and as the years progressed I got more and more random symptoms.
I saw a few dr's and every test came back clear. I was never given a hint that there could be anything other than random genetic traits that caused my inconvenient little issues. Moving forward 10 years with little symptom after little symptom I was completely unable to function. I was in constant pain, I had physical reactions to everything. I couldn't wear deodorant, I would get a rash. Gas fumes, or any chemical, would give me a migraine. I got dizzy spells. One day I was driving down the main road in town and the world turned upside down. I had no bearing on anything. I was luckily rolling through a light as it turned green and just kept it straight until it passed.
After that I wouldn't drive.
At my worst I was very angry and confused. I would completely lose words, simple things like the name of that thing out there... The building? Yes, thank you! I would be talking about Edmonton and say Vancouver, and then during a conversation my mind would completely wipe and I would have no idea what we were talking about.
I found a Dr. in town and wrote down everything I could think of, when this started or that. He laughed and asked why I wrote it all out. Well, I couldn't remember or articulate my point. I got some blood work done, and my liver levels were through the roof. His professional advice. Stop drinking. Nothing more. I asked to see a rheumatologist because fibromyalgia was the only thing I could find that checked any of the boxes I was experiencing.
I was diagnosed with fibromyalgia and then ignored by the medical system, even thought the rheumatologist was holding two positive Lyme tests. He said he didn't know what they meant. I was offered a pamphlet to a support group because there is no known cause or treatment.
We saw a post of an acquaintance who was dealing with Lyme on Facebook around the time of the first visit to the Dr. That got me on track. I found a Lyme literate naturopath and got an appointment. The only MD I could find was a 6 month wait. We sent blood samples off to Germany and it came back positive for Lyme. I went back to the Dr. and got a lyme test thinking being in that system I would get more support. It came back positive, but was ruled abnormal/negative because Lyme is not considered to be prevalent in Alberta. I was in BC when I got bit, but I only include this to demonstrate how hard it was to identify the cause. Once I knew it was Lyme, I pretty well spent the next year on the couch doing treatment protocols of some sort and looking for the next miracle cure. The next two years were very slow increases in function and this April will be 2 years since I moved to Edmonton for a month to do ozone treatment. When I came home I was at 90%.
We were on year 10 of our 3 year plan to put in a house and decided to fast track it. Prices were skyrocketing. I went back to my regular self, working long hard days. Clearing trees, moving dirt, digging well and power trenches, rerouting septic lines, etc etc. For the last 16 months I have been getting more and more symptoms back, and I have been completely unable to figure it out. 6 months ago I went on the auto immune diet, which eliminates the foods most common for upsetting the immune system. As inflammation drops you are supposed to add food back in. I started reacting to more and more things instead of getting less sensitive.
I decided to retest and see where I was, if Lyme had not been eliminated, or if I had missed co-infections. About a week later I found DNRS. I saw a success story of a young man that had Lyme. He was unable to walk or function at all. He managed to push the infection back, but like me he had lingering issues he couldn't move past. DNRS is a neural retraining process that uses the principles of neuroplasticity to rewire the neural pathways in the brain.
It turns out that with at least a 15 year infection my body locked itself in fight or flight mode. My brain had 'written' so many associated pathways with illness that although the infection was removed or reduced it still associated the threat to those items. This included my behaviours as well, as the symptoms really piled on while I was developing my property and building a business. Long hours and stress piled on an already floundering system. As I continued to work hard on the house I began to trigger old pathways and reactivate the stress response of the brain.
Since starting DNRS on Dec. 5th I have eliminated most of the food issues. My energy levels are up. If I get a migraine it is minor and short lived where before they would keep me in bed all day, and bad ones have made me consider a trip to the ER.
So obviously for me this is great. If you are limited by food restrictions you can't travel, and here I am only 2 months later. But, this is not just a Lyme thing. The pandemic was so overwhelming with the isolation and restrictions, for some people that was enough to set this off. They call it long haul covid. Chronic fatigue, fibromyalgia, IBS, Chrones disease, mold illness, balance, anxiety disorders, depression, chemical sensitivities, electromagnetic sensitivities, and food allergies are a few off the top of my head. The list is long. My understanding is that celiac disease is one of the mildest forms of a malladaptive stress response. So maybe for someone you know the answer is with the brain, and not the body.
In a fight or flight state the body moves resources from the digestive system and changes body chemistry to move focus away from joy and excitement to survival. Anything digestion or mood related can be a result of a chronic stress response. All the way to serious and debilitating symptoms. Disease/infection doesn't create a symptom, the brain creates a reaction to a perceived threat. A fever for example, the bug or virus doesn't cause the fever. The body detects a threat and the brain sends out signals to heat the body up to a temperature high enough to ward of the threat. The pain and misery is the stress reaction, the body's attempt to heal itself.
So to make a long story short, here I am in Mexico. No longer restricted by my capabilities, we decided to celebrate the victory and freedom by taking this trip.
Hopefully someone reading this is thinking that this could be my answer. For the first time in years I am fully confident that I am on my way to 100% recovery.
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