A New Hope

This Monday, I went to my LLMD for my routine 2 month check up. Me and my mom walked into the office and after seeing him for over a year now we know the receptionist and nurses pretty well. But when we walked in there was a new girl sitting at the desk, and new nurses running around everywhere. We didn't like how we were feeling about all the new changes.

Then once we got back into the office, a guy came in telling us he was the new office manager. He told me to tell him everything that was wrong, or new, and He'd write it down and the my Dr would come in. I didn't like talking to this guy, I wanted to talk to my Dr, and tell him that I was having arthritis in my hands. But I reluctantly told him everything. Then he proceeded to tell me about what the Dr's next step would be with me. He started talking about some shots that help organize my immune system and at this point I've sort of tuned him out.

Finally my Dr comes in, and he starts to describe LDI or Low Dose Immunotherapy. It is basically the same science as Allergy shots, or Low Dose Allergens, if you are familiar with those. From what I understood, and from what my Dr, has told me. LDI is not new, but it is just over a year old to Lyme Disease patients. Dr Ty Vincent has recently started using LDI on patients in Alaska, and even though it has been going on a little over a year he is reporting a 90% success rate! My LLMD, sent a nurse up to Alaska to be trained for 2 weeks in the ways of LDI.

LDI is basically shots spaced over time with a little bit of dead Lyme Disease bacteria in the shot. I think of it like a flu shot. The idea of a flu shot is to  give yourself a little bit of the flu so that your immune system can learn how to fight it off. With the LDI when you have Lyme it helps "organize" your immune system. It treats your body like you have an autoimmune disease and tells your immune system to focus on attacking the Lyme. The idea is to start with a super low dose and get a shot every 2 weeks, and then 7 weeks and then 3 months and by 6 months people are reporting feeling loads better! Loads of people are flying out to Dr Vincent in Alaska to get the LDI shots, and my Dr is one of the first in the main 48 states to have the research and the know how from Dr Vincent. He has been only been doing it for about 2 weeks, so I am about to be a guinea pig in a way, but the odds are pretty much in my favor that I will be much better, much much faster! This is a good article that I found that explains LDI injections a little better than I did. https://www.specialtynaturalmedicine.com/lyme-disease-ldi/

All in all, after leaving the office I felt a renewed sense of hope! I felt excited to start feeling better. I start the injections next week and right now I am off all antibiotics, for the first time in over a year! I am excited and hopeful for this new information and pumped to keep everyone updated on how my shots go! :)

-The Lyme Warrior