Reclaim your energy
Pat Vosburgh, 59, had always been a go-go-go person—but suddenly found herself needing to sleep all day. Here, how she finally uncovered the surprising culprit and reclaimed her vitality
What you need to know about the new tick-borne infections
Yikes! How did I get here?” Pat worried aloud, startled by the honking car horns. “Somehow with my exhaustion and brain fog, I’d passed four cars without even realizing it and nearly slammed into a car in front of me. Thankfully, I was able to swerve onto the grass and narrowly avoid a collision. But this was the second near-accident I’d had. As I sat there trying to calm myself, I realized I’d have to stop driving until I could get a handle on my health. It would be a huge inconvenience, but I couldn’t risk hurting myself or someone else.
Missing out on life
“I’d always been high energy. My husband, Chuck, is seven years younger than me and I used to joke that only a younger man could keep up with me. But a few years ago, I noticed I needed to rest a lot—up to 18 hours a day. Chores went unfinished. I didn’t even have the energy to fold a basket of laundry but figured I was just out of shape. My friends suggested exercise could help, but I was too beat to try.
“I’d been diagnosed with a low thyroid years earlier, and though I’d managed it well, I asked my doctor to recheck my levels. The test came back normal, so I reasoned that my fatigue was just due to the extra-busy year my husband and I were having with our real-estate business. We were fixing up a house and kneedeep in repair projects: There were trees to remove, floors to sand, cabinets to replace. It was exhausting, and maybe just too much for me.
I felt terrible on days when I couldn’t get out of bed to help Chuck. We did everything together—from working to camping to hiking. But now I was missing out and letting him down.
“Even worse than the fatigue was the brain fog. I couldn’t concentrate. I thought of my mother, who died of Alzheimer’s at 92. But I was tested and didn’t have the Alzheimer’s gene.
“On top of it all, it was like my body started to break down. Severe joint pain kicked in, especially in my knees. It felt like someone hitting me with a hammer. Rheumatoid arthritis came to mind, but I didn’t have swelling. And I hadn’t injured myself. Nothing made sense.
“When my husband started feeling fatigued and foggy, my fears grew. Once, I sat in the passenger seat while Chuck drove right through a red light without even knowing it. It was scary!
“What was wrong with us? Fibromyalgia, chronic fatigue syndrome, lupus? I worried we’d been exposed to mold in one of our
fixer-uppers. All I knew: My husband and I were too sick and tired to work!
An answer at last
“As a self-employed person with high health insurance costs, I always tried to avoid the doctor’s office. But I finally went back to my physician, Tracie Leonhardt, D.O. I was surprised when she suggested testing for Lyme disease. I thought Lyme was only a problem in the North, but she said tick-borne illnesses are now in every state. When I told her I didn’t remember being bitten by a tick and I’d never had the bull’seye rash, she explained that only about 30 percent of adults develop the mark.
“I had the traditional Western blot test, plus the new iSpot test to rule out false positives. The results came back positive—Lyme bacteria in my bloodstream was causing my fatigue, fog and pain. My husband tested positive too. Odds were we’d both been bitten on one of our camping trips.
“We learned about different modalities of treatment—everything from tinctures to powerful meds. Since we hadn’t caught the infection right after our tick bites and had likely been infected for an entire year, we went with the most aggressive treatment: IV therapy using colloidal silver, followed by the antibiotic Rocephin. We also took supplements: curcumin for joint pain and glutathione to help with liver detox as we rid our bodies of the Lyme bacteria.
“Within five weeks, we both began to feel better, and in 10 months, we felt amazing again. Sounds like a long time, but we felt fortunate. Having a ‘Lyme literate’ physician saved us from years of misdiagnoses. We had our lives back!
“Now I feel great—like I’m 30 again. And my husband has never been healthier. It was a blessing that we were both able to understand and comfort each other through this health hurdle. We are proof that you can get better from Lyme!”