(click photo)After 13 months of treatment with three different anti-malarial approaches, I have finished treatment for babesiosis. The treatments have left me with inflamed, sore, ringing ears but without soaking sweats and painful chills.
I had hoped to wait to begin antibiotics to treat the late-stage lyme, but I needed them for these early battles. By day 13 of treatment it was clear that antibiotics won't be an option for long. Hopefully I will be able to get through at least 30 days treatment for bartonella--similar to WWI trench fever. Unlike the medicinal herbs, this new phase of pharmaceuticals are more debilitating and more isolating. And there's no medication "holiday" in the lull between drug treatments. I'm having a difficult time stabilizing after the last antibiotics so I'm not ready to take more antibiotics to try to eradicate the bartonella.
I have tested high for lead exposure, so I will be spending the next month trying to chelate to reduce the toxicity. Although the treatments can be quite miserable to go through and are not expected to make me "feel better" I'm doing so to help strengthen my immune system.
I'm so relieved that I've been in reality about the degree and impact of illness and treatment. Last year, between treatments, I worked at the Community Darkrooms. Now tat I can't get outside very often, I need to work on photos at home. I'm prepared and set up to do so. Last year I was working on large-scale printing and thinking in RGB color work space. Now I'lll be paying more attention to size/cropping and the saturation of my sRGB conversions for the web, as well as grayscales and duo/tri-tones.
While it may be hard for me to develop photos during the next four weeks due to headaches and other symptoms of treatment for lead exposure, I look forward to working on photos and posting them online to share with you. During the last 45-day treatment, Minnie Bruce and I made it to two demonstrations in Buffalo: one in support of Gaza and the other to stop daycare cuts. After the treatment, I was able to take some photos in New York City at dawn just before an early morning doctor's appointment. Just before starting the heavy metal chelation, Minnie Bruce and I traveled by car to Niagara Falls.
Minnie Bruce's poem from Niagara Falls trip is in her facebook notes:
http://www.facebook.com/?ref=home#!/note.php?note_id=374448393479&ref=mf
I'm raring to develop and post photos. In the meantime, here is my photostream: http://www.flickr.com/photos/transgenderwarrior/sets/
yours in struggle and in solidarity,
Leslie
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