Not Just Another Spring Day

by Scott A. Forsgren

Like most people in their mid-twenties, I was in the best of health. I took for granted that good health would be with me for many years to come. With my slightly obsessive-compulsive personality, I started learning about anti-aging medicine and taking handfuls of supplements by the age of twenty. I felt at the top of my game. I had just started a new career in the exciting world of Silicon Valley, California, after having relocated there from Texas. My new post-college life was very good to me. Life had blessed me in many ways.

It was 1997. I remember so vividly that warm spring day that changed my life in such a drastic way. It all started so quickly and yet from the moment it started, I knew in my inner-most self that it would not depart as quickly as it had arrived.

At first, it seemed like the worst flu I ever had. I became violently ill. It was the scariest thing I had ever felt. To this day, I have not experienced anything quite so frightening. Almost overnight, my body was ravaged by an unknown illness. I had difficulty walking, balance problems, blurred vision, lowgrade fevers, rapid heart rate, burning sensations in my arms and legs, severe joint pain, nausea, digestive disturbances (we'll leave it at that), brain fog, muscle spasms, numbness, tingling, skin-hypersensitivity, motor-like tapping sensations in my hands and feet, and never-ending fatigue.

I could not even sit in a chair or lie on a bed without feeling like I was falling. Walking down the street felt something near to what I would have expected if I were ninety and yet I was in my twenties. I could not even wear shoes because the burning sensations were intensified by the unfriendly contact that they provided. I knew right away that this was not just another spring day.

Doctors and health-care professionals were baffled. They suggested that I had Epstein-Barr Virus, Mononucleosis, Fibromyalgia, Multiple Sclerosis, severe allergies, Chronic Fatigue Syndrome, and of course, that it was all "in my head". I cannot count the number of times I was referred to a psychiatrist because conventional medicine had no answers. Somehow suggesting that it is all in one’s mind lets the doctor off the hook. It is no longer the doctor that needs to find a problem; you are the problem.

After more than two dozen doctors and nine months of feeling as though I had the flu everyday, I was diagnosed with an infection resulting from digestive parasites. I was also diagnosed with severe Candida resulting from the antibiotic overuse from several previous doctors, all of whom had no idea what I really had. I was also told that I had Leaky Gut Syndrome and severe food allergies. It still didn’t seem to me that these were the sole cause of my downward spiraling health.

I tried so many different things to get well. Some of them were useful; others were not. I received mega-doses of vitamins via IV. I administered coffee enemas. I was "smudged" by mystic healers. I gave up wheat and fruit for years. I gave myself regular injections of vitamins to help with the malabsorption resulting from the parasitic infections. I even went to one doctor that claimed that I was ill due to a virus found in a local brand of bottled water (which of course never existed). I went through a special series of allergy and immune-regulating injections to help desensitize and heal my system. The treatments required three days of staying at home eating nothing but potatoes and water every eight weeks. Oh, how I loved that. The list of things that I tried goes on and on...

My journey back to health took the next two years and careful coordination with many doctors. We focused on the digestive infection, the leaky gut, the malabsorption, and the food allergies. Little by little, I seemed to improve. The symptoms seemed to fade away to the point that I didn’t feel “sick” any longer. Life was returning to normal. I was grateful that the nightmare was finally over. I felt well again! Once I recovered, I never thought that a difficult to diagnose illness could strike again, but it did!

After having recovered from my first bout with chronic illness which lasted for about three years, it seemed as though everything was headed in the right direction. I was running 10Ks, wakeboarding, snowboarding, swimming, and doing yoga on a regular basis. Except for some ongoing allergies, I stopped identifying as "ill" and once again felt as though I had attained exceptional health.

Unfortunately, my regained health was not to be taken for granted. In September of 2004, I started having severe digestive difficulties (you name it, I had it) once again. Within six weeks, many of my original symptoms reappeared including severe burning sensations in my arms and legs and muscle twitches throughout my body. It seemed that I was revisiting the nightmare that I thought was finally over.

The doctor who had once helped me to feel well was no longer practicing and I started my quest for more answers with a new set of doctors. At this point, I had already seen over 40 doctors since my original health crisis started. I was once again diagnosed with probable parasitic infections (though every test was negative), Leaky Gut Syndrome, Candida, and multiple food allergies. It seemed all too familiar, and yet, it was no less frightening. Unfortunately, the fact that the original bout with this unknown illness was not truly understood sent us on a similar, and once again, incorrect path.

The piles of medical bills and test results reached significant proportions. I was treated for parasitic and fungal infections with a month-long combination of drugs. I began to feel better, but about a month after the treatment ended, the symptoms reappeared. I was subsequently put on another combination of drugs for 28 more days. This combination seemed to have made some progress as many of the symptoms improved. At that point, I thought I was starting my road back to recovery. Well, I was wrong...

Just over a year ago, I started a new therapy to help with what we now believed were severe food allergies. At this point, I was unable to eat milk, cheese, yogurt, eggs, soy, wheat, oats, barley, or rye. I found that I was not only allergic to foods, but I was also allergic to the very supplements that I was taking to get well. On my very first appointment through the use of energetic testing modalities, the practitioner said that I had Lyme disease, Ehrlichia, Bartonella, and Babesia. I went back to my MD and asked for tests to be run for Lyme. The blood tests did in fact confirm the diagnosis.

Since then, I have spent hundreds of hours researching Lyme disease and adjusting my protocol to once again guide myself back to health. I have been to numerous conferences, read many books, and spent time talking with doctors and others with Lyme disease.

There are various treatments that I do to this day and find to be of value. I’ve done liver and gallbladder flushes. I’ve used Rife instruments. I do colonics. I do a BioSET™ allergy elimination program. I do far-infrared (FIR) sauna therapy. I take numerous supplements, herbs, minerals, and vitamins. I also have a coordinated antibiotic protocol. You can learn more about my current thoughts through my web site at http://www.BetterHealthGuy.com

I continue down the path of treating the Lyme and related infections. I have every expectation that my situation will continue to improve. I still have distance to travel, but I hope that my experiences will be of value to you. I've learned so many things on this journey and I hope to be able to share many of them with you here on a regular basis in future editions of the Texas Public Health Alert.

Scott can be reached through his web site at http://www.BetterHealthGuy.com