If you or a loved one has ever had a chronic illness, you know that it can be quite humbling.  Not only humbling, but downright humiliating at times.  Nothing wrong with a little character building, but couldn’t I have some somewhat less painful humility lessons? It’s rather hard going from someone that has been self sufficient to needing the kindness of family, friends and strangers to survive. First off.  Thanks to everyone who helped me pay for the first treatment.  In a nutshell, it worked, but there were some complications. It targeted one thing only – The Lyme Borrellia  Burgdorferi.  Just that strain and no co-infections.  When a tick bites you, you get about a dozen critters.  The thinking is that once the immune suppressing infection of Lyme BB is gone, your immune system should kill the rest.  Mine did not.  In fact, they all popped up at once and a year after treatment, I feel sicker than before. So, with better tests, I watched my Lyme go from IGM positive to IGM Negative, then IGG Pos to IGG neg.  That was impressive.  But, new blood tests show raging infections of bartonella, babesia (like Malaria), Ehrlichia and Yersinia.  Some will be treated with conventional medicine, some with unconventional medicine and Bartonella with another SOT treatment that killed the Lyme. Many of you know that I’ve been struggling with Lyme Disease for over 25 years. In the beginning, I had the time and finances to throw the entire kitchen sink at it.  I did a year and a half of very strong antibiotic therapies.  Being in NYC I could go to the top specialists and also do the best adjudicative care as well. When those didn’t work I flew around the world, trying everything from cutting edge experimental to desperate and sketchy therapies that might kill the bug, but just might kill the host – me – in the process. It was a disease that robbed me of way too many years, my marriage and my Hollywood career. At one point I was given a month to live because of full organ shut down.  I spent that month on a spiritual journey and somehow this Jewish guy from New York didn’t die and became a minister in rural GA.  Even though I left that calling, I’m still recognized around GA as I had ministered to thousands of wounded souls.  I think I was good as a minister cause I had a lot of empathy after that long journey! So, we fast forward to the past decade or so. I’m not without occasional trouble, but who in their 50s is not without occasional troubles?  Lyme seemed in remission and I started rebuilding  a life, building a  business, starting a serious relationship, traveling, writing again, publishing a comic book and leading a fairly normal life. I was pretty optimistic about the road ahead. About  two months ago the remission became remiss. Not sure if I got re-infected, or my immune system just got beaten down by a slew of stress that came at me during that time.  But, I feel worse now than I did anytime during the first bout of Lyme.  Only this time I don’t have the finances to throw the kitchen sink at it. I also developed allergies to every antibiotic used for Lyme, so I can’t go back to that. In the past I had great insurance from the Writer’s Guild and the United Nations. The insurance I have now is barely paying for the basic blood tests, let alone anything unconventional. I’m still fighting them over an exorbitant emergency room visit for an eye problem that seemed to be the start of this downward spiral. There are two new very promising Lyme therapies that weren’t around back when I first got sick.  One has the side effect of putting a number of the participants in a psych ward.  I think I’ll pass on that one.  The other isn’t cheap.  It’s probably gonna be five to eight grand out of pocket but no psych ward and one of the few places its offered is here in GA. As nothing is a silver bullet, it has worked for many, but not for everyone, but I think it’s worth of a shot. In fact, what’s left of spirit man, tells me to go for it. Meanwhile I'm doing natural antibiotics that while effective are not cheap. The treatment is called  Supportive Oligonucleotide Therapy, or Antisense Therapy.  It’s is a gene treatment created in Europe of 20 years ago used on certain cancer cells, Hepatitus C and now Lyme Disease.  Once received, the antisense molecules are in the body 24 hours a day disrupting the replication of the Lyme bacteria.  It’s not a kill off therapy.  It stops the damn bug from replicating so it dies on its own.  So, hopefully not a toxic overkill which is what got me so sick back in the day.  The Center has had great success with this treatment with a 95% success rate. But, the therapy for the rest of the critters witll set me back about 5 grand as well as the doctor visits, additional meds, testings, etc.  Unfortunately, I no longer have that on hand.  This is where the kindness of strangers, friends and family kicks in.  my sister and brother in law came through as always to help me pay some other outstanding medical bills. If you see it in your heart to kick in a few bucks, I’d greatly appreciate it. If you too are tapped out, please  then share the Go Fund Me’s link.  Prayers also appreciated. Hey, we’re all in this foxhole together. Thanks for reading this, Michael Stark

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Help Michael Beat Lyme Part 2

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Help Michael Beat Lyme Part 2

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