Today was another really, really long day, but a successful one too. My sister had a dentist appointment scheduled for today, and was going to reschedule so I was able to hop into her spot and have the rest of my amalgam removed quite spur of the moment. I am so thankful that it is all out and we can move onto treating heavy metals later this week. Then we all rushed back into Bend (my dentist is an hour away), and I had to get to my other doctor appointment early to heat up my veins in hopes that they would not collapse again. The heat helps them to expand and not go hiding away… (if I were them… I would have run away a long time ago after thousands of pokes!). I was able to receive my Artesinate IV which targets one of the main co-infections that I have called Babesia.
Babesia feeds on the protein in iron which is called Ferretin. We finally also got an answer to my ALWAYS crazy, scary low levels of ferretin. This has taken years to discover. I used to go into a clinic every 4-6 months and would get six infusions of ferretin over the course of two weeks. This was painful and extremely costly. I would test ok for ferretin for about 2 months and then it would quickly disappear until I was into single digits again. When my ferretin is this low I have zero energy, my strength is lessened, and yet it also makes it very difficult to find rest or any sleep. This can be dangerous, but now that we have an answer to what is consuming my ferretin we have to keep a close eye on my Hemoglobin and Hematecrit levels and only if they drop too low will we begin immediate injections of ferretin again. We definitely do not want to continue feeding the babesia bacteria like we had been for so many years past.
After the doctor… we switched our cell phone carrier so that our international rates were much more affordable for our trip ahead. Each little step completed gets us a bit closer… Germany is coming so very soon!
Please keep me in your prayers tomorrow as I am starting some new, intense treatments and they can always increase my “herxing” (Herxing is believed to occur when injured or dead bacteria release their endotoxins into the blood and tissues faster than the body can comfortably handle it.) We believe it is important to begin these treatments since they will have to start them in Germany, and it will help increase my comfort level while in the hospital if we can work up to the levels that I will receive abroad.
Keeping my hope in the One who made me!
Sincerely, Dani