Testomonial Letter

I've been feeling so much better lately! I decided I needed to write a testomonial letter for the doctors that have taken care of me and made me feel so much better.
WARNING: This is a long letter with an ugly picture! Enjoy :)

I feel like I could write a book about 2010 and I know I have enough details to do just that but I’ll try to keep my story short. In October of 2009 I noticed some weird symptoms starting to happen. I was a secretary at the time and typing fast was an important part of my job. It started to seem as if my right hand would not type like I wanted it to. I ignored this symptom and decided it would go away if I just didn’t dwell on it. My right foot started getting hot tingles in it about this same time frame, I ignored it as well. It wasn’t until the day in December when I woke up with no sight in my left eye that I decided something was really wrong. I called my eye doctor, he referred me to a specialist, I went to the specialist and was told I was just a healthy 24 year old with a fluke thing going on. I walked out of his office, blind in both eyes because he had dilated them and the advise of “come back in a week if you still can’t see.” This wasn’t good enough for me. My mom picked me up from the eye doctor in Idaho Falls and we headed straight to Pocatello. I believe it was a Myers cocktail that I received that day at The West Clinic. Dr. J wasn’t sure what was wrong either but we knew this wouldn’t hurt anything and it just might help. A week later I was still blind in my left eye so I went back to the specialist who ran more tests and decided I wasn’t lying so he sent me to get an MRI of my brain on December 23 of 2009. The MRI that was supposed to take 10 minutes, took TWO hours. I knew something was wrong but stayed positive as I left that office. A few hours later, the optometrist that had referred me to the mri called me and gave me some news. He sounded as if I was going to die, like he was giving the most devastating news of his life. When he finally spit it out what he was trying to say it was hard news to take. He said the white spots on my brain were consistent with MS or multiple sclerosis. He explained that I needed to see a neurologist and there are many options for MS patients to live long and happy lives. He was surprised at my reaction of laughter and we ended the conversation. I told my husband of 1 year at the time the news as we sat in our brand new home of 4 months. I called my mom, I cried, I was sad but again this news of “living with it” wasn’t good enough for me so I put on my “fake it ‘til you make it” happy attitude and made a plan.


I’ve never been a medication girl so the thoughts of being on medications with many side effects for the rest of my life never appealed to me. I had life to live, hours to work, house payments to make, children to be had, memories to make with the most amazing man who had only been my husband for a short time. He didn’t deserve a wife that couldn’t do all the things life has to offer. I was going to be well for the rest of my life no matter what it took. I had my MRI results sent to Dr. J and I met with him. Our plan was to stay on weekly iv’s and take a mess of supplements and over time we would see how I felt. Every week, I spent three to four hours in a recliner of the iv room. Some days were harder than others but I stayed positive. My symptoms were getting better with the iv’s as my body tried to get worse without them. I still had a lot of symptoms that were no where near pleasant and I started to feel like they were along for the long haul. I wanted these gone!

In April of 2010, Dr. J brought Dr. Hussar into my life. I knew from the first time I met him, he was going to make me well. He suggested that what I really had was Lyme disease. This disease was harboring itself in the cavitations inside my mouth where my wisdom teeth once were and also settling in my brain. Everything he said sounded very logical to me and I was ready for surgery to clean the cavitations out that day. My mom wasn’t quite so sure and needed some more reassurance. From April to November of 2010 I continued to drive to Pocatello, 65 miles from my home, to receive treatments once a week. I also continued with all of my symptoms…

• Dark spot in central vision of left eye also known as optic neuritis which came and went along with iv treatments and supplements until around July of 2010. It hasn’t been back since then.

• Right leg - hot pins and needles in foot, sometimes shoot clear to my hip. Muscles cramp even spasm, foot cramps, calve cramps, thigh cramps, hip cramps, random snakes running up and down my leg. Sometimes this leg did not want to walk and felt like I couldn’t, I made it anyway.

• Left leg - same as right but not as pronounced, both legs much worse with exercise and at night. Supplements seem to help a lot of nights so I could at least get some sleep.

• Arms - right usually worse than left but can switch in an instant, have to think about what letters I’m typing, fingers don’t want to work, hot and cold on and off, numbness and tingling rarely.

• Memory - worse some days than others, always bad, have to make lists for everything, hard to remember names, forget how to spell simple words. Forget what I came here for, where I’m going, simple phone numbers, birthdays I always knew.

• Balance - terrible! Stumble a lot, dizzy a lot, cannot stand on one leg.

• Exhausted - Hard to get up and do anything, including trying to work full-time.

• Hungry - all the time! Sick stomach and migraines a lot! Couldn’t eat potatoes or fruit without getting terrible headaches that turned into migraines

• Sugar worsens every symptom!

These symptoms were all very hard for me but the worst were my memory, balance, and missing out on potatoes and fruit. My entire life I took pride in remembering things that no one else did. I loved to remember everyone’s birthday and it got hard to have to look at a calendar everyday to see if I had missed someone. Also my entire life, I was a very athletic girl. I played basketball, volleyball, and softball. I was on swim team. It was hard not to be able to even dribble a ball. I missed an entire season of snowboarding because I didn’t have enough balance to even strap myself into my bindings. I was born and raised an Idaho girl, I love my potatoes. I went without potatoes for almost two years. That was a hard thing to do but it was even harder to be in bed with no light, throwing up, trying not to pull my hair out or chop off my own head in excruciating pain from the migraines they gave me. I went without fruit for about three months because it started giving me headaches. What the list doesn't include was how ugly I felt, and still feel, or how hard it was to stay positive through all the symptoms. It doesn't mention having no money, struggling to pay bills, because I couldn't work my full-time hours, which my husband and I are still struggling to overcome. It was hard but it’s so much better now!

On November 12th of 2010, I finally had my surgery! While the anesthesia was wearing off and my poor sister was wheeling me out the door of Hussar’s office in Reno, I remember taking a deep breath, looking at the sky, and thinking “I’m better than I’ve been in over two years!” He was only able to clean out two of the four cavitations that needed done on that day but when the pain in my jaw wore off, and all of my symptoms were at least 80 percent better, I was ready for more.

This is a picture I took of myself to send to my Trey Trey. He needed to see his sexy wife :)

It was the day after surgery number one. My jaw hurt but other than that I seriously felt so good.

It was swollen like this for almost a week, then the other side of my face looked the same way a month later.

I went back to Reno on December 16th and had the other two cavitations cleaned out. It was amazing. I felt even better than I did before while I was still healing. I didn’t think it was possible. By January of 2011 I was feeling so much better. I can wake up in the morning and I can stay up all day! I’m not exhausted anymore. I still have to write my lists of things to do but I can remember a lot more things. I went snowboarding, I did it and I remembered why I loved it so much. I was so proud of myself. I started going to a Zumba class. I’m really not very good at it but that’s just because I’ve never been a dancer. I can do it without pain and it feels amazing to get exercise again! Every time I leave the class I just want to cry all the way home because I can finally do something! Once you are out of the pain and misery of terrible symptoms, it seems as if they were never there and it’s hard to remember them. In fact I probably forgot to mention some in this letter. I know that is hard for anyone who is suffering to believe that but it is so very true for me.

For now and into the future I’ll be going to The West Clinic for any symptom of anything I don‘t like. Maybe an iv every month or two instead of every week. My veins that are wearing out really thank me for the last sentence. I still have more blood tests to take and some more clean up of the leftover spirochetes crawling around in my blood but for now I’ll take how I feel as the biggest blessing I’ve ever received!

I honestly believe Dr. J, everyone at The West Clinic, Dr. Hussar, his nurse Jan, and his anesthesiologist Bruce are angels! I could never say thank you enough for all that they have done and continue to do for me. This letter doesn’t even include what they have done for my family and friends as well. I consider what they’ve done for me miracle enough!

Flowers from my doctor and his wife.

They are amazing people!