ABOUT

My name is Cheryl Young. As of this writing, it appears that I have probably had Lyme Disease for 42 years. I have been surprised at how many of you have emailed me asking for my story. I didn't put it on here originally as I thought we all had the same story: got bit, got sick! ;-) Due to the amount of requests, I have tried to faithfully recount the events of my Lyme Disease journey.

I was bit by two ticks when I was 7, living in Arroyo Grande, California in 1967/68. I remember my dad doing the hot match stick trick to get them out. My dad passed away shortly after in August of 1968 from luekemia. About this time I developed insomnia that was so bad, my mom took me to the doc who prescribed a mild liquid sleep med. My mom put a lamp, books, radio etc on my night stand so I would stay in bed and not pad around the house waking up other family members. The doc gave me the same med again when I was 9.

Knowing what we now know about German New Medicine, could my dad's death and the tick bites have been close enough together that the trauma of my dad's death triggered the Lyme Disease?

Like so many of you, insomnia has been my faithful friend, lo, these many years! Then came the headaches and fatigue. By my teens, there were days I laid in a dark room due to light sensativity and head aches; started taking thyroid; all still with the constant fatigue and insomnia.

By my 20's I started having digestive problems; would stand in the shower before going to work crying, I was soooo tired. I finally had to quit work. By my 30's the cognative issues were kicking in. I started backing out of all church involvement and outside the home activities as I couldn't keep up and still be a happy mom for my kids. I felt confused a lot, like I was getting only about 1/2 of what was going on around me.

I had two children. Both pregnancies were very hard on me. The second pregnancy just about did me in. We decided not to have more kids, mostly due to my health, or rather, the lack thereof!

When I was 40, my husband and I decided to leave a religious organization that both of our families were involved in. He was second generation and I was third generation in this particular religious group. We had gone to their schools, all of our friends and social structure was based on this religion. The news that we were leaving, as we decided that God worked, but not this particular organization, landed like a bomb in our happy bubble. In the span of one week, we basically had no social structure left. One family member called to tell us, they would rather we had died then quit going to the church. For those of you acquainted with the Bible stories, I jokingly told people that we wandered in the wilderness for 40 years before we found the promised land.

The reason for relaying the above, is not in any way, to condemn church, God or any religious organization; but rather to again point out the trauma of having family, friends and your social structure have an earthquake. My 40's were the worst yet. I had always instinctively known it was related in some way to the reaction and stress of us leaving that religious group. It started with mono, followed closely by fibro, chronic fatigue, gall bladder, the flu (my stars, I got the flu over and over!), kidney stones, scary memory issues, and finally seizures.

I have a dear friend that I have known since we were 14. She and I had so many of the same symptoms come and go at different times. We would keep in touch, compare notes as we tried to figure out what we had. She called me in September 2008 and said "I have Lyme and so do you!". She sent me the symptom list....I couldn't believe it; every symptom I had ever had on ONE list! Everything from watery eyes to my aching legs. The end of September 2008, my family and I went and saw "Under Our Skin". I sat there with tears in my eyes....there was my life on the screen. I remembered the tick bites when I was 7 and knew.....this was it. One month later, on October 26 I had my first seizure. My husband I and I have always been thankful that we saw "Under Our Skin" so that we knew what was going on. I am "Mandy" on the movie.

No, I have not been to a doctor. My current circumstances do not provide for that. I did, however, go to an electro-dermal screening appointment in the Fall of 2008, which confirmed that I did have Lyme. I realize now, how inadequate that is for a test, but it did confirm what I already knew.

As for the seizures, I call them seizures for lack of a better word. As I understand it, a true seizure comes from the brain and a person has no memory of it. I am aware of what is happening. Like I said, it is very much like Mandy on the movie "Under Our Skin". My worst one included huge gasping breaths along with the seizure movement. My speech left as well. Only garble would come out. The whole thing lasted about 5 minutes; but leaving me exhausted for several days.

I joined a wonderful forum. They were a group of people who told me about MMS. I started taking MMS in March 2009. At one pont, I made it 19 days without a seizure. Added Teasel sometime around the first of July 2009. I have been seizure free since the middle of August 2009. I have had a few "rumblings", but nothing compared to what I lived through before.

My incredible response to MMS and Teasel has made me wonder why everyone else hasn't had the same results. One thing I have realized is that I drank Calli tea from Sunrider for almost 7 years before I started taking MMS and Teasel. Calli is formulated on TCM philosophy. It is a very nourishing and cleansing tea. I started drinking it to get rid of the daily head aches, which it did. But I also think my body was clean and ready for healing by the time I started the MMS and Teasel.

I have also read Connie Strasheim's book "Insights into Lyme Disease Treatment". On page 39 and 40, Dr. Harris points out that he has found, that generally speaking, people with Lyme Disease for more then 20 year have Borrelia only and not the co-infections. This too could explain why I have had amazing results with MMS and Teasel. I believe I have only one brand of bug to kill.

Am I well? No. But I have come "a long way, Baby!" ;-) I am functional. I am up every day. I still struggle with fatigue, but I am not spending days in bed. I still have aching legs and shoulders, but do not require pain meds to get through the day. Like I explain on the home page, I still float off shore once in a while, but I can always wiggle my toes in the sand!

On good days, I am at 75%, on bad days I am somewhere around 50%; compared to previously good days at 60% and bad days somewhere around 10%........there were days I would lay on the floor, too tired and in too much pain to finish walking across the floor and tell God it was OK, I could go now.

So there you are, folks. I am finally looking forward to a bright future of health and happiness. I have been married to my high school sweetheart for 26 years as of 2009. We live in the greater Seattle area.

God Bless!