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Lyme Disease

    Emily sitting at an infusion clinic, wearing the PICCPerfect® Active PICC Line Cover in Mist.
    Chronic IllnessLyme DiseaseMightier TogetherTreatment and Care

     IV Ozone Therapy for Chronically Ill Patients: A look inside Emily’s newest treatment

    by Emily Levy August 12, 2022August 18, 2022
    written by Emily Levy

    Hi Friends in the Fight,

    Your support during the last few years has been essential to my journey towards feeling Mighty Well for myself. In honor of how far my body has come in the past year, I wanted to share with the Mighty Well community the treatments that have helped me heal and take care of myself.

    For those who haven’t been following my journey, I hope this update will help you feel less alone in navigating the healthcare system:

    While my Lyme was (finally!) in remission, doctors confirmed what I had been feeling all along – years of fighting this bacteria had deeply affected my body and additional treatment would be required to fully recover.  Not only this, but we discovered there were other infections wreaking havoc that had previously gone undetected.  I chose to step back from day-to-day work and to prioritize the rest my body needed.  I shared this with all of you because I am proud of my choice to take time for healing and wanted to empower others to listen to their bodies.

    I am so grateful to have had this time to focus on my health and, Friends, it’s working!  Slowly but surely, I am feeling myself come back to the version of me that could take on the world with energy and positivity.  Many of you have asked about the treatments that are helping so much.  I believe strongly in transparency to break down stigma and share knowledge, so while I am still on the road to healing, I wanted to share an update about what has gotten me to where I am right now.

    You can find general tips on building up a care team here, which include some of the alternative therapies I’ve been receiving.  I want to take a moment, though, to dive a bit deeper into two therapies that have changed the game for me: ozone and ketamine.

    what is ozone therapy?

    On the recommendation of my functional medicine doctor, I began ozone IV therapy about a year and a half ago.  I had undergone IV antibiotic therapy on and off for five years and felt that it had taken a toll on my gut.  I felt that I received all of the benefits that I could from traditional antibiotic therapies. Thus, I was interested in ozone as a different way to address the pathogens that I still had lingering in my body.

    In my research and direct experience, ozone IV therapy is very regenerative for the body’s cells, helping them clear out any toxins and rebuild.  There are different dosage levels, so starting at a low dose (called one pass) is important.  You can build up to ten pass.  I am currently at a seven.  Most people will have herx reactions, so it’s important to start slowly and take precautions.  My doctor recommended using charcoal binders, drinking celery juice, or eating detoxifying foods afterward, so that the dead pathogens can be flushed out.  

    There are a few ways it can be administered, such as through the ears or nose. Since I had a chest port for IV access at that time, I felt that IV ozone was the best option for me.  (In the picture above, I’m receiving it through a peripheral IV, which I do when it’s the only IV needed that week).  To start the treatment, the IV nurse takes about a pint of blood, infuses it with ozone gas (O3), and then administers it back into my body.  Sometimes they also run it through something called a UVBI light – as we know from Covid precautions in public buildings, UV light can be a powerful tool for killing pathogens.  You can receive these treatments in specialized IV clinics (I go to the BioMed Center), but will likely need to pay out of pocket.  Some people who cannot afford IV ozone buy machines to use at home.  In total, the process takes me about 45-60 minutes.

    Click here to explore more about ozone

    final thoughts

    If you have questions about my experience with Ozone, feel free to DM me on instagram @mightywell_emily!

    Our next blog will focus on ketamine as a treatment for depression.  These therapies are not the right fit for everyone, but I hope by sharing my own experiences that others can learn more and explore these options with a doctor.  Perhaps this openness can help more people find the healing they desperately need.  

    We are mightier together!

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