'Casualty of an undeclared war'

My health has declined. I have to get off all text-driven work so I can continue to put up a fight. But I want to bring this important information I've compiled for you:

'Casualty of an undeclared war': www.transgenderwarrior.org

Please share widely. 

My heartfelt thanks to Torry Mendoza for his enormous contribution of labor as web weaver.

health update: 'fast forward'

I've been chelating high levels of lead from my body for the last 9 weeks. I wouldn't want to go through it again, but I got to be in much more social interaction. It was glorious--like an extremely painful vacation.

The treatment began with excruciating damage to my ear, resulting from an allergic reaction to the pharmaceutical chelating agent. For the time it lasted, I experienced total loss of quality of life.

As a result, I began a non-pharmaceutical protocol--all of which was healthy for me to ingest. What a relief from fighting infectious disease with pharmaceuticals!

I felt more able to read and write snippets, although analytical reading and writing in English is still a very painful work space in my brain.

Before being treated for lead exposure I had been almost confined to bed from muscle loss during the last antibiotic treatment. So the lead protocol gave me time to heal and try to build my strength for the next round of pharmaceutical treatment.

By the end of the 9 weeks I actually marched 2 miles on May Day in heat and humidity, and even ran a little (well, trotting a little) to get ahead of the march to make images. [* see link to my photos below.]

However, while I was getting stronger from having pushed back the Babesiosis and detoxified from lead, the untreated diseases are worsening, quickly and increasingly dragging down my strength and stamina.

The plan was to treat the Bartonella next--the tick-borne disease that may well account for my endocarditis in 1995 and loss of balance that resulted in falls and one broken wrist.

Clinical experiences advise Lyme patients to try to eradicate Lyme co-infections like Bartonella first, in order to isolate and weaken the spirochetes. But the class of medications used to treat Bartonella (a relative of World War I trench fever) has the potential to cause even more permanent damage to my ears. That danger lasts for up to a couple of months after the antibiotic, as well.

At this point, the level of pain and noise in my ears is a threshold I can't go beyond without complete loss of quality of life. After extensive medical consultation, I am not going to attempt to treat the Bartonella.

Instead, I will be immediately beginning antibiotic treatment for Lyme--maybe as soon as tomorrow. It's not clear how long I will be able to physiologically tolerate these antibiotics. My ability to tolerate any medication, even traditional herbal-based medications is narrowing. That's why I'm in integrative medicine.

In order to focus myself for what is going to be an isolating treatment, during which I need to stay out of sunlight, I will be trying to post one photo online each day the during the first month of treatment.

The last two months were precious and productive for me. Each course of treatment has its trials and tribulations. But treatment is life--I'm ready!

solidarity in struggle,
Leslie
5/14/10

*May Day 2010
Buffalo, New York
through my lens:
http://tiny.cc/3s371

'walled in'

click photo:

'walled in'





On January 1, 2010 (by the calendar that rules where I live on this planet)--I am beginning Round 3 of anti-malarial medications.



I'm in late stages of three tick-borne diseases which went undiagnosed and untreated for more than 30 years: Lyme, Bartonella and Babesiosis (sometimes characterized as the malaria of the Northeast United States. because the organism is so similar and the treatment is the same).



For me, treatment is a challenge. As the tick-borne diseases went undiagnosed, I was prescribed so many antibiotics and other powerful pharmaceuticals to fight off life-threatening secondary infections and medical conditions that now it's hard for me to tolerate those medications, at a time when I need them.




I had to stop the first two rounds of anti-malarial medications because of excruciating permanent damage to my ears and hearing. I am beginning a more aggressive pharmaceutical treatment now, shortly after winter Solstice (where I live on this planet).




I'm just at the very beginning of this battle. The diseases, symptoms and treatments keep me at home and impact greatly on my ability to communicate. I still have many, many unread messages since I was finally felled by illness in October 2007. But reading and writing has become increasingly more difficult.




However, over the course of my lifetime I've developed skills to care for my self and to struggle to stay alive in a violently hostile, profit-driven economic system, or else I would not have survived this long.




Most of my work now is through photographic labor, using an area of my brain that is a less painful work space. You can view my photos: http://www.flickr.com/photos/transgenderwarrior/sets/




Thanks to Torry Mendoza [http://www.torrymendoza.com/about.html] I now also have the ability to blog directly with you. If I can get my sea legs in anti-malarial treatment, my goal is to blog a photo every day. I follow flickr community guidelines, which means that photos re-posted online include a link back to their site on flickr: All of my photos are my personal gift to you via Creative Commons copyright: attribution, non-commercial, non-derivative.




I hope my photographs will bridge distance and language--spoken and signed--and build connection.




Check back here for updates or click on the "follow" button in the right-hand column. I look forward to connecting with your thinking on your blog, as well!