Anyone who knows me will tell you I’m a little bit self-indulgent. I am more than okay with this—it’s an MO I’m proud to have inherited from my father. We believe life should be about joy. So if I gain a few extra pounds or a die a few minutes sooner because I drank an extra glass of Champagne with my cheeseburger, then mission accomplished. We’re alive to live, not to stave off death. All things in moderation, as dad always says.
So, beacon of health that I am, you can imagine that giving up all my favorite treats is really quite the buzzkill. But once I kick this Lyme thing, it will be party, party, party, and please pass the bug spray. Well, we’ll see. Lyme, apparently, is a study outside the comfort zone.
And so it is, in the spirit of sucking it up, that Jake and I decided to travel to the Pocatello, Idaho clinic of Dr. Jason West where, for the next two weeks, I will be poked with various needles until, I imagine, all the Lyme bacteria will ooze out of me like puréed potato through a sieve. Have I ever mentioned that I’m highly needle-phobic? Suck it up, Hennen.
There are men within my sphere of influence whom I consider to be true healers: Dr. Francis Murphy, a Dallas-based chiropractor famous in the healthcare community for a discovery that changed the lives of patients with frozen shoulder; and Dr. Gilles Lamarche, a wonderful Canadian national, chiropractor, and VP of Life University in Marietta, Georgia who was diagnosed in 2004 with primary pulmonary hypertension. His medical doctors prescribed double lung and heart transplants, without which they gave him two years to live. More than a decade later, the 61-year-old Lamarche ran a 5K race just this past weekend, having 100 percent healed himself through regular chiropractic care and healthy living. A-mazing. These two gentlemen advised me to see, and Lamarche kindly introduced me to, Dr. Jason as we shall henceforth call him.
Known as Dr. J to his existing patients—we are not yet on an initial name basis—Dr. Jason is a fourth-generation chiropractor, naturopath, and authority on treating chronic illness though cutting-edge (and antibiotic-free) methods. He is the kind of man who takes the time to talk to you on a Saturday, who dresses up as Goose instead of Maverick on Halloween, and who pens a blog called “Daily Dose of Vitamin H”—H is for hope, naturally.
(I H-for-hope that Dr. Jason is also the kind of busy man able and willing to squeeze in another patient at a moment’s notice—we learned just yesterday that H-for-Husband also has Lyme. Hi, we’re here for IV therapy. Do you have a couples suite available?)
When we arrive at the West Clinic on Monday for our six-hour appointment, Dr. Jason will first examine our blood under the microscope and beam it for us to see on a flatscreen TV. (Pass the popcorn!) From this, he will get a sense of how far our infections have progressed and will design specific treatment protocols for each of us. This 10-day process (2-3 hours daily after day one) will likely include:
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High-dose vitamin C (75-150g) plus minerals, administered via IV daily
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Oxidative medicine—usually major autohemotherapy (“the immediate intramuscular or subcutaneous reinjection of freshly drawn autologous blood” according to Wiki)
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Ionized detox therapy
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Chiropractic therapy
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Neural therapy (read: shots) or acupuncture
- Nutritional supplements + Paleo diet
The philosophy: The body is ingeniously designed to heal itself. The objective: Give it the tools it needs to do so.
If you build the body up, repair the broken systems, get rid of toxins, and don’t eat junk food, then you typically get a really good clinical outcome. We treat the patient individually and balance everything in their life—biomechanics, biochemistry, hormones, food and diet, relationships.
—Dr. Jason West
This is a philosophy I believe in, even if I am writing this at 1am because I’m too anxious to sleep. You know what else I believe in? Proof:
For anyone interested in learning more about Dr. Jason West’s approach to treating Lyme disease, or in the western vs. chiropractic and integrative medicine narrative, I highly recommend the film Doctored. Drs. West, Lamarche, and Murphy all make excellent appearances.
Love in the Time of Lyme 