An Update on my Health: 6 Month after Returning from Germany

It's been over 6 months since my return from Germany.  I have received on a number of occasions emails from readers of the blog inquiring about my state of health since my last blog entry.  As such, I will try to address those questions through this post.

Unfortunately, I do not have any good news to report -- I have not felt better and did not noticed any lasting benefit from the treatment I received in Germany last year.  Does that mean the photon treatment and Dr. Woitzel's clinic was a scam?  No, far from it.  As I mentioned previously, I knew going into the treatment that it is not a silver bullet.  In fact, I don't think there is ever going to be a silver bullet when it comes to Lyme disease treatment.  I have witnessed the treatment having helped a number of patients with my own eyes while I was there, so I know for a fact that it works.  But does that mean it works 100% of the time?  Of course not; and neither did the clinic make that claim.

Does it work 95% or even 90% of the time as claimed by some literature in my research prior to the trip?  From what I have seen, I doubt that is the case.  I think the number is probably closer to 50%.  Regardless, 50% is still a very good number of people who have tried everything and nothing seem to have helped.

In any case, the point that I'm trying to make is that the treatment did not work for me, but it doesn't mean it is a scam as some would argue.  I have a suspicion that heavy metal toxicity (i.e., mercury, lead, etc.) might have a central role to play in blocking the treatment's effectiveness.  Since returning from Germany, I have spent quite some time on researching the causes and treatments for mercury toxicity -- not just the common knowledge on the subject such as silver amalgams and large fish being the sources, or chelation through the various protocols such as the Cutler protocol or DMPS IV chelation (I've done them all), but the deeper reasons and mechanisms for one to accumulate heavy metals and the ways to reverse that.

I stumbled upon the subject of methylation during my research, and I think this is it.  For starters, please check out an excellent report written by Scott Forsgren from a few years ago.  Here is another helpful article on methylation and Lyme.  It is a very good primer on what the methylation cycle is and why it is important.  The subject of methylation is a very complex one, and currently I am in the process of arranging for the various blood and urine tests to give me the roadmap on how to tackle any deficiencies.  I am convinced this is a hugely important piece of the puzzle for the chronic Lyme sufferers in their search for recovery.

All in all, I have not lost hope yet.  Despite having suffered for some 12 years and failing almost all Lyme disease treatments under the sun, there is still hope.  At one point shortly after coming back from Germany last year, I was overwhelmed by a sense of loss, sadness, and disappointment due to the lack of any improvements, despite having spent a significant amount of saving to make the trip.  In the abyss of hopelessness, I prayed to the Lord for His guidance.  Shortly afterwards, I came across the subject of methylation and it stuck out to me for some reason I couldn't explain.  After digging into the subject further, I now believe this was the answer to my prayer that the Lord has prepared for me.

I will continue to keep you posted in the days to come on my journey.  Stay tuned.

October 16, Exit Test:

Rather than a regular blog post, I figured I would do a video one instead to provide a better overall picture of what the Klein Guesthouse is like in addition to providing an update on the outcome of the exit test that I had at Dr. Woitzel's clinic.

I also apologize for the first part of the video in which the noise of the traffic totally drowned out my voice.  I was talking about the lack of EMF pollution in Dobel, which is the reason Dr. Woitzel recommends all his international patients to stay there.  According to Dr. Woitzel, it is important to minimize EMF exposure during the treatment period.

Despite the lack of apparent improvement to my brain symptoms, I am grateful to Dr. Woitzel and his staff at the clinic for taking care of me during my stay in Germany.  I still believe the photon treatment that Dr. W pioneered is the best and most effective treatment out there for chronic Lyme disease.  In my humble opinion, there is simply nothing more effective and have fewer side-effects at clearing the chronic Lyme infections than what the photon treatment offers.

However, since chronic Lyme is more than just the infections, I am not surprised more work needs to be done after the photon treatments to bring me to the level of health that I was hoping for.  From what I have heard though (from Karin and the clinic), most people experiences significant improvement after the standard round of treatments.  I guess I'm an odd case, but I'm not at all surprised as all of the numerous treatments and protocols that I tried over the past 7 years have failed.  At least now I know what I should focus on to get well, rather than playing a guessing game.

Would I recommend making the trip to Germany?  Had I known what I know now (about mercury toxicity being my primary issue), I would probably focus on detoxing mercury first before considering heading to Germany.  There is always a chance that the body's immune system would be restored to a strong enough level to go after the Lyme infections if the burden from heavy metals is lifted.  I just didn't know mercury was playing such a central role to my ailment all along.  I figured with the extensive chelation treatments that I have received over the years, mercury wouldn't have a chance.  But boy was I wrong.

I have just done some research on the product PCA-Rx and it seems to be a truly unique and excellent product for mercury detoxification.  I have just placed an order for 3 bottles to see how well it works.  I may also consider adding the homeopathic remedies ("sugar pills") to the mix to get the body to loosen up additional mercury during its use; sort of like a one-two punch.

Based on what I know now, I believe the use of chemical chelators is only one piece of the puzzle for mercury chelation.  I don't doubt that chemical chelators work for many people out there.  But for the most stubborn cases (i.e., myself), I believe a combination of energetic treatments (i.e., homeopathics and photons) and chemical chelators are required.  I have yet to try PCA-Rx so I can't tell if it alone would do the trick, since its manufacturer claims it works on the principle of clathration rather than the usual chelation.

I hope my little journal from Germany is of help to you if you are considering making the trip to see Dr. Woitzel.  Please feel free to send me any questions you have at lymiccanada@gmail.com.

For those interested in finding out more on the Klein Guesthouse, you can find more information and pictures of the units at its website here (link opens in a new window).

October 15, Treatment #5:

Treatment #5, the last scheduled treatment of my trip, took place yesterday without anything new. Though I did not experience any significant reaction again after Treatment #4, I did not bother bringing it to the attention of Dr. W because the Bicom test earlier showed that the treatments were working to bring down my infections.

After Treatment #5, I did not notice much of any reaction at all. For Treaments #2-4, at least I would feel quite fatigued in the afternoon and the evening immediately after. Not so for Treatment #5. My afternoon and evening passed without much of any fatigue that I could attribute to the treatment. Evening this morning (the day after) after I got up, I still felt nothing out of the ordinary; just the same level of brain fog that's been around all these times.

In a few minutes we'll be heading to Dr. W's clinic for my "exit" test; ie, to see if or how much the remaining Lyme infections have been cleared. Not only am I highly interested in the results, I have prepared a bunch of questions to ask Dr. W in person; in particular, with respect to my brain symptoms that refused to shift despite the past 5 treatments.

October 11, Treatment #4:

Yesterday I had Treatment #4 at Dr. W's clinic. Before the treatment, however, I asked if I  could speak to Dr. W because of the lack of reaction or progress from the 3 treatments I have received thus far.

After waiting for about an hour, Dr. W was able to see me and I told him about my concerns. With only one week left in Germany and 2 more treatments scheduled, I was worried that I might not achieve the recovery I was hoping for.  As well, the lack of any shift in my brain symptoms is worrisome.  That's the main issue that I had to deal with over the past 12 years and the main symptoms I was hoping to recover from.

Dr. W said he will give me a chiropractic adjustment later in the day, with the hope that proper alignment of my body's structure would aid the flow of energy and information from the photon treatment. He then tested me again on the Bicom machine; first just a general overview by tapping on the various meridian points of the fingers on my left hand, then for Borrelia and co-infections afterwards.

After he performed the general test, he said I have issues with my colon. He prescribed a package of laxative and homeopathic detox drops for me to help reset the system, which I will take the next day (laxative) and the days after (detox drops). When it got to the Borrelia and co-infections testing, the machine shows that my body is in fact cleared of Batonella and Mycoplasma, while Babesia and the all-important Borrelia are getting knocked down as well, though not 100% cleared thus far.

While I was relieved to see those test results, and felt assured that the remaining 2 infections would be cleared by the 5th and last scheduled treatment as advised by Dr. W, I was still concerned about the lack of progress in my brain symptoms. If my brain symptoms still don't shift after Borrelia and Babesia are cleared, that would be an indication of 2 possibilities -- either the Bicom test is wrong and that I still have those infections in my body, or the brain symptoms have another root cause. I tend to think the former is not likely, since Dr. W pretty much hangs his Lyme treatment on the use of the Bicom.  That means my brain symptoms probably have another cause, and I think that might be toxins; specifically, heavy metals such as mercury.

If that's the case, I would still consider the treatments here in Germany as worthwhile or even successful because they would help clear the active Borrelia and co-infections from my body.  That would be something that I or my other doctors haven't been able to achieve with numerous other treatments and protocols over the 7 years since I was diagnosed with Lyme, thus would be an important step towards my overall recovery. However, if my line of thinking on toxins is correct, that would mean the brain symptoms I've been suffering from all these years were not due to the actual Borrelia and co-infections, that I was chasing down the wrong aisle all these years. In another words, perhaps my focus should have been detoxification of heavy metals, which would then allow Lyme and Co to be more susceptible to other treatments that followed.

Then again, it's not like I haven't gone through over 20 IV's of DMPS chelation in 2006 to pull out mercury, or the 3 bottles of Cardio-Chelate (which contains EDTA, another heavy metals chelator) in around 2008-9, or the 10 or so IV EDTA treatments in Idaho last year in the 2 weeks I spent at the West Clinic.  That's something that really puzzled me... Perhaps my body for some reason was not letting go of the mercury and was holding on to them despite the use of chemical chelators.  Lately, prior to coming to Germany, I experimented with some homeopathic mercury remedies (in "sugar pill" form) and noticed significant worsening of my brain symptoms once I have taken a high enough dose. That would be an indication to me that mercury has a fundamental role to do with my brain symptoms, but my focus was too much on the infections themselves to draw that conclusion. Despite the worsening of symptoms following the taking of the homeopathic remedy, the brain symptoms wouldn't improve past the original level afterwards (ie, before I took the remedies). As such, I consider that to be a "non-productive herx", as opposed to a productive one where the body would actually get better after a herx reaction.

My thinking now is that the homeopathic remedy probably helped knocked loose the mercury in my brain. But with nothing to mop them up and get them out of my system, the mercury eventually settled back in my brain where the fatty tissues are the perfect storage sites for them.  In that case, I think what I need to try next is to take the homeopathic remedies in combination with a chemical chelator such as Cardio-Chelate, or zeolite, or PCA-Rx which I learned about in one of Connie Strasheim's Lyme books.

In any case, if the Bicom test next week (after the last scheduled photon treatment) shows that I have cleared all Lyme infections but my brain symptoms remain, I will ask Dr. W to find the reason of my brain ailments with the help of the Bicom.  I have spared an extra day here after the Bicom "exit" test for one more photon treatment if necessary. If the Bicom indicates that mercury is the cause of my brain issues, perhaps Dr. W would be open to doing a photon treatment with some sort of mercury vial on my solar plexus?  That a lot of if's; we'll see how things turns out...

After Treatment #4, just as the other treatments, I didn't feel any significant reaction other than a bit of fatigue that afternoon and evening, so nothing new to report on that front.

October 8, Treatment #3:

Like the last entry, this one is actually written on Oct 9, one day after Treatment #3.

The treatment itself was pretty much the exact same thing as Treatment #2.  After the treatment, I was quite tired again, and my wife and I went back to our room in the Klein Guesthouse where I crashed into bed right away. My fatigue was partly due to the fact that we got up extra early at 6:30am in the morning for the early appointment at the clinic. We actually made an appointment for my wife to test for Lyme and co-infections.  I was worried that I might have passes it onto her over the years, though she has no symptoms whatsoever.

Thankfully, she literally blew past every test on the Bicom that Dr. W threw at her. She tested negative for all of the Lyme infections that I have. That was quite a relief.

In the evening, my energy level was quite low initially and I slumped in the living room sofa to watch tv. After a hot shower later in the night, I was actually feeling ok; ie, not more tired than I usually would be.  I was actually hoping to feel more miserable!

This morning (the day after the treatment), I got up feeling about the same as any other day. In another words, not particular worse and no noticeable reaction from the treatment, but the same level of brain fog that I would normally have.  I felt as if the treatments didn't get me any better (or worse, for that matter).

Again, I was quite discouraged. Dr. W said I must have a reaction after the 3rd treatment or else something is not right. He said it might be an indication that there is too much EMF interfering with the treatment as one possibility. However, I'm staying in Dobel at the top of the mountain with no Wi-Fi and our cell phones turned off.  It just doesn't make sense that EMF is in fact the reason.

Bumped into Karin later in the morning and I told her about my lack of reaction to the treatment. She assured me that most people that came to Dr. W with Lyme would get better or recover after the treatments. The only exceptions being ones who were sick because of something else other than Lyme. I really don't want to be the first patient of Dr. W to fail to get well!!!  Anyway, Karin offered to call the clinic for me to let them know that I didn't have much of a reaction after Treatment #3.  Hopefully this would lead Dr. W to trying something different for me during my next visit on Thursday.

Karin also lend me the 2 Lyme books that Connie Strasheim wrote and gave to her as gifts (with autograph no less!). I read the chapter on Dr. W's Bionic 880 treatment, which helped renewed my faith in him. I learned that he's a great researcher who pioneered this treatment and am confident that he will not hesitate to go out of the box to try something different for me if that turned out to be necessary.  He has seen over 1,000 patients with Lyme and compiled research data on photon treatment from them, which I believe earned him the experience he needs to tackle even the most difficult cases.

We'll see what the next appointment brings.