Feeling disappointment with the course of my journey
It’s been a while and much has happened since I last posted as a very unhappy Lymie, without a treatment plan, and feeling rather abandoned by an LLMD.
Since things were not going well with my LLMD, I decided to do more research into the Cowden Protocol. I heard a lot of great things about it and found out that a naturopathic doctor in the Northern Dallas area (who works very closely with Dr. Cowden) had successfully treated many patients using this more natural approach.
Although my original appointment was for the beginning of this year, Divine Intervention enabled me to see the naturopathic doctor in November, 2011. The doctor spent about three hours with me, going over my history, assessing my current health situation with a Zyto machine, and even gave me a detox session. He made several recommendations using the Cowden Protocol.
A transition from antibiotics to Cowden Protocol
He felt like I needed to transition off my antibiotics before beginning antimicrobials, such as Samento and Cumanda that specifically address Lyme and its co-infections. He recommended that I begin using herbs for detoxing in order to help with the herxing that I was still experiencing from the antibiotics.
He also made several other recommendations to help with the detoxing process such as dry skin brushing and suggested that I consider Earthing (www.earthing.com) in order to help with the inflammation caused by Lyme.
The Cowden Protocol begins for me
My initial meeting with this doctor and his staff was a very positive one. He spent time answering my questions and made me feel like there was hope in getting past this illness. He did not try to pressure me into following the Cowden Protocol and acknowledged that the antibiotics helped to improve my condition.
At the end of November, I decided to begin the Cowden Protocol and discontinue taking the antibiotics. I have to admit that I was very nervous doing this, afraid that all my symptoms would return and that all this herbal stuff was just a bunch of bunk.
I seem to feel much better than before
Although I’m only about six weeks into it, I have to say that I seem to be doing okay. I have had some herxes during this time where old symptoms returned and current ones worsen, but after a few days and an increase in the detox herbs, the herxes go away.
Taking these herbs also requires quite a bit of self-discipline. My doctor gave me a very thorough checklist to help me to remember when to take the herbs (i.e. before meals, after meals, on Mondays and Thursdays only, etc.) I consider myself to be really good at keeping track of all my meds and supplements, but it took me a couple of weeks before I could put the checklist away and not worry that I accidentally took something that I wasn’t suppose to. This could be a serious issue for Lymies who have brain fog and can barely remember the day of the week or what city they live in!
It looks like I’m on my healing process
Despite the initial hiccups in starting the Cowden Protocol, I remain hopeful that this more natural approach to treating Lyme will help me get past all of this. I do feel better now that I don’t have all the GI issues that I had with the antibiotics, and also feel more at peace knowing that I am not doing any long term damage to my liver!
In the coming weeks, I will post more about how I’m doing with the Cowden Protocol and some of the other things that I will try to help my healing process along. I hope you’ll check-in and share your experiences on what has and has not worked for you. Until then, may God bless you and give you His peace, knowing that you are not alone in this journey.