Getting help with Lyme disease – A mother’s story

Talking with Shelly Bourdo about her son’s experience with Lyme disease, it’s easy to hear the pain she felt when she was dealing with her very sick child for many years. She said he had been lethargic, very tired, and never felt like doing anything. When her son began having symptoms at age five, conventional M.D.s diagnosed him with asthma. She said he would get sick for a day and get better repeatedly, but he never fully recovered from his symptoms, and no one ever suspected Lyme disease.

Due to his continual sickness, she became disenchanted with conventional medicine. She said, “Doctors kept trying to put my son on medication, but I felt like that wasn’t the solution, so I kind of backed off. I was trying to medicate him with herbal supplements based on what I thought his symptoms were.”

When she realized that this approach wasn’t working, she turned to Serenity Health Care Center.

The journey from extreme illness to successful treatment for Lyme disease

Shelly’s son began his journey with Dr. Greg Brown, Serenity’s board-certified internist. Dr. Brown conducted several blood tests, and his initial diagnosis surprised the family.

“The first result we got back surprisingly said that our son had walking pneumonia, which was shocking to all of us. He had had lung issues his entire life, which led us to believe that our son had had walking pneumonia since the age of five when he was misdiagnosed with asthma. Once we dealt with that issue with antibiotics, he suddenly didn’t have the breathing issues.”

Dr. Brown’s blood work discovered several other health issues, including thyroid problems. These issues and her son’s symptoms led Dr. Brown to believe that they might be dealing with Lyme disease, so he began treating her son as if he had Lyme disease, even before a definitive diagnosis.

Treatment began with antibiotic therapy, along with supplements and antimicrobials. Shelly said Serenity would change his antibiotics and/or the dosage every couple of months. After the antibiotics and supplements had done their work, Serenity performed IGeneX testing, and it determined that her son had Lyme disease.

After Shelly’s son began treatment, and she began to see results, she began to suspect that her daughter, too, might also have Lyme disease. She was dizzy and tired and had other symptoms. Testing showed that she did have Lyme disease.

Both of her children now take part in other therapies that help patients with Lyme disease, including Bio Terrain Therapy or bio-magnetic pairing, and Ondamed, a therapy that combines a specific pulsed electro-magnetic field in combination with biofeedback.

Serenity made the difference for Shelly’s children

Shelly says the Bio Terrain Therapy and the Ondamed have really helped her children.

“My daughter can go in there [to Serenity] not wanting to talk, barely able to function and feeling horrible, and by the end of the session, she’s talking, laughing and feeling better, so I know this stuff works! Some people think, ‘Oh, it’s just magnets,’ but I can see the difference in my child.”

She also notes that her son had several issues caused by Lyme disease when he first went to Serenity. He had vision issues, neurological issues and Lyme rage. Shelly says, “It’s all gone. I attribute all of that to the care at Serenity.”

Shelly and her children feel like they are involved in treatment decisions.

“I feel like we’re part of the family at Serenity. We know each other; we communicate. I always feel like they listened to me – listened to my kids. They were always responsive to what we were trying to say.”

She is happy she turned to Serenity’s functional medicine clinic near Milwaukee for diagnosis and treatment.

“I’m so grateful we found Serenity because I don’t think we would have gotten this kind of treatment [for Lyme disease] anywhere else.”

Seek diagnosis and treatment for Lyme disease as soon as symptoms appear

Early diagnosis for Lyme disease makes treatment easier, but our experienced team can also diagnose and treat complex, chronic Lyme disease cases. Contact us today for an appointment.