Lyme Disease: 10+ Days With No Practice

Remember when I was feeling tingling legs a week or so ago and how I blamed it on iron deficiency? It was  good guess, but when the next morning, right after that post, I collapsed at 8 in the morning and could not move for the rest of the day out of a deep and strong fatigue James suggested we visit the doctor the next morning. We did.

Blood tests were done together with all routine checks and: Nothing!

My main doctor, a woman who is very inclined towards alternative medicine called me and talked to me.  The test for Lymme (an epidemic in the area of the Hudson River where I live) had come negative.  She asked me question after question, she listened. I am blessed to have her and her team (including the original doctor that did the tests) as my doctors.

My symptoms are:

• extreme fatigue (cannot do anything after 8 AM for pretty much the whole rest of the day). The fatigue I am talking about is not just being tired, it is one where the body gives up and moving it is an enterprise
• Joint pain
• A feeling as if the muscles were sucking into my bones on my right arm and leg (which I confused with restless leg syndrome)
• Shortness of breath
• Heart palpitations
• Confusion
• Forgetting things
• Depression and bursts of crying

I did not get the usual 'bulls eye' target that people get when they are beaten by a tick, which is what causes the disease.  Ticks live in deers and they jump and latch onto people's legs, hair, arms.  If one finds such a thing in ones own body, it must  be removed carefully as it is not the tick but the venom that it releases into the blood stream that causes the disease.

Pictures are a bit too graphic, so a drawing may go easier on the eye

Because my blood test came so outstanding (I am probably the healthiest person I know), the doctor guessed that the symptoms are indicative of Lyme for two reasons 1) the epidemic proportions in this area and 2) It is unlikely to appear in blood tests up until 6 weeks from the time it was contracted.

And so she put me in antibiotics and there I am.  Still incapable of moving much, but very HAPPY that it is being treated earlier.  If the disease is not treated, meaning if people ignore the fatigue or the bulls-eye, it can cause paralysis, attack the nervous system, attack the heart and even cause death.

Yesterday, during my 'night-time-hour' window of relative energy I searched for "yoga and Lyme".

I can tell you the furthest thing from my mind right now is to get on the mat. I tried, I collapsed.  I tried again, it made things worst.  Pranayama, which was a suggestion from James feels yucky because of the shortness of breath, but I suppose it could help.

My fear with asana is that there is a poison within the body and doing asana could contribute to expand it throughout.  I could be wrong, so I went to the page of Dr. Migdow, a Kripalu doctor who is also a yogi, this is what he had to say:

Asana and Lyme:

Yoga and pranamaya can also be a wonderful support in recovering from Lyme disease, energizing and relaxing the body so that the immune system can work more effectively Postures like Cobra, Pigeon, Boat, Bow and Fish expose and open the chest, stimulating the thymus gland which aids in immune function.

Pranayama and Lyme:

Practicing 80 to 100 repetitions of kapalbhati every two or three hours brings more oxygen to the brain, compensating for decreased blood flow; alternative nostril kapalabhati integrates the two hemispheres of the rain. Within a week of practicing kapalabhati several times daily, many people feel much clearer mentally and more able to concentrate.

The key word in Dr Migdow's recommendations is "recovering". I mean, if only I could sit down!

I feel that this might be possible as the antibiotics begin to work and I regain some energy.  On the first day for example I think I would have vomited if I tried kapalabhati, or even a modest cobra pose.  Right now I feel the collapse coming along and sitting for pranayama feels sickening.  I may have to wait one more day or two, or three.  I have made peace with patience and it does not feel too bad, I am loving the respect and care I am giving my body.  I trust that good things will come out of it.

I haven not stopped taking any of the other supplements, which means that by the time I started on antibiotics my body and immune system was strong.  I continue to take:

• Liquid vitamin B (for better absorption)
• Maca a powder that comes from a Peruvian plant rich in iron
• Vitamin D (my tests indicated I was low on it)
• Vitamin C
• Lots of water
• Calcium and Magnesium
• Centrum Women (a full vitamin complex)
• Probiotics
• Antibiotics
• Huge doses of laughter from James.  What would I do without him?

There are lots of gifts that are coming out of all this too, of course and I will be writing about it.  

Last night I dreamed that I went to a new yoga studio where John was teaching Ashtanga and I was oh so ready to practice. Only thing, I did not have a mat, and nobody wanted to share!.  That is how much I miss it.  Do me a favor please, enjoy your practice for me! I will feel it.

The full article from Doctor Midgow here.