Enter Thrive

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I have a ton of things I really want to discuss concerning Thrive, how I learned about it, wished I didn’t need it, started using it, and why I’m where I’m at today beginning to promote it. I’ll try to condense and keep this as short as possible though.

Let me start by saying I’m a firm believer in everyone’s God-given free choice and God’s full control of everything at the same time. There are paradoxes in life that we may, or may not ever be able to explain or understand. At any rate, I think it’s amazing to see God’s hand in everything. This may be harder to keep short than I thought. I won’t open a whole new can of worms right now, but I could really get going about this topic.

Now to the topic at hand. There’s no way to tell exactly how long Lyme has been in my body. I really don’t think my body would be the way it is at 30-some-years-of-age if I had only had Lyme for a short time. My immune system is weak at best, my thyroid is a mess, and my muscles…well let’s just say they don’t work the way they used to.

Let’s see if I can paint a bit of a picture. Robin and I met at a Christian camp in Colorado: Camp Redcloud. I started working there as the photographer in 2004. In addition to following campers and staff around with a camera I used to backpack, snowboard, teach rock climbing, mountain bike, horseback ride, and facilitate high ropes, among other things. I had lived in Florida before moving to Colorado so there were some acclamation issues. My brother Matt was the wilderness director and my first week at camp I went hiking with him and his staff up the Great Divide trail. I’ve always had asthma and that added to the difficulty acclimating to the elevation. I made it up the trail huffing and puffing with a small daypack on my back. I was tired out at the end of that day and sore the next day. All the same, I didn’t have any more cardio issues after that and my muscles recouped stronger too. A little soreness is a good thing. I expected it from that much exercise especially when I hadn’t done anything quite that strenuous for a while. Yet I was able to jump into the rest of that week without missing a beat.

Fast forward to 2017, in Albert Lea, MN, with our two-year-old Timmy. After Lyme was activated in my body by my car wreck in 2016, I was at the end of my third month of my first regiment of antibiotics. Tired of feeling stuck on the couch not getting anything done, I decided to give Timmy a haircut and a bath. I figured if I did the haircut in the bathtub it would help with cleanup. So I kneeled beside the tub for no longer than half an hour. Then, I vacuumed the bathroom, got Timmy lunch, put him down for a nap, shaved and showered. By the time I finished my shower I was overheated and out of breath. That was a Sunday. Monday I felt like I had not only hiked that Divide trail but ran a marathon as well. My muscles were so sore I could hardly move. If I did get up it was even more painful sitting back down. I was even worse on Tuesday, but it did start to subside and by Wednesday I was moving a little more freely. I did limp around at my doctor appointment on Wednesday, but by Thursday I was pretty much back to normal, which is actually a huge improvement. Previously, my first month on antibiotics, I had “overdone” it and it left me as sore as I was this time for the whole week.

In an attempt to balance my body and get it back to a healthy level my doctor has recommended a ton of vitamins and supplements. It’s been especially important to be on them while I’ve been on antibiotics because the antibiotics throw my body even more out of whack. The best I’ve been able to do though is the bare minimum because it’s so expensive. My doctor has suggested a bunch more but I’m pretty sure that even what little I have done has helped, especially the probiotics and activated charcoal. This need for vitamins and suppements is another rabbit trail topic that I could go miles down. Maybe I’ll address it more in another post.

It has also been really frustrating keeping all the vitamins and supplements, along with three antibiotics, on a schedule that facilitates their effectiveness and helps me keep functioning. I did get an app for that. It helps a ton, but it’s still quite the daily struggle. Before I started the antibiotics I had been doing other natural supplement treatments that were even more expensive. That was one of the reasons I decided to switch to antibiotics because they were covered by insurance. Yet, I still do need to be on something that helps keep me balanced while on the antibiotics and maybe even the rest of my life.

So, I did some light research and began thinking and praying about what I could find that would not only help me health-wise but also be more economic and simplify my medication schedule. I hadn’t looked real far, but one of our clients, Angie, the owner/operator of the health and wellness directory Be Well God Bless, was on the lookout for me as well.

Enter Thrive.

* Affiliate link disclaimer – This blog post contains affiliated links to a product that we love. This means I may receive a commission at no cost to you if you chose to click on the link and purchase the product.