Universal life journies....

Hi to all...

I really pushed it yesterday. Took my "little sister" on a ferry ride to Port Townsend and ended up sharing a quesadilla with her (wheat, gluten, cheese = not good for Sue!). I tossed and turned all night with a lot of pain in my extremities, and consumed aspirin early this morning. However, I must say that a few hours later I am feeling really good, and this has how it's been lately. It just seems that my immune system is recovering and bouncing back much more easily than it has in a looooooonnnng time.

I also noticed, while strolling around the city yesterday, that my knees were hurting less, and it felt like I was walking much more normally than I have in ages. These are encouraging, exciting little things to notice!

Though I am blessed to be feeling so much better lately, I need to add a couple of caveats. First, this deal is cyclical and I'd be really fooling myself if I thought I wouldn't get slammed again a few more times. I don't think anyone will ever know for sure if they are really "over" an infection like lyme, and I still have a long distance ahead of me, for sure.

Secondly, I don't want to give the impression that everyone is the same and that lyme is "easily" or "speedily" transcended by all. I know people who have had it for many more years than I have who remain devastated by the disease; people who have tried everything - allopathics, homeopathics, alternative treatments, heavy pharmaceuticals of various kinds - and are still feeling very unwell. It can be an extremely debilitating experience long-term, and often goes hand in hand with deep depression. I have experienced some of that for shorter periods of time and I have a sense of the hopelessness that some may feel having lyme, fibromyalgia, or other types of immune-related disorders that may tend to take mysterious twists and turns.

Why am I feeling so much better in such a relatively short time? (It's been just over a year since my life went CRASH). A big part of this is obviously the Salt/C protocol. My immune system seems to be strengthening quickly, although as soon as I say that I get thrown on the ground for a few days....

I also think that I just have an extremely strong constitution, in general. I have been fortunate to have not had much illness or disease in my lifetime, prior to contracting lyme bacteria. I did have serious asthma as a child that went away when I was 5, after we moved to Arizona from L.A., and after both my parents quit smoking. I've had a few bouts of respiratory/bronchial "stuff" over the years, but overall, haven't had as many colds and flus as the average person.

As a younger adult I had three ectopic pregnancies and three early miscarriages, which were the biggest health issue I faced before the little tick bite that changed my world. Amazingly, in the midst of all that medical confusion, I did give birth to my sweet daughter, Ariana, 23 years ago. I've always called her my miracle child. That's a whole other story that maybe I'll share in this blog one day...

For awhile in my 30's I dealt with candida and got onto that bladder infection, antibiotic, candida merry-go-round for a couple of years until I began to do some research and realized that antibiotics were doing more harm than good. I stopped eating sugar and refined carbs, while taking lots of cranberry tablets, until I was able to break that cycle, and I've never looked back on any of that.

The only other deal was the gall bladder attack I had in my early 40's (which I mentioned in an earlier post). I refused to let them remove it, and made a heavy lifestyle change which included becoming a vegetarian, and also cutting out cheese for a long while (then gradually added in a small amount here and there, until I became a vegan a couple of years ago). I still have my gallbladder and we have gotten along swimmingly ever since I made those decisions.

The only serious physical bodily injury I've sustained was when I slipped and fell on a huge granite boulder about five years ago, which caused a rotator cuff tear to my right shoulder. That was really awful for a couple of years, and still bothers me now, although not nearly as much.

So who is to say why we "get" the illnesses, dis-eases, and other life challenges that we do.... I personally feel it is a spiritual journey that we all must take in some form. I don't know anyone who hasn't had (or doesn't have) personal challenges to overcome in life. I believe it is a part of our awakening as beings that are equally human and spirit. No one is immune from "problems." It's just the way it is, and it basically boils down to how we choose to deal with it and conceptualize it that oftentimes determines how we ultimately feel mentally, emotionally and spiritually, as well as physically. And as I've mentioned before, I believe so strongly that all of life is interconnected, and I see that this amazing planet we call home is going through huge labor pains right now as she attempts to re-birth and transform herself. That means all humans, animals and other life-forms are along for the ride. And we are a part of the ride. We can rise above fear and engage with life from a place of love and compassion, or we can become part of the greed/control/fear mentality that, unfortunately, wreaks havoc all over the place. Yet that's what gets all the press. We don't hear nearly as much about all the beautiful, meaningful, selfless acts of love that abound all around us and within us. But they are there. And whether we are "sick" or "well", we can choose to use our time in this life for good. We all have our universal life journies to make, and our tales to tell.... Life isn't always easy or fun, but it's pretty amazing all the same, at least I think so.

I so appreciate all the loving support I've received from friends and family on this journey. There are some who don't really understand (especially my mother), but most do, or are trying to (hence, this blog....). My mom (who doesn't read the blog) would like me to see an allopathic MD and just "fix" this thing...! She can't relate to what I'm experiencing, but then she is also almost 89 years old and is basically striving to just enjoy what is left of her life. She doesn't want pain or illness in her world if at all possible, especially if it affects her daughter. And I understand. If she had any idea of how much pain I have truly been in at times it would wreck her with worry, and so I don't "go there" too often....

I am a big fan of author Alice Walker, and yesterday came across a bit of information about her journey with lyme disease. I've also ordered the book she wrote which discusses some of that, called The Same River Twice: Honoring the Difficult (1996) . I'll share more thoughts on it once I've read it.

I'm pasting in some info below about Alice Walker, and then I'm off to play in the sunshine. Have a lovely weekend!

Sukie

About Alice Walker and lyme:

While lying prostrate on the ground in pagan worship of the Gaia or the Mother Earth, as she said that her Native American and African ancestors before her did, Alice was bitten simultaneously by three ticks. Alice had sustained tick bites all of her life and thought nothing of them. She did not know however, that these small bites would mark the beginning of another difficult period in her life. The ticks carried the debilitating Lyme Disease bacterium. A few days after the bites, she developed the signature red bull's eye marks on her stomach where the ticks bit her. Since little to nothing was known about Lyme Disease in the early 1980s by the general physicians,she did not realize that she had contracted it.

During the making of the movie The Color Purple, the ravaging effects of Lyme Disease made Alice too tired to even move some days. She was forced to lean upon a walking stick. Because she was so worn out, Alice lay upon a couch in one of the trailors or under a tree performing tarot card readings for some of the cast and crew during the making of the movie. The cause of the disease itself was a mystery to herself. She also had to care for her mother who was still recovering from illness. She believed that she and her mother were dying.

ALICE WALKER states: "Well, I came down with Lyme disease in the middle of all of this, and I experienced it actually as a spiritual transformation, even though I didn’t know that was going to be the result. It was very frightening. But I came out the other end of the bashing that I had received, the physical debilitation from Lyme disease, the breakup of my relationship with a partner at the time. I came out of all of that with a renewed sense that life itself, no matter what people are slinging at you, no matter what is happening, life itself, basic life is incredibly precious and wonderful and that we are so lucky to have that, you know, that we wake up in the morning, that we hear a bird. If you think about little things, they seem little, but they are so magical, you know, like eating a peach. I came through that period understanding that I am an expression of the divine, just like a peach is, just like a fish is. I have a right to be this way. And being this way, The Color Purple is the kind of work that comes to me. I can’t apologize for that, nor can I change it, nor do I want to."