4 things I wish I'd done differently with Lyme...

This is sort of a continuation of the theme from my last post. Whereas there it was about things I wish I'd known, this is more looking at a few key things that I would have done differently...


Better Prevention and awareness



4 years ago I was only vaguely aware of lyme disease. I had no clue about how it was transmitted or what the symptoms were. I did a lot of walking in the bush (forest) back then but I never took any precautions in terms of the clothes I wore, etc. So things I would do differently if spending time in forests or other tick prone areas are:

- Wearing appropriate clothing (shoes/boots in place of sandles, long sleeve shirts and trousers in place of t-shirts and shorts)

- Using effective insect repellent (such as one containing deet)

- Avoid walking through high grass or bashing through leafy areas

- Check myself (and my family) daily for ticks or rashes

- Check my dog daily for ticks and make sure he has an combined anti tick/flea treatment


Go to the doctor sooner



I got sick in late May but it wasn't until late July that I went to the doctor. Initially it seemed like a flu and then the symtoms were so weird and varied that, for some reason, I decided to try and ride them out hoping they would come right by themselves. This was definitely not the right thing to do!

I was very lucky in that when I did eventually go to the doctor it was only a matter of a couple of weeks before I was in the hospital and getting treated. I fully appreciate how fortunate I was in this regard (for many, many people it's a nightmare to try and get treated).

So what would I do differently? Go to the doctor much, much sooner. I really feel that if I had further delayed going to the doctor or hospital it's unlikely I would have made a full recovery as the severity and frequency of my problems was exploding just when I was diagnosed.


Think holistically (sooner)



I needed the antibiotics to recover but I wasn't able to recover by solely relying on the antibiotics.

It took nutrition, alternative treatment, supplements, visualization, among other things. My doctors in the hospital rubbished these alternative approaches to healing. For them it was at best a waste of money. But it wasn't until I began exploring some of these options that my symptoms began to fade and I slowly began to reclaim my health.


Take it easy!!!



When I was first undergoing treatment I had the idea that Lyme disease was not that serious and that I should be back at work. Not only back at work but back studying (I was doing some extramural study) and doing the other day to day things that I was preoccupied with prior to lyme.

Rather than try and rush back into my pre-lyme busyness, I should have just tried to relax and focus on getting my health right. And just to give myself more of a break rather than continually pushing myself to achieve things when I was still trying to recover.

4 things I wish I'd known when I was diagnosed with Lyme disease

This post is dedicated to Amber. My best wishes for a full and speedy recovery.




Recently I had a message from someone who was recently diagnosed with late stage lyme disease and who is about to begin treatment. Reading this made me think back to that day 3 and a half years ago when I was diagnosed with late-stage lyme disease and the weeks and months that followed.

Recalling this time I remember feeling scared, confused and depressed. I felt worse during the treatment than when I started and had no idea why. I would trawl through lyme disease forums and read that I would never recover. Regaining my health and positive feelings was a journey that took many months and years. There are so many things I have learnt during that time.

When I think back about the things I wished I'd known at the beginning of the treatment these 4 spring to mind:

- Herx reactions
In short, when the bacteria die off from the antibiotics toxins are released into your blood stream that can cause really nasty reactions (big flare up in symptoms for example). I herx'ed like crazy but had no idea what was happening. I just figured the antibiotics weren't working.

Google 'herx reaction' and learn about what may happen when you're undergoing the antibiotic treatment. The worst aspect for me was a feeling of helplessness that nothing was working. If I'd known about Herx, it would have been easier to summon the mental fortitude needed to grit my teeth and get through the day knowing that it would subside.


- Nutrition


Eating predominatnly vegetable and fruit whole foods has had a huge positive impact maximising energy and minimising my Lyme diesease problems. Everyone needs to find what works best for them but for me personally this plant based way of eating had changed my life.

Note that when you first start this diet it may be hard initially. But, at least in my experience, if you perservere you will grow very quickly to love the new way of eating and start to crave those green smoothies and salads and the way they make you feel!

If you have Netflix check out 'Fat, Sick and nearly dead'. It illustrates the tremendous positive effect eating a plant based diet can have on health.


- Acupuncture


When I was being treated I went about 6 weeks without any decent sleep. I was drugged up to the eyeballs and still not able to sleep for more than 20 minutes. After my first session of acupuncture I slept for 5 or 6 hours. Bliss! I would have paid 10,000 euros for that sleep!

Acupuncture is very dependent on how good the practitioner is so if it you're not seeing benefits after a few appointments I would suggest to try someone else.


Stay positive - you can get better!!!



When I first got sick I was so sick and in so much pain I could never imagine a time when I might feel human again let alone have energy. And it took a long time to reclaim my health and it's still an ongoing journey with insomnia but I'm getting there and I can honestly say I feel much better now than I did before I got sick.

I don't want to give false hope as everyone is different and some people do not respond to the treatment. But statements that Lyme is incurable and that you'll always suffer are heart-breaking to read and frankly bullshit. Don't give up hope. Even if it gets super bad (and I had some days where all I could do was crawl up in a ball on the floor) cling to hope, do the things like nutrition and acupuncture to give your body the best chance of healing.

ramping up the battle against lyme

I haven't written much in the last few months. Here's why...

For about 7 months from September 2012 I slept well and by early 2013 I felt I had really beaten Lyme once and for all.

Then from about June 2013 onwards I started having persistent problems with sleeping. I went from getting 6 to 8 hours a night back to between 3 and 5 hours a night. As I've said previously, the insomnia I suffered from with Lyme disease was by far the most insidious of the problems I had. So to go back into a pattern of not being able to sleep that dragged on for months was pretty soul destroying.

Recently (over the last 2 weeks) things have improved. And I've now had 3 days of decent sleep in a row. It's far too early to think I've got the sleeping sorted but at least getting a couple of decent night's sleep in a row is pure bliss :-)

So what happened?



From April onwards I slowly slipped back into a pattern where I wasn't putting the focus and discipline into my nutrition and exercise. Having a beer or two at night became the norm. Prior to that I'd spent about 6 months booze free. Although I still ate really clean (i.e., a focus on plant based whole foods and little or no sugar and processed foods) it became a habit to have snacks in the evening. It didn't seem like much at the time but the little things add up and before I knew it I'd piled the weight back on again (in 6 months went from 87kg to 98kg).

As I lost focus on nutrition and exercise my sleep suffered which meant I struggled to perform during the day leading to stress and anxiety at work leading to even poorer sleep and so on.

And before you know it, it's a vicious circle...



Breaking out...




A couple of weeks ago I committed myself 100% to going back to the principles that worked when I first got over my sleeping problems in 2012.
- A diet based on whole plant foods
- No alcohol
- No drinks other than green tea or water (and one coffee in the morning :-)
- Exercise

It was not easy the first week or so but now I'm loving the process and have so much more energy. On days when I have only had 3 or 4 hours sleep I can cope. On days when I've had 7 or 8 hours sleep I feel amazing!

I really feel that Lyme has been a great teacher in terms of my own self-development. For example, to maximise my energy I need to really be aware of the foods I'm putting into my body.

Prior to Lyme I never really thought about it. It took Lyme to really knock me off that mindset of complacency.

ups and downs

Next month it'll be 3 years since I was diagnosed with lyme disease.

The first two years were hard. The most persistent problem was insomnia. The pain, brain fog, etc was tough but not being able to sleep was, for me, the worst thing.

Gradually over time my health improved and for most of the last year I've felt fully recovered. However recently I've really struggled with sleeping problems again.

What I've found is that to maintain my health I need to eat super clean, exercise consistently and try and be stress free. But when you're getting by on 2 or 3 hours sleep a night it becomes really hard to do those things. You take an extra coffee or 3 to get through the day, a few glasses of wine to unwind at night. And that can quickly become a self-fulfilling negative spiral.

So what I'm going to do is relax about it, take it easy and just look at what's worked for me in the past. During my recovery from lyme disease I always had cycles of ups and downs. Getting better was never a linear progression. There were always ups and downs. The key for me then was to stay positive during the down times and eventually over time the progression was upwards.




If anyone reading this has any tips that worked for them I'd love to hear from you...

Racing goals and training plan

Since completing the stair running race last week I've been busy seeing what other races I can do in Europe over the next few months.

I found two that I want to aim for; a tower race in Vienna, Austria on 31st August and a tower race in Barcelona, Spain on 6th October.

There's also an event in the Netherlands at the end of June so the events are close enough together to be motivational but not so close that I can't recover and improve between events.

As for my training I was thinking of something along these lines:
--- Monday:
- Bike to work and back (this is 75km total)
- Run 2-3 times the head office stairs (27 flights)

--- Tuesday
- Bike to work and back

--- Wedneday
- Bike to work and back

--- Thursday
- Bike to work and back
- Tabata workout on my stepper machine in the evening (this workout is very short but excruciatingly hard!)

--- Friday
Gym

--- Saturday
3 hour bike ride

--- Sunday
Rest



As well as the above training I want to do stretching, yoga and core strength exercise 2 or 3 times a week.

I'm a little bit worried about the risk of knee injuries from stair running. I read an article today that claimed running stairs could really damage the knees. What I've found is that running (or walking) down stairs puts a lot of stress on my knees but I've never had any problem with running up stairs alone. Because I'm always taking the lift downstairs I'm only ever going up.

But in any case I'll limit the actual running on stairs to once per week (at least initially).


Diet
The impact of carrying excess weight is massive when running up stairs. Massive in terms of how much it slows your down but also significant in the extra stress placed on your muscles and joints.

So I really want to buckle down over the next 3 months and lose a fair bit of weight. I had my fat percentage measured a couple of months ago and it was 21%. In the next 3 months I'd like to get that down below 15%. That definitely won't be easy. Lets see how I do. The strategy is to cut out all processed food, alcohol, sugar and to base my diet primarily on vegetables and some fruits. I'm doing that already for the most part, the next 3 months is about going hard core and cutting out any cheating.

That will be tough.

The sufferfest that is tower running...

Tower running is hard, unbelievably hard. I did a race last night, my first tower running race in 14 years and all the pain from that event come flooding back last night.

At the start I had a strategy all worked out. I was going to take the first 10 floors easy, then ramp it up in the next 10 and then sprint the final 14.

Unfortunately I fell victim to the novice mistake of starting too fast and by floor 8 I was suffering like a dog, I still had 26 floors, 520 steps, to go.

My legs were the first to go. The lactic acid build up happened so fast and was so relentless that I couldn't push through it and in the stairwell there's no opportunity to ease off. There's no option of getting a rest on a downhill section. If you blow up on the stairs there's no respite, you just need to grit your teeth, curse and drag your half dead ass to the top.

So that's what I did. The longest 3 minutes of my life.

After the legs the lungs were next. Controlled breathing wasn't an option. Gasping for air was the best I could do.

And then after that the brain seemed to take over and start shutting down. The pain in my legs and lungs subsided at that point but it didn't do my speed any good, by that stage it was all I could manage to keep on moving up the stair well. And then it was over, I'd reached the top of the building.

It was 20 meter run from the top of the stairs to the finish line but I was in no state to run this. I hobbled across the finish line and sat down. And stayed there. For about 20 minutes.

But for all that pain and suffering I loved it. It's one of the ultimate tests of physical fitness you can do. There's no variables with the weather or with gear. It's just you versus the stairwell. And to push yourself that hard does feel good in some strange way. Or maybe I'm just a masochist :-)

Sitting on the train on the way home last night I reflected about how I can improve for the next event. Here's what I reckon:


1) Lose weight
The race last night had a vertical gain of something like 150 metres. Dragging a beer gut up that height does not make things easy. Losing weight is the biggest improvement I could make. I had been doing well with the weight loss but a recent holiday to New Zealand (with the obligatory pies and beers whilst I was there) put a few kilos back on so I've definitely got 10kg or so to lose.

2) Practice on the stairs
I had done a bit of this beforehand but only a few time and I didn't have the experience to pace myself properly. I need to get into that stair well at least once a week.


3) Build endurance through running
Back in the late '90's I was doing a lot of running and that fitness from that gave the endurance to do really well in tower running. I missed that endurance last night.


4) Learn to suffer more
The best tower runners can push through the pain, push through and keep on running. There was no way I could do that last night. It'll take time and conditioning to get there but being able to endure the pain and push through it is crucial.

5) Do some more races
I loved it and luckily there are coming more and more new race each year.


I'm sure keen to try some more race. My time was 4 minutes 37 seconds which placed me 15th overall (out of 130 runners). I reckon in a years time I could go more than a minute faster. I'm looking forward to the journey to see if that's possible....




Race report card



After each race I do I want to grade my performance on a number of criteria (A+ = Great through to D- = abysmal). Here's the report for the 2013 Almere WTC run up:
- Feeling prior to race: A- (felt good, lots of energy, a bit nervous but that's to be expected).

- Strategy: B (Strategy was to run first 10 floors easy(ish), next 10 all out and survive the last 10. Strategy was good but I didn't have the fitness to execute it).

- Execution of strategy D (I took off too fast and was buggered by the time I got to the 10th floor. From then on it was a matter of survival and strategy didn't come into it. In hindsight I could have walked a few flights slowly to recover but I think that would have led to a slower overall time. I should have gone out much slower.

- Overall feeling C - I did a reasonable time (4 mins 35 seconds) but really feel that with better conditioning, more time training on the stairs, not going out hard and with losing a bit of weight I could go at least a minute faster. So that is really motivating to see what improvements I can make over the coming year.

tower running....

Now that I'm sleeping well again I've got loads of energy and motivation to take on challenges that seemed impossible a couple of years ago.

One of those challenges is tower running.

Tower running is a sport that involves running up the stairs of skyscrapers. 15 years ago I competed in my first tower race, 1267 steps of Sky City tower in Auckland, New Zealand. It was one of the hardest things I've ever done in my life! The following year I did it again. This time I trained for it and managed to get 7th out of a field that had some of the best stair climbers in the world.



After that race I had plans of training hard and competing in the mecca of stair climbing, the Empire State Building run-up.

However over the 15 years that followed I gradually lost sight of all my sporting goals and ambitions.

Even before I got sick with Lyme disease I would never have thought that I could give tower running another go. It's a horrendously hard sport and I never thought I could recapture the fitness that I would need to be competitive.

But now life is different. I feel much, much fitter and mentally able to take on things that would have been too daunting a few years ago. This applies not only to sport but also to work, leaning languages, dealing with difficult people, etc.

So recently I started training for stair climbing. My first event will be a run up the Almere WTC tower. This is relatively short (30 stories) but definitely still hard enough for a first challenge.

Yesterday I ran up the 30 flights of stairs in our head office twice. I was fairly pleased with my fitness but of course it's nowhere near as good as it was 15 years ago.

But rather than feel disheartened I'm looking forward to the training and improvements in my fitness that are to come.......

My goal is to compete in some of the world cup stair climbing races and ultimately I want to compete in the Empire State run-up. And I want to be competitive, at least top ten in the big races.

It won't happen overnight, but lets see how it goes over the next year or two....