Time keeps on spinnin'...into the future

We are still in a holding pattern, waiting for Peg's blood pressure medication to take effect. Her BP numbers have been down, but not enough (at least consistently enough) to start the HBOT, so we will probably wait out this week.

In the mean time, Peg visited her naturopathic doctor, Dr. Pomroy, again on Monday. He is based in Calabasas (New Horizon Naturopathic Clinic), and he has been instrumental in Peg's health improvement over the last two years. Peg has recently undergone IV treatments, including chelation (to help the body rid itself of toxins) and vitamin and mineral boosts. These IV treatments have had a pretty dramatic effect in rebuilding Peg's weakened immune system and have been helpful in preparing her for the HBOT treatments. Under Dr. Pomroy's care, Peg experienced a steady improvement in her BP, without the use of prescription medication.

Please do pray for us during this time of watching and waiting. It has been discouraging to be at the point where Peg is "ready" for HBOT, and yet we have been unable to proceed because her BP is not consistently down. And, in fact, Peg has long suffered from a case of "white coat hypertension", where her BP rises in clinical settings, even in the relatively comfortable and non-threatening setting of the Hyperbaric Center we are using.

Starting with 'Plan B'

We are waiting for a while before trying to begin the HBOT again...today Peg was checked out by a doctor and received a prescription for Benicar, which she will start taking right away. We don't really know how long it will take for the Benicar to have a positive effect on Peg's blood pressure. Of course, we are hoping and praying that Peg will have a quick response to the medication and that her BP will fall into a good range soon, but everyone's experience with BP medication is a little bit different.

Peg does have HBOT appointments for next week, so if the Benicar works fast, maybe she can keep those appointments.

Peg is in good spirits, and she is tired, but generally feeling well.

Still Waiting...

Well, today we tried again to start the HBOT. In the morning when we checked, Peg's blood pressure was absolutely normal, so we thought that this one would go through. We took our time, got there early, and Peg relaxed and chatted with some young girls that were waiting for their mom to finish her HBOT.

But, when it came time to take Peg's BP, it was well above normal and even higher than Monday! It doesn't seem like stress was a factor today, just some fluctuation brought about by her condition.

There was an opening in the "mono chamber" (Peg calls it the "Sleeping Beauty" chamber, because it is a horizontal chamber with an acrylic cover, a lot like the casket the 7 dwarfs put Sleeping Beauty into), so we decided to take a walk along the beach to see if Peg's BP would drop. We enjoyed the beautiful day and the crashing surf, and Peg's BP did drop a bit, but not low enough for the HBOT.

So, we will continue with 'plan B' - we have a doctor's appointment tomorrow with the goal of getting some blood pressure medication that will be effective and have few side effects.

If you ignore the failed attempt at the HBOT, we actually had a pretty nice day. The weather was beautiful, the drive was pleasant, the beach was refreshing, and the company was great (Peg and I always like to spend our time together). Even though she couldn't play Sleeping Beauty, Peg still got her kiss from her prince charming ;)

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Regrouping...

Yesterday was a difficult day...Peg was pretty discouraged that the most promising thing to help her was "out of reach" because of her blood pressure. And today, when she checked her blood pressure, it was down 20 points...go figure.

Our plan is this: we will try again tomorrow to do the HBOT. We will try to eliminate sources of stress, and we will pray that Peg's BP will not peak again. If her BP is within range, she can proceed with the HBOT treatment tomorrow. Even so, we are anticipating that there is a good chance she will not be within range, so we are prepared for that disappointment.

In the mean time, Peg has a doctor's appointment on Thursday to check into getting some medication for high blood pressure. She has resisted using prescription medications in the past (opting for alternative, natural solutions), but her naturopath said that limited and temporary use of a prescription medication may be the best thing in order to help her get into the HBOT. Several Lyme patients have had good results with Benicar, and it has relatively minor side effects compared to other BP medications.

Either way (if Peg's BP drops naturally, or if she needs to use a BP medication for a while), we hope to resume regular HBOT visits next week. Again, we appreciate your prayers regarding these steps of our journey.

On your mark, get set, whoa - wait a minute!

So today was to be Peg's first HBOT treatment. We got ready and made the trek to Ventura, and she began the preliminaries. Unfortunately, since HBOT tends to raise your blood pressure, you can't go into the chamber when your blood pressure is too high. Peg's was too high today, so it was a no-go for the HBOT today.

Fluctuating high blood pressure is one of the symptoms of Lyme disease, so we are disappointed, but not too surprised. Peg will be seeing her Naturopath doctor today to see what the best recommendation is. She could try prescription blood pressure medication (and deal with the side effects), or she could try something homeopathic, which tends to work better for her than prescription medication.

Once we figure out how to best deal with her high blood pressure, we'll try the HBOT again.

Pre-HBOT Checkup

Today, we visited the Hyperbaric Centers of California (HCOC) in Ventura to meet with Dr. Hirani. Dr. Hirani is the Medical Director at HCOC, and she performed the pre-HBOT physical which is needed to confirm that Peg is a candidate for the treatments.

We also met with Mike Bittner, a co-founder HCOC, and, as always, he was willing and able to answer all of our questions.

Peg "passed", so she will begin her HBOT therapy tomorrow, with three treatments scheduled for the coming week. We don't expect much of the Herx reaction at first, so we expect her to do pretty well for now. It will be a challenge for Peg just to go into the chamber and to wear the oxygen hood, as she tends to be a bit claustrophobic. We'll see how well she does tomorrow.

Hyperbaric Oxygen Treatments (HBOT)

We recently toured the Ventura facility of the Hyperbaric Centers of California (http://www.hcocinc.com/index.html). This is the chamber that Peggy will go into:

Welcome to our journey

Dear family and friends,

We want to thank you for your prayer and encouragement for our family. The Lord has allowed us to face so many trials in the past months, but we are trusting Him to bring us through. Life is hard, but God is so good.

I want to share with you about Peg’s treatments for Lyme disease and ask for you to pray as we seek God’s wisdom and provision for her next step in her “Lyme journey”. Last year we met Crystal, a lady who had experienced a dramatic healing of her Lyme disease symptoms through Hyperbaric Oxygen Treatment (HBOT). Crystal’s testimony about her experience can be found on-line at http://www.hboinfo.com/crystal . Crystal is not necessarily “cured” of Lyme – she may just be in remission – but you can read about her amazing experience in the testimony. Peg recently met Crystal for lunch to talk about her experience, because we believe that HBOT could be beneficial for Peg. We have been praying for provision and wisdom to be able to start Peg with HBOT, as HBOT has been effective in helping many Lyme patients (but there are no guarantees). I have attached pictures of Peg and Crystal, and also of the hyperbaric chamber in Ventura.

The thing that I like about the HBOT therapy is that it makes sense to me how it works. Lyme disease comes from spiral-shaped bacteria (called spirochetes) which are transmitted from a tick bite (or sometimes from a mosquito bite). I think of the spirochetes as weeds that spread throughout the body via the bloodstream like weeds spread in your yard. They are damaged by antibiotics, but the antibiotics do damage to your body as well. With HBOT, the oxygen level in the body’s tissues is raised to a level where the Lyme spirochetes cannot survive, so it kills off the spirochetes without damaging the body.

For the past two years, Peg has had a steady improvement with her various treatments with Dr. Pomroy, a naturopath. She has come a long way in rebuilding her depleted immune system (after several years of antibiotics). Even so, she has good days and bad days. Life is a bit unpredictable when you don’t know if you’ll wake up feeling fine or feeling lousy. Of course, at the same time this has been going on, we have been reeling in our finances. We have been hoping for me to have a steady job so we could get back on our feet financially, so that, in turn, we could start the HBOT during the summer before school starts up again. I feel that this treatment is very important for Peg to start as soon as possible. With the chelation therapy IV’s Peg has had for the past 4 months, along with the protocol she has been following to clear out toxins, Dr. Pomroy feels that she is now strong enough to undergo the HBOT. It been a long, hard journey for Peg – she’s been battling Lyme disease for almost 20 years, and it took 12 frustrating years before she was accurately diagnosed. I am so very proud of her to just keep pressing on.

Now, with the “economic stimulus” money and some money from one of my sons, we have decided to step out in faith and begin the HBOT for Peg. We don’t have enough money to complete the treatments, but I believe God will provide for this as well as our household needs. For the treatments, we will have to drive to Ventura four or five days a week…it will be taxing on our schedule and expensive. We need miracles on several fronts, so please pray.

The HBOT treatment is an aggressive treatment. After the treatments begin, Peg will get a lot sicker again (this is called a Herxheimer reaction), and it may be some time before she will begin to feel better. As hard as it is to go through, the Herx is really a good thing, as it is an indication that the bacteria is being killed off.

We are praying for victory over Lyme disease in our household, and yet we realize that by now, it may have spread beyond just Peg. Lyme disease is difficult to diagnose, and it often lies dormant for years, but indications are that David and I both have been exposed to Lyme disease. We are doing what we can to keep our bodies healthy and our immune systems strong, so that Lyme cannot get a foothold. If Lyme symptoms persist, though, then we will need to follow Peggy in the various treatments.

You can understand how my heart aches for Peg and how I am hopeful that HBOT will turn things around for her. Again, please pray for God’s grace in this situation. We appreciate your words of encouragement and any other help you are able to give.

Moving forward in faith,
Larry