41 Min.
Ticked Off, Part 2: A Wildlife Biologist Battles Lyme Disease Painopolis
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- Medizin
Can’t sleep because of chronic pain? (And wondering if weed might help?) Get our new book, Cannabis Lullaby: A Painsomniac’s Quest for a Good Night’s Sleep. Available in print, ebook, and audiobook, it’s brimming with real-world, evidence-based answers. The author is Painopolis co-host David Sharp, an award-winning health journalist who nipped his pain-fueled insomnia in the bud. Buy a copy today at: painopolis.com/cannabis-lullaby/
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While bedridden with Lyme, Kelly Weintraub set the goal of hiking the 2,650-mile Pacific Crest Trail. Could this wildlife biologist claw back her health?
Previously on Painopolis, wildlife biologist Kelly Weintraub talked about the years of symptoms that mysteriously would come and go. Fatigue. Muscle cramps. Migrating pain. Brain fog. Finally, a chance encounter with a colleague whose wife had long confronted the same symptoms led Weintraub to figure out what she was battling: Lyme disease. Lyme is a bacterial infection primarily spread by ticks. But ticks can transmit lots of other diseases, too, which can trigger disabling consequences. As Weintraub, unfortunately, found out.
“Six months after finishing her antibiotics treatment, Weintraub hit the Pacific Crest Trail. Would the little bloodsuckers she’d encounter in the wilderness zap her with even more tick-borne infections?”
Ten months into a controversial antibiotics regimen, she found out she had two more nasty tick-borne infections—anaplasmosis and bartonellosis. That’s why she was still sick, despite taking antibiotics for so long. Some experts say as many as 50 percent of Lyme sufferers like Weintraub—the ones who weren’t treated within 30 days after being infected—stay sick long-term.
But Weintraub beat those odds. In a big way.
While bedridden, she set the pie-in-the-sky goal to hike the Pacific Crest Trail from Mexico to Canada. Six months after finishing her antibiotics treatment, Weintraub hit the trail. Would she be able to walk 2,650 miles with a heavy pack on her back? Would the little bloodsuckers she’d encounter in the wilderness zap her with even more tick-borne infections? In this episode, Weintraub gives us a detailed map of how she went from the sick bay to the summit of her life.
Today, in part two of the story, Weintraub talks about:
• Her strategy for never missing a dose of her meds when her daily pills filled six pillboxes
• The mental shifts she made to deal with the roller-coaster nature of Lyme disease
• Why she believes that setting big goals for herself when she was super-sick was a key part of her recovery. (While bedridden, she decided to hike the Pacific Crest Trail!)
Can’t sleep because of chronic pain? (And wondering if weed might help?) Get our new book, Cannabis Lullaby: A Painsomniac’s Quest for a Good Night’s Sleep. Available in print, ebook, and audiobook, it’s brimming with real-world, evidence-based answers. The author is Painopolis co-host David Sharp, an award-winning health journalist who nipped his pain-fueled insomnia in the bud. Buy a copy today at: painopolis.com/cannabis-lullaby/
Our toolbox:
Check out the following sponsored services we use and love.
Please support Painopolis:
Did you find this episode worth hearing? If so, kindly donate to Painopolis.
We appreciate it! Your donation allows us to keep bringing you great stories, strategies, and insights.
_____________________
While bedridden with Lyme, Kelly Weintraub set the goal of hiking the 2,650-mile Pacific Crest Trail. Could this wildlife biologist claw back her health?
Previously on Painopolis, wildlife biologist Kelly Weintraub talked about the years of symptoms that mysteriously would come and go. Fatigue. Muscle cramps. Migrating pain. Brain fog. Finally, a chance encounter with a colleague whose wife had long confronted the same symptoms led Weintraub to figure out what she was battling: Lyme disease. Lyme is a bacterial infection primarily spread by ticks. But ticks can transmit lots of other diseases, too, which can trigger disabling consequences. As Weintraub, unfortunately, found out.
“Six months after finishing her antibiotics treatment, Weintraub hit the Pacific Crest Trail. Would the little bloodsuckers she’d encounter in the wilderness zap her with even more tick-borne infections?”
Ten months into a controversial antibiotics regimen, she found out she had two more nasty tick-borne infections—anaplasmosis and bartonellosis. That’s why she was still sick, despite taking antibiotics for so long. Some experts say as many as 50 percent of Lyme sufferers like Weintraub—the ones who weren’t treated within 30 days after being infected—stay sick long-term.
But Weintraub beat those odds. In a big way.
While bedridden, she set the pie-in-the-sky goal to hike the Pacific Crest Trail from Mexico to Canada. Six months after finishing her antibiotics treatment, Weintraub hit the trail. Would she be able to walk 2,650 miles with a heavy pack on her back? Would the little bloodsuckers she’d encounter in the wilderness zap her with even more tick-borne infections? In this episode, Weintraub gives us a detailed map of how she went from the sick bay to the summit of her life.
Today, in part two of the story, Weintraub talks about:
• Her strategy for never missing a dose of her meds when her daily pills filled six pillboxes
• The mental shifts she made to deal with the roller-coaster nature of Lyme disease
• Why she believes that setting big goals for herself when she was super-sick was a key part of her recovery. (While bedridden, she decided to hike the Pacific Crest Trail!)
41 Min.