2nd Functional Medicine Doctor

By late 2021, I had found another functional medicine doctor who specialized in Lyme disease. She knew to check for the many other issues that often accompany Lyme, so more testing ensued, and this is where some other major things were discovered that changed the game for me.

She found MARCoNS, which stands for Multiple Antibiotic Resistant Coagulase-Negative Staphylococci. It’s a bacteria-like resistant infection found deep in the nasal passages of people dealing with Chronic Inflammatory Response Syndrome, mold exposure, or Lyme disease. She also found that I had Small Intestinal Bacterial Overgrowth (SIBO), six gut infections including parasites, and heavy metal and mold toxicity. I learned that mold can hold onto Lyme bacteria, so treating that would also help with treating Lyme overall. We found toxic mold in the house I was living in at the time, and I had 4 out of the 5 toxic molds show up positive in my body: Aflatoxin, the whole Trichothecene family, Gliotoxin, and Zearalenone.

I should mention that during all of this, my brain got to the point where it just wasn’t functioning that well anymore. I couldn’t remember or understand the most basic principles you learn as an entry-level employee at the job I was working at at the time, even though by then I was the manager of a department and had years at that organization under my belt. It was the equivalent of like being in 8th grade and suddenly you’re confused about 2 + 3 equaling 5. I relied heavily on my staff for a couple months until I could pretty much no longer perform my job, not just cognitively but physically too, because everything else going on in my body was hitting me just as hard. This is where The Lowest Point hit.

Shortly after I made that decision at my lowest point, my functional doctor had started me on a mold toxicity protocol which, at the time, I had no clue would end up being my Saving Grace.

It’s important to note that once all of these other things besides Lyme were uncovered, I could start attacking them one by one and lessen the overall toxic burden on my body, which made treating the Lyme bacteria easier on my system overall. We addressed the MARCoNS using colloidal silver nebulizer, and that resolved. We addressed the gut infections (which at that point had reduced from 6 to 2 infections), parasites, and SIBO as well.

It took about a year and a half after having to leave my job, until I was finally at a point where I was well enough cognitively and physically to get back into the workforce. But it was about this time my second functional medicine doctor was taking a different direction with her career, and I again needed to move on to someone else.