I stressed out about how to pack for this trip for two weeks before we left.  Who knows what to bring for a one month stay at an out-patient clinic while getting treated for Lyme Disease? I surely didn’t.  I’ve also come to learn even though I brought one bag… I overpacked.  We arrived in Switzerland on December 15^th we had two days to catch up on sleep before I had my assessment at Paracelsus on the 18^th and 19^th.  We were fortunate to be able to do it this way as often international patients do their assessment the first week and then continue straight into treatment.

Stephen has a lot of family here so we decided the most practical in terms of my treatment would be to do the assessment first, give it the two weeks for results to come back, and be fortunate enough to spend the Holidays with family.  It was a great Christmas and overall two weeks of a break from life.  We got to celebrate our 15^th anniversary here together … Switzerland is also where Stephen proposed and so we went back to Montreax where he popped the question making me the luckiest girl ever. It was a great two weeks with lots of time spent with family. I managed to catch a cold over Christmas which wasn’t fun, BUT it is always said that in the Lyme Life that a cold is a good thing as the symptoms mean our body is recognizing and producing the symptoms of a cold.  So, I suppose it was another blessing.  Since being bitten in 2014 I can only recall three colds (including this one) and most symptoms only last a day or two. This time I had to put up with the sniffles for about four or five days.

I’ve written more summarizing assessment techniques and therapies used at Paracelsus in an older blog post, you can check that out here.  The information in that post came from the book, “The Swiss Secret to Optimal Health” and in this blog I’ll be outlining the actual assessments that took place for me in my first two days.

Assessment Day One

We met with my first doctor, who is actually leaving in another month so she won’t be available to me after I leave Paracelsus if there are any questions or concerns.  After talking with her the impression was that we needed to address three things:

1) pain

2) removing heavy metals and toxins, and

3) rebuilding my immune system.

I did a heart rhythm test over 10 minutes which consisted of my laying on my back with a heart monitor on, nothing invasive.  It watches how your body regulates the heart rate over the 10 minutes to get an idea of how your body regulates your heart to beat when you are at rest. I also had an EKG as prep work to see if I was safe to do hyperthermia treatments once I started in January.  In terms of labs: there were a lot… they took 11 vials of blood, two urine samples, a stool and saliva sample.  They tested for heavy metals – and to do that they have to first inject sulfur, and it tastes like rotten eggs for half a minute. Pretty gross.

Next I saw a dentist who did both a panoramic and 3D xray. He found issues in all four areas where my wisdom teeth had been, mostly on the bottom sides.  We’re waiting to get a quote to have these issues fixed so that we can best determine what the next month will look like and what we have to sacrifice and what we will make a priority in terms of treatments and fixing these dental issues. I’ve never posted too much about cavitations and how they can make Lyme and recovering from it worse…. This is something that if you want to know more about you can google, as I don’t expect that I’ll be making a specific blog post about this.

After lunch I had a therapy session, the therapist felt cupping and a hot pack with yarrow would be helpful.

The day finished with ozone and an infusion. For ozone they draw out 100mL of my blood, mix it with ozone as well as a homeopathic infusion for Lyme and then it is infused back in.  I will likely explain ozone a bit more technically later on but it works against viruses, fungus and bacteria – changing blood flow, temporarily causing the cells to become enlarged – helping the body to receive more oxygen.  All of the body’s healing processes (and daily living) need oxygen. The next day my second doctor felt that one of my issues was inflammation in my brain, leading to less oxygen to it and the rest of my body. Ozone helps activate cells, detoxify them, strengthen the immune system, improve circulation and fight infection.

Overall with infusions I had B vitamins, vitamin C and 6 homeopathic infusions that are supposed to activate my immune system, work as an anti-inflammatory, activate the intestinal immune system, support lymph transport and connective tissues, and an anti-viral plus anti-bacterial to assist in eliminating bacteria.

Assessment Day Two

Today I did thermography, which was measuring the temperature on 120-some points on my skin twice. Once at room temperature and then again after sitting in the room for 10 minutes without clothes on.  And yes, it was strange. I stripped down to my undies while a lady did all the temperature readings and then I sat on a stool for 10 minutes until she came back and did it again.

I did oxy-vein therapy, which is when oxygen is infused as gas direct into the blood stream.  This was only for 10 minutes at 1mL per minute. If I continue to tolerate it without heaviness in my chest, cough or chest pain it will get increased (I believe I’ll be doing this every second day) to reach 26mL over 26 minutes.  It helps with circulation, tinnitus (ringing in the ears), heart disturbances and immune regulation.

An infusion with procaine was also done.  I’ll have it injected into various pain points in my body and scar tissues (even my tonsils!) in January but it is also infused.   It helps reduce acidity in the body. An overly acidic body isn’t a healthy body.  It helps increase oxygen flow by dilating the blood vessels, it can reduce pain and inflammation as well as help balance out the nervous system.

I had magnetic field therapy over my liver (it will alternate between my liver and head in January).  This is a machine with pulsating magnetic fields. Our body’s cells are charged (with both positive and negative poles just like magnets).  The magnetic field goes into the body as well as each cell. The ions in the cells move, improving cell oxygenation and ultimately the cell’s ability to work.  It can help with arthritis, muscles and tendons, improve wound healing, circulation, pain, tumors and its used in the after care of operations and tooth extractions.

We did Interval-Hypoxia-Training.  This was essentially a tight fitting oxygen mask. It lasted an hour and would alternate between providing more and less oxygen.  This is the same idea as when you hear of athletes training at high altitudes, ultimately training the body’s cells to take in more oxygen (for athletes it results in better performance).  For my purposes (which unfortunately isn’t running a half marathon) it activates cells, increases their oxygen content and improves blood flow through organs and muscles. I’ll do this 2-3 times per week.

Magnetic induction was next.  It is a machine that uses high frequency alternating currents. The condenser is loaded with 35 kV and unloaded 1.5-to-8 times per second.  It comes out through insulated tubing and into a coil that sits behind the kidneys.  It works on the same idea as the magnetic field therapy… the cells in the body become stabilized and the healthy cells will get “even healthier”.  The cells that aren’t healthy will either be activated and start to regenerate into healthier cells or if they’re really lame then they will be recognized as useless by the body and the body will get rid of them.

Last I went back to dental.  We were given the quote for the cleaning of all 4 cavitations (about $4600 CHF, so roughly $5500 CAD) and being something that I was really hoping to have done. For a very long time, before even knowing that cavitations could be an issue I felt that I had something wrong with my jaw.  We decided to go forward with it and met with the dentist again, which we both thought was a further consult.

I sat in the dentists’ chair and they reclined it, he picked up the big needle and said “I’ll do some injections” – my eyes got wide because we didn’t realize that the surgery was going to happen then and there.  It was best this way because I really don’t like having dental work done so this didn’t give me time to get worked up.

The right side, top and bottom were done. They removed another 3 vials of blood and put it in a centrifuge (spins the blood so that the solid part – the platelets are separated).  After that he made incisions in my gums behind my molars (where the wisdom teeth were) and then got in there with a tool that vibrates the heck out of the area vs. scraping it.  There was some scraping involved too. It was intense… Stephen said the force and stance he had was pretty serious.  After I had to bite on a sponge for a while to help clot it – then they did the same to the bottom.  He brought in the platelets next, which didn’t look like I expected: it was kind of like the fake skin you use on a blister… a thick, jelly, yellowish square.  He cut a chunk off (a big chunk!) and packed it into the holes.  After that I was stitched up and put into a magnetic field (like I explained above) for 20 minutes.

I’ll have the stitches removed in 10ish days and sometime in January he will tackle the left side top and bottom.

We met with the same doctor from Monday and another one who will also be my doctor in January.  I really liked him, he had a bit more personality and seemed to be more thoughtful of what I’ll be doing and what he thinks is happening in my body. Unfortunately, he is also leaving at the end of January.

This isn’t going to be a good explanation but I’m going to try my best:

First,

Most of the assessments and tests from the last two days aren’t back yet to give them a better idea.  They won’t actually have a lot of it until the middle-to-end of my first week there in January and my treatment plan will be based on that

Second,

He feels there are some medications that will be helpful, including low-dose naltrexone (this is something MD’s use in Canada and the US as well for some Lyme patients).  He also discussed using a Japanese made cancer “drug” which (I didn’t fully understand his explanation) has colostrum in it, or something similar.  Colostrum is the very first part of what humans and all mammals produce in breast milk and it’s the most important of all for babies to get as it has a big role in immune function and antibodies, etc. that “set you up” for a healthier life.   I haven’t started these, and won’t know if I will until the end of my stay in January but the idea is that they will up-regulate my immune system to produce more T-cells (part of immune system) which also reduces inflammation in the brain.

We also found out I still have a heart murmur.

Third,

He does not believe Lyme is my main problem.  Many people can be bitten by the same tick and not react the same, if at all. We already know this. The reason my body couldn’t handle it was because there were some underlying issues. They believe one is toxicity from metals, etc. He believes one of the bigger problems in inflammation in my brain, especially brain stem. This is why I’ve had such a large neurological struggle with having Lyme.  The inflammation reduces oxygen in the brain, which is all just a viscous cycle in the end.

They’d like me to start on some meds and supplements now until I go back in January. Some of them I can’t explain at the moment as I need to read up on them first.  The list includes: vitamin D, vitamin K, selenium, gall-bladder and liver support, essential fatty acids, immune building, probiotics, multivitamin, lymph support, and some stuff we can’t seem to translate that is directly related to the dental surgery. These are a combo of pills and liquid homeopathic meds that I have to take on a ridiculous schedule and I need to sit down and write it all out and set timers in my phone so that I don’t forget.

You can also check out one of my videos on YouTube from my first week at the clinic: