I am long overdue for a blog post update. The reality is I have been living life again, working and socializing that I have neglected my blog a bit. As a new year goal, I am committed to coming back to it and writing more!

It has been about 16 months post stem cells and things are going great! If you missed it, make sure to check out my 1 year update as well!

I continue to not experience any Lyme symptoms whatsoever and most days I feel better than before I got sick. I am sure this is partly due to continuing to live as healthy as possible through diet and lifestyle, but also a big piece is from my Stem cells basically rebuilding me from the inside out.

I can do everything I used to do for the most part. I work full time, do pilates almost every day, socialize, travel, work on my hobbies and I still feel great at the end of the day. I do still have a few things that need some balancing but overall I continue to see great improvements well past the 1 year mark.

Let's start with the good!

Celiac Antibodies

I developed Celiac Disease thanks to good old Lyme Disease. I always had antibodies no matter how strict I was with my diet. Keep in mind I have not willingly eaten any gluten since I got diagnosed in 2012, but accidental gluten exposure happens to me all the time no matter how careful I am.

What is pretty amazing, is at 12 months post stem cells, I retested all my antibodies and my Celiac antibodies were gone! I could not believe it that I actually tested them again when I was “glutened” and they were still gone! This goes to show that stem cells seem to have reversed my autoimmune reaction to gluten. I still get taken down by gluten (more on that later), but fortunately, it does not seem to be activating my immune system when it happens anymore which is great.

Methylation

Another exciting update is that I tested my methylation with the Doctors Data Methylation Test to see how everything was working and low and behold, my methylation was optimal with NO SUPPLEMENTS. This is pretty exciting because it can get pretty overwhelming with trying to supplement for methylation, but maybe post stem cells we don’t really need it? My doctor plans to retest my methylation in a year to see if I need to add in any supplements at that point or if it is still working optimally.

Food Allergies

This is another huge breakthrough. I used to have over 60 food allergies and had to be so careful with what I ate. At about 10 months I started noticing improvements in my food allergies and now over the 1 year mark, I am able to eat so many more foods with no reactions to them. I also did some food allergy testing and my immune system is not activated. I really think this does come with the neuro healing of the vagus nerve as I did not see improvement in this area until around 10 months or later. I still have a handful of foods I can’t eat but I think everyone has foods that they don’t tolerate. Honestly, I don’t even like the ones I still can’t eat so not upset about it at all. I think over time as my gut continues to heal even more, I may be able to reintroduce those last foods as well. Being able to eat tomatoes and rice again with no reaction is life changing.

Light Sensitivity

I used to have terrible light sensitivity and I could never go outside without sunglasses on, even if it was not a bright day. I am proud to say that I can now be outside on the beach in LA with no sunglasses on! This is so so amazing! I honestly don’t think I could even do that pre-Lyme so there was some deep neuro healing that happened in that department.

Thyroid / Hashimoto’s

My Thyroid seems to finally be more on a path of balancing. I did some additional Thymus Therapy from Infusio at the 1-year mark and that really seems to have helped it. I was able to come down 2 doses (.5grains) on my Thyroid medication and my antibodies have dropped down to where they usually hover in the low 100s. My T3 and T4 are finally balancing out a bit as well. I think my thyroid still has more healing to do, but its finally going in the right direction. I will probably do more Thymus or ACT to see if it can continue to balance.

Muscle Recovery and Strength

My muscles continue to recover very quickly post workouts and I finally feel like I am starting to get my strength back. Though I have been working out a lot and muscles recover quickly, I feel like it took me a while to start building muscle again and feeling strong. Even my pilates teacher noticed I am getting stronger:)

Intuition

This has been an interesting “side effect” post stem cells. Once I got to the 10-12 month mark, I started noticing my intuition has been really strong and really on point. I don’t know if its just that I am healing that this is getting so strong, but it is pretty awesome. Sometimes I feel like I have super powers.

What Still Needs Help?

There are only a few items that still need some work for me to be back to 100%. None of these are Lyme Symptoms, but more repair to the damage caused by Lyme and my body recalibrating itself.

Gluten

I still have a pretty intense reaction to gluten. It has lessened slightly, and the fact that my Celiac Antibodies are gone is awesome, but I still feel like I lose a week out of my life when I get glutened, which unfortunately happens more often then I would like it to. I fortunately don’t get digestive issues, but I do get a slew of neurological issues that really take me down.

Hormones

My hormones seem to be really out of whack post stem cells. I seem to be Estrogen Dominant and am doing some detox work for that now. My testosterone is also low so working on balancing my hormones which seems to be a lengthy and complicated process.

Cortisol

It is interesting that my cortisol is actually really low, yet I feel great and full of energy. I am not sure if the healing process with stems was stressful on my body that it lowered my cortisol. I seem to have the right curve, but just need to raise my cortisol levels. I am working on that now with a glandular supplement and will retest in a few months.

Weight Gain

This has been the absolute worst. I have gained about 40-45lbs post stem cells. The weight gain started about 1 month post stem cells and has been relentless since. I gained about 5lbs per month, usually right before my cycle so I know it has a hormonal component. Fortunately ever since I did the Thymus therapy for my thyroid the weight gain seems to have stopped, but now I still can’t lose it. No matter how clean I eat, how much I workout or how health conscious I am, it does not seem to budge. I definitely think the weight gain is hormonal / thyroid related and a lot of it seems to be water weight too. I was hoping that by 16 months post stem cells my body would start regulating itself and balancing this, but it hasn’t.

The weight gain has been a very humbling experience. As frustrated as I am with it, I remind myself that I rather be chubby and feel awesome, then skinny and feel like I am dying. That helps, but I would like to be back to my normal weight which has never gone higher then 120lbs ever in my life.

Overall

I would say I am 100% recovered from Lyme Symptoms, and once I balance all my endocrine issues, I will be totally back to 100%. I do feel really good, so I keep that in mind everyday when I am frustrated by what still needs to heal.

Maintenance Plan

Many people have asked me if I am still doing any treatments or maintenance for my health. In general, no I am not doing treatments other than the hormonal work.

I do think that in our journey back to health, we all find things that our body really likes and that are very supportive for us. For me, I really like ozone therapy and various IVs can help support me as well.

If I am feeling a bit under the weather, I may get a Meyers IV to give my immune system a boost. I also do like to get a 10pass ozone every 3 months or so just to keep my body optimized and healthy. There is no reason to wait until we are sick again to start using some of the protocols that got us healthy.

I am still very strict with my diet. I feel so so good when I eat clean that I would never go back to eating junky foods so I really think that is a key piece to feeling optimal. Fortunately, I don't have a sweet tooth so avoiding sugar continues to be easy.

I also still make sure to take care of my overall health with self care, good sleep, working out and doing things that make me happy. This should be a big piece of everyones healthy maintenance plan.

All in all, it feels amazing to have my life back.