Dave’s Blog
Lessons from Malakoff and my Backyard
On July 21st, the Nevada County Planning Commission will consider a request by a Verizon-affiliate to install eight antennas on top of the Friar Tuck Building. Peer reviewed studies point out harmful health effects for those living near such antennas. However, federal law prevents this as a consideration. Local history may provide perspective. In 1853 hydraulic miners dissolved mountains to harvest the gold in an area now known as Malakoff Diggins. The silt traveled downstream. Farmers in the valley began to complain about the tailings that flooded their land. In the late 1860’s, Marysville and Yuba City were buried under 25 feet of mud and rock. Sacramento flooded...
Read MoreMy Son Does Not Have a Mental Disorder
Overview of one of my son's illnesses. It is not bipolar disorder.
Read MoreStatus update
Chris’s Lyme test came back from Advanced Labs positive for Lyme disease. In early 2012, before antibiotic treatment, it took three months for sufficient spirochetes to grow in order to confirm the diagnosis. This time, six months after termination of treatment, it took just a few weeks. This suggests to me that, after antibiotic treatment, the Bb was more active! Did our “successful” year long treatment with three oral antibiotics simply kill most of the Borrelia burgdorferi while selecting out the more virulent organisms and allow them to add to any already-existing biofilm? They call it persistence. All bacteria do it. Apparently Lyme does it with a...
Read MoreNo Lyme? Now What?
The second Advance labs test taken in November between episodes came back showing no evidence of spirochetes. What does this mean? I had the opportunity to meet innovative health care providers Dr David Martz and Dr Neil Rawlins at the Physicians Roundtable conference in March. Dr Martz successfully treated his ALS with IV Rocephin. He had (has?) Lyme disease. Dr Rawlins is an OB GYN doctor from Washington State who is highly knowledgeable about methylation, a subject I discuss in Beyond Mental Illness. During a social event, I told both of them of Chris’s remarkable 19 month period of stability, the longest ever since his first psychotic episode in 1999. During much...
Read MoreThe whole truth, and nothing but the “psychiatric” truth
Now that the books are finally out the door, it is time to give a progress report. While taking the antibiotics, supplements and antibiotics, Chris had a 19 month run of good health during which time he held a job, not a small accomplishment, given his previous history of multiple episodes. He had been doing so well that his psychiatrist slowly took him off the Haldol while continuing with Depakote and Seroquel. She recommended that he stop taking the antibiotics. I argued that until we knew that the infections were gone, I thought he should stay on them. Chris maintained his compliance with his psychiatrists treatment program, but did not take his antibiotics,...
Read More