We Have Arrived. Masked and Ready to Heal.

A Note from Sue

June 1, 2016

Just a quick update on Beth. Thanks to all your kindness and support Beth made it to a fantastic treatment center in Albany, NY called Stram Center of Integrated Medicine.

Tuesday she had her first of many sessions with Dr. Stram. The initial consultation consisted mostly of questions, fact gathering and blood tests. Yesterday Beth received a cranial sacral massage which seemed to bring some life back to her body and spirit. Soon Dr. Stram will start her on a treatment plan that is custom to her needs and infections.

Here is a shot of Beth and I during our road trip to New York. The mask you ask? Beth is very sensitive to the artificial scents and chemicals in lotions and hair products. This is one of the things that can happen to Lyme patients when the immune system gets so repressed. I forgot and put on a lotion that I thought was OK. Thirteen hours in the car gave me a lesson on how difficult it is to get the chemicals in the lotion off of your skin, as well as just what happens to her lungs with only a tiny amount! I tried rubbing alcohol, water and Beth's soap, and even tried to look for a shower. Then we realized it was on my clothes. So Beth put on a double mask, a body pillow in between us and her head out of the window, and through some teamwork got her safe and sound to the hotel with only a slight cough as a consequence. We made it to the hotel, and while one room had a previous guest who used a lot of perfume, the place was large, and the other room was scent/chemical free. We pulled all of the linens into the laundry and Beth put on her own sheets, took a double shot of Benedryl and went to sleep for a few hours.

While she was up and down with Lyme symptoms, I slept like a baby, and in the morning got to work on finding grocery stores and running errands to help get her set up in her temporary home.

Thank you again for supporting her through this!

Sue Chaitin