Jaclyn Phelps
Lyme Disease & Allergies

Hi my name is Jaclyn Phelps and I am 13 years of age. When I was 9, I was really short for my age because the doctors said my bones were two years younger than my age. That kept getting worse and worse so the doctors eventually wanted to make me get growth hormones Then I developed chronic Kidney infections because of a Kidney reflux and so I needed antibiotics everyday. I was really sick though from October 2001 to February 2004. It all started when I was eleven years old and I started to get loss of vision in the corners of my eyes at times. The doctors just said it was migraines. So every once and a while I would just take some Tylenol and it was as easy as that. But soon I started to loss my near vision and with that, the headaches became screaming ones. And I also became very photophobic (which means that you can’t go in the light). So I went to a neurologist, and they said I could have papilladema (which is an eye condition that could be caused by a brain tumor or something called pseudotumor cerrebri). So I went for an MRI right away and they said I did not have a tumor, thank God. So then I had to go and get a spinal tap to make sure I didn’t have pseudotumor cerrebri. And after three spinal taps they decided that I did not have it. I went through lots of different kinds of tests and they just couldn’t figure out what was wrong with me. Although they did find that I have something called accommodation paralysis. Which means my eyes just couldn’t focus. And it made the doctors very confused because both of my sisters have auto-immune diseases. So finally I went to the pain clinic at a Children‘s hospital, and they did nerve blocks on me for about three months and that is where they give you a shot in the eye brows to numb the nerves. They would do this about once or twice a week in both eye brows hoping to try and tell my brain to forget about the pain. Of course it did not work. After a while all of the strongest pain killers stopped working, my mom, my dad, and I decided that if the headaches were going to come anyways then lets get off the pain killers. So I did. Then I just started getting home tutored and they had to read to me because my vision went away completely in reading. And I learned to just cry in front of my tutor instead of running out of the room every 15 minutes. And after doctors think they have tried everything, it feels like they just decided that it is all in your head and you are making it up. Then we found it.

One day when my uncle Bobby was flying in one of the Southwest airplanes, he read this article in one of their magazines, the only one Sierra Integrative Medical Center prescribes to. So then my mom and I went to Reno, Nevada to get tested. First you just get a lot of blood taken, and you see the doctor. She was nice and right away I liked her and felt safe. Then you wait a couple of weeks until your blood tests come back. When I came back, I found out I have lyme disease, and lots of allergies. So what you do then is go and get I.V.’s and medicines that give you lots of energy and get rid of lots of infections. We were really scared at first because it is so different than anything we had ever seen, but the staff was so nice and by the end I was sad to leave them because they had become like family. Plus, my headaches started to get further and further apart. After about three weeks of treatment I had no more headaches, and I was able to read again. So after five weeks of treatment, I felt better than I ever have before and I grew one and half inches. I am back in school full time and I am able to concentrate on my school work better than ever. It has been about two weeks since I have been home, and I am doing all of my homecare medicines, and feeling great doing it. I am even off all of my prescription medicines and I am still ok. It worked so well for me that my mom brought my older sister with a rare auto-immune disease and she is almost as healthy as I am now. Sometimes, it was really hard to understand what they are doing at the clinic and it just doesn’t make sense because we just aren’t accustomed to it. But once you have been through enough, you are willing to try anything and I am glad that I tried this because they were the ones that helped me. Thank you Sierra Integrative Medical Center, I don’t know where I would be without you.