Stephanie's Bartonella Journey

Episode 100:

Bartonella Journey with Stephanie and Evan H. Hirsch, MD

Evan H. Hirsch, MD  00:03

Hey there, Evan Hirsch here. Welcome back to another episode of the energy MD podcast, where we help you resolve your chronic fatigue long COVID and M casts by finding and fixing the real root causes of your symptoms, a combination of heavy metals, chemicals, mold, infections, and trauma when I call the toxic five. So I'm really excited about today's episode, because today we're going to be speaking with a participant in our program, and we're going to hear how they resolved their fatigue and other symptoms. So sit right back, and let's jump into it. Okay, Stephanie, thanks so much for being with me today. You know, I think it's really important that people can kind of see what happens in real life with people who are dealing with some Bartonella symptoms, and what happens when you treat Bartonella. So when, you know, you had some symptoms that had cropped up that we were dealing with, you had some thumb pain, which had gotten quite bad. And you can talk about how bad that was in a second, you had some left knee pain, some left hip pain, and some other kind of joint pain that you were experiencing. And we found that I felt like you had Bartonella. And so we went ahead and started treating it. How did that process go for you?

Stephanie  01:24

The process was very helpful. Number one, I think for me, knowing that there was a plan helped me and number two, then over time seeing the results of the plan of the protocol that I was put on the communication with you was so beneficial. Because if I wouldn't have pain, or if I felt something else come up, you would say, well, we will just do this or that. But mainly, I was able to alleviate the pain, which was, um, amazing.

Evan H. Hirsch, MD  02:09

Yeah, so what were you? What couldn't you do with your thumbs before we started treatment? Oh,

Stephanie  02:15

my gosh, the thumb pads were so painful, it would be hard to you know, make a fist or you know, do some a bit like typing I type all the time, or just anything that you would use your, your hands where even stretching them open, was painful. And you can imagine, you know, we use our hands all the time. And so I definitely I didn't know what the problem was, I thought maybe it was arthritis or just overuse. And using you suggested that it was Bartonella that hides it. It just is exhibited in different ways, different places. And it made sense to me. And using the Bartonella protocol helped amazingly, I mean, I, I'm great. I don't have the you mentioned the left knee pain, I do not have that left knee pain, it has not come back. And I mean, I'm excited about the hip pain. I mean, even now, as I've mentioned to you, if I have hip pain, it's probably going to be because I did something outside, you know, a specific cause that would cause it. It's not like, it's this, the thumb pain that I had was all of the time, it hurt all the time. wasn't something that came in when it hurt all the time. And so to be able to be put on a plan that I'm taking, it was amazing.

Evan H. Hirsch, MD  03:49

So now no thumb pain. No left hip pain? Nope, no left knee pain. Nope. And then the other really exciting thing that happened is that you were on thyroid. And we were able to get you completely off of your thyroid medication. So now you're just taking like a thyroid support product with a couple of nutrients in it. Yeah, yes. Correct. And that's always really exciting when we can actually get people off of their thyroid medication. And the only thing that I've ever found that actually was able to do that was by treating Bartonella for some reason Bartonella loves the thyroid. And and, and by treating that then we can wean people off of their thyroid medicine. Right.

Stephanie  04:32

And I think what is it if I can interject something here is that this Bartonella thing is unique to everybody. There might be how it exhibited itself in me is going to be different than somebody else. But to be able to communicate, which I so appreciate with you, is to be able to communicate how I'm feeling and to tell you well this is happening now. I've been watching, you know this, I've been on this protocol for however long and now I'm feeling this to be able to tweak that. And with my thyroid we've talked about, and maybe I don't know, if you were going to talk about just the energy piece of this, I've always been high energy. So even when I'm not feeling energetic, is it on a scale of one to 10? For me, being low energy might be a six, that I'm not going to get down to twos and ones, but for me to sit on the couch and go, What am I going to do, you know, just that a fatigue that I know is different for me, because it's not like up in the normal 789 tenths eight to 10 on a daily basis. So to be able to identify that as a part of Bartonella was huge to me. Because, I mean, I have a high energy level, right?

Evan H. Hirsch, MD  06:04

Yeah, so your energy level was at a six. And now you said it's at an eight to 10 all the time,

Stephanie  06:09

eight 910. I mean, I, I, it's hard to say 10. Because that would be perfect, but between an EIGHT and a NINE, you know, on a pretty regular basis.

Evan H. Hirsch, MD  06:26

Excellent. And there's something else that I was going to ask you. And so very interesting, because you were talking about how it manifests differently in different people. And a lot of times, what I see is I see muscle cramps in people who have Bartonella. And I see pain in the feet, or plantar fasciitis, which you had a long, long time ago. But that went away with acupuncture. And so it's very interesting also, because some people think, Oh, you have to have all of these symptoms in order for it to be Bartonella. But you can have just some of them, you can have the single joint pain, you can have the thumb pain, you can have thyroid issues, little bit of fatigue, you know, so it doesn't have to be all of those symptoms.

Stephanie  07:12

I didn't have all of them, but the ones I had affected me and needed to be addressed. And I mean, I'm thankful that I feel comfortable. And I speaking with you about these things, but also, I'm thankful that I am not hesitant to look at my body and say that doesn't or to assess my own body and see if that doesn't seem right. It might be okay. But it might not be okay. So I would just, I'm just glad that, you know, I felt comfortable enough to say, this is what I'm feeling. Right. And they knew what it was that I needed. Right.

Evan H. Hirsch, MD  07:51

Right. Well, and it's, you know, it's always a two way street, or I can't, I can't help you if you don't tell me what's going

Stephanie  07:57

wrong. Exactly. Right. Yeah, exactly. And so yeah, it's just so so, so, so important to not be afraid to be honest about the just the little things that just don't seem quite right. They don't have to be blatant screaming. The things that are that kind of nag at you like, you know, there that is, again, doesn't seem quite right. You know, it doesn't have to, you know, cuz things in my body, except for my thumb pain. They weren't screaming at me. They were just kind of annoying. But it's important to just kind of do that little assessment.

Evan H. Hirsch, MD  08:39

Right? Yeah, very important. And then I guess my last question is about mindset. So how has the mindset work that we've been doing been helpful for you?

Stephanie  08:51

Awesome. It's something that like, constantly have to come back to, you know, as you know, my mind is an amazing so I constantly need to remind myself the importance of a mind health and taking control of those things that I need to control, letting go of the things I can't fix. As you know, we've talked about recently, just with the time that we're in right now, not being able to hug my children, you know, and how I can take how I can do that in a fulfilling way is just by imaging, imagining it and doing it physically, you know, with like you mentioned the pillow or something. That is an amazing thing to me, that I have the control that I can choose how I'm going to view those things that are difficult or things that kind of hold me back or want to kind of send me spinning or whatever that I can. I can help myself out with those with mindset. Practices. Yeah, life enhancing

Evan H. Hirsch, MD  10:20

you Wonderful. Wonderful. Well, thank you so much, Stephanie. So appreciate you being here with me today and sharing your experience with others. Is it alright if I use this recording in our marketing materials? Oh,

Stephanie  10:34

absolutely. I just would encourage everyone if you have the opportunity to speak with someone like Dr. Hirsch to do so. Awesome.

Evan H. Hirsch, MD  10:45

Thank you so much. You're welcome. So if you have chronic fatigue, long COVID, or mast cell activation syndrome, and you're looking for help, check us out at energy MD method.com. We have a program for almost every single budget, and we're here to help. I hope you learned something on today's podcast. If you did, please share it with your friends and family and leave us a five star review on iTunes. It's really helpful for getting this information out to more people who desperately need it. Sharing all the experts I know and love and the powerful tips I have is one of my absolute favorite things to do. Thanks for being part of my community. Just a reminder, this podcast is for educational purposes only, and is not a substitute for professional care by a doctor or other qualified medical professional. It is provided with the understanding that it does not constitute medical or other professional advice or services. Thanks for listening, and have an amazing day.