After the Fire By Paula Jackson Jones W


hen talking to people about tick-borne disease, I fi nd myself using analogies, making com- parisons to things that make it easier to understand. Like when I get asked why some people get better after treatment and others do not, I often use the analogy of a house fi re. Stay with me as I walk you through the comparison.


When your house is on fi re, you call


the fi re department and the fi re fi ghters come and put out the fi re. Now most people can’t just go back into the house and live like they did before the fi re. The house will not function the same way. There could be debris and things that don’t work. The obvious next step would be to call a contractor to clear away the debris and destruction and start rebuild- ing. Sometimes, you only need one contractor but often you will also need an electrician and a plumber. And col- lectively, they get the job done, the house gets rebuilt and is now habitable.


But what if the house AND the ga-


rage are on fi re and the fi re department only puts out the house fi re? Subse- quently, when patients have a tick-borne disease and are not properly diagnosed or treated, an underlying infection can remain and can continue to cause symp- toms. What if the house and the garage


26 ELM® Maine - March/April 2020


are both extinguished and as they leave, the fi re department tells the homeowners that all is good and that they can now re- turn to their home? So, the homeowners go back to their home expecting things to function properly only to discover that they don’t. They live day after day in a burnt-out structure with the expectation that things will get better only to discover that they don’t.


Here is the part where I tell you that not all medical providers are the same. Some will give you an antibiotic when you are sick, and some might even go as far as to talk to you about diet and exer- cise. But most allopathic providers don’t have enough time in their 15-20 minute visit to talk to you about the rebuilding phase of treatment. You would be lucky if they gave you a few names of some local providers who could aide you, but without education about why you need it, how likely are you to make that call?


I learned a lot about treatment phases during my own journey with late stage neurological Lyme disease and tick-borne coinfections and I can’t stress enough the rebuilding portion of treat- ment. A complicated disease requires an integrative approach not only to treating but for healing and rebuilding.


When the fi re is out, you don’t keep dousing it with water. And when an infection is gone, you don’t keep throw- ing antibiotics at it. Antibiotics serve one purpose: to destroy. They do not rebuild. At what point do you start rebuilding? I talk to thousand of patients who give me the “deer-in-the-headlights-stare” when I ask them what they are doing to rebuild. When I explain how important that phase is to their overall recovery process, it starts to make sense why they are still so tired, why they continue to have cogni- tive issues like brain fog. I had a patient sobbing thinking they were relapsing. When a simple blood test showed how depleted their vitamin levels were, a diet modifi cation and some supplement sup- ports were added and within a few days, she felt better than ever.


You need a contractor to get in there


and remove the debris and start rebuild- ing. You need an electrician and plumber to fi x what was destroyed in the fi re. And when you’re chronically ill and you suc- cessfully put out the infection, you can’t just go back to the way things were and expect that your body will function as it once did. I know that I had that expecta- tion and was surprised when my medical provider started talking to me about the


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