S6 EP14: Athena's Story - Battling Lyme Disease For Over A Decade!

Athena Brownson was at the peak of physical fitness as a teen and into her twenties, but things began to change out of nowhere. Soon after, she was diagnosed with Lyme Disease, but the diagnosis was just the beginning. Lyme disease is transmitted to humans through the bite of infected blacklegged ticks (deer ticks) carrying the bacterium Borrelia burgdorferi. Symptoms include fever, fatigue, joint and muscle aches, rash, arthritis, and varying degrees of all types of auto-immune disease. It can result in death and in Athena's case, has taken her to the brink of hell and back. This episode shows how strength, resilience, and mind over matter, can triumph!! Thank you Athena!

IG: https://www.instagram.com/athenabrownsonrealtor_

Transcript

SPEAKER_00 1:31

Welcome to another episode of Well That Fucked Me Up. I am your host, Luke Colson. Today we're joined by Athena Brownson. Hi, Athena.

SPEAKER_01 1:41

Hello. Thank you so much for having me.

SPEAKER_00 1:44

You know, I'm just Where are you calling us from, Athena?

SPEAKER_01 1:47

I am in Denver, Colorado. So very far away from you.

SPEAKER_00 1:52

I'm in LA, actually.

SPEAKER_01 1:54

Oh, not too far away from you.

SPEAKER_00 1:56

I was in Denver not that long ago, about a month ago. First time ever. Altitude, you know? That's very it was very dry, is what I can say.

SPEAKER_01 2:05

Well, next time I'll be your tour guide. So you'll you'll have to keep me posted.

SPEAKER_00 2:09

Right. Thanks for coming on the show. Every week we have a guest, and we can talk about surviving life-changing events and experiences. And just before we started recording, you said that you that's your fucking topic right there. So um, Athena, where would you like to begin?

SPEAKER_01 2:26

You know, uh I'm gonna start by saying I don't think I could summarize what life has been the last decade without saying, well, man, that really fucked me up. So this is the perfect place. But I think it in order to paint the perfect picture um and show the stark opposition of change that happened in my life, yeah, I want to start with um my younger years, you know, when I was born and raised in Breckenridge, Colorado, so a mountain community. I was skiing, you know, basically from the time that I could walk. And by the time I was 15 years old, I went professional. So I was a professional athlete, um, traveling globally, about, you know, skiing 300 days a year. Wow. I was in peak physical condition. You know, I had, of course, I had, you know, you name it with injuries. I've done it. I've had nine ACLs, broken necks. Yeah, you name it. But none of that was was what really messed me up in life. Um, it was to come later. So, fast forward, I'm about 23 years old. It's finally time to hang the ski boots up and figure out what is next in my life. Well, I think when we um have an idea of where our lives are gonna go, the universe a lot of times laughs and says, that's not gonna be um what your next chapter is whatsoever, but nice try.

SPEAKER_00 4:00

Nice try, but no, not no.

SPEAKER_01 4:04

And you know, I I do believe that these crazy things we go through are what create and form us into the formidable, resilient, you know, adaptable people that we are.

SPEAKER_02 4:17

Yep.

SPEAKER_01 4:17

But I was, you know, fast forward to age 27. I'm still in peak physical condition. I had just gone in to get um a second neck surgery just to clean things up a little bit. And when I was recovering from my neck surgery, I started to get all of these really strange ailments that a you know, a healthy 27-year-old shouldn't be dealing with. And I went to my doctor who, you know, looking back, I was extremely fortunate to have brought this up to the neurosurgeon that I was seeing. Yeah, because he looked at me and said, Athena, I think we should test you for Lyme disease.

SPEAKER_00 4:59

Oh shit.

SPEAKER_01 5:01

Oh shit is right.

SPEAKER_00 5:03

That's rough. And actually, it goes undiagnosed so often because people just don't think it's something they should be looking out for, right?

SPEAKER_01 5:10

Exactly. And that's why I was extremely fortunate.

SPEAKER_00 5:13

Wow.

SPEAKER_01 5:14

But I looked at him and laughed because I had no idea, a, what Lyme disease even was. Yeah, B, I'd never seen a tick. I had no knowledge of being bit by a tick. Yeah, but sure enough, my results come in, and it's a big, you know, it's a big fuck you, Athena. Like seven out of ten kinds of Lyme disease.

SPEAKER_00 5:34

Congratulations, you've got Lyme disease. What were your symptoms? Like, how bad did they get? And when you thought, well, something's not right here.

SPEAKER_01 5:44

You know, when I realized something wasn't right, it was so minor compared to what I experienced later in later years. Yeah, but I was having a lot of GI issues. I I got E. coli out of nowhere, um, SIBO, all of these really strange infections. Yeah. And I was really tired. And coming from being a professional athlete that was like the energizer bunny to you know, barely being able to get through a workout and kind of slugging through my day. I knew that something was wrong. And and thank God this doctor did too. But that was the moment that and I had no idea that this was gonna be the moment that changed my life irreparably, to be honest.

SPEAKER_00 6:32

So um but it's and I'm assuming when he so when you got the diagnosis, you probably didn't know necessarily what that meant or how bad that was gonna be.

SPEAKER_01 6:43

You know, I thought it was in my previous ailments and injuries, it was always if you do A, B, C, and D, you're gonna get better. Yeah, um, there was a clear path on how to get something better. Well, with Lyme disease, there are so many unknowns because it attacks whatever you're genetically predisposed to. So it is completely different in everyone. Yeah, and to be honest, it's completely crippling. Um, for me, it ended up turning into several autoimmune diseases, the the worst of which started to attack my nerve, the you know, the protective covering around my nerves, so that my nerves were exposed. And I think we've all shingles.

SPEAKER_00 7:30

That's like a shingle situation. Oh my god.

SPEAKER_01 7:34

And it, you know, my my life very quickly went from kind of being at the top of my game, or at least thinking that I knew what life was gonna look like and how I how I was gonna conquer, to holy cow, how am I gonna get out of bed every day?

SPEAKER_00 7:50

Oh my god. And how quickly did it all kind of onset and progress? By the way, this is what we do on this podcast. I kind of like take like weird glee in like how bad things got, you know?

SPEAKER_01 8:04

I mean, it's something that we all all do. Yeah, and honestly, it cut so bad so quickly. So within about a six-month period, um, I had developed a very rare but very severe sensitivity to electronics, and it's called an EMF sensitivity, electromagnetic frequencies. So I became so sensitive to the radiation that would come off of computers, cell phones, LED light bulbs, refrigeration, you name it. Wow, I I would literally get electrical burns all over my hands that would bleed and all over my chest if I used my computer. It was something out of the science fiction.

SPEAKER_00 8:53

It's like right, it's like you're getting nuclear radiation from like a fucking computer screen.

SPEAKER_01 8:58

Exactly. And it it ended up that I I had to live in an RV that was disconnected from wall electricity, didn't have Wi-Fi, and granted, I was uh I am a real estate broker, so my world pretty much revolves around the computer and my phone. And and luckily I had great support through that. But there were six months that I couldn't even go inside of a house, a grocery store, anything that had an excessive amount of electricity because it would quite literally feel like I was in the electrical chair.

SPEAKER_00 9:35

Wow, I that is I have never heard of that, and that's all because of this fucking Lyme disease. And by the way, is Lyme disease always from a tick? It is, isn't it?

SPEAKER_01 9:46

It is, and it's now the fastest growing epidemic in the country. There's a ton of what we thought were conspiracy theories up until about three weeks ago, that this was actually created by the US government uh in a lab for biowarfare, and it was finally declassified about three weeks ago that that is indeed what happened. Oh this was something made to decimate populations, and unfortunately, it's decimating our own population.

SPEAKER_00 10:20

But how what what explain that? But still, so the disease was made but by the that's fucking crazy.

SPEAKER_01 10:29

And basically they infected ticks with it because they knew, you know, it was created in in um on Plum Island right off the coast of Connecticut. That's why it's very, very common in in the east coast where there's you know a lot greater tick population. Yeah, but they knew that they were creating something that was unique that had not been seen in nature. And when I what I mean by that is the lime um cell is actually in the shape of a screw, it's called a spirochine. So what it does is it screws itself into every cell in your body. And because of that, it's extremely difficult to treat. Um now I yeah, it's crazy. It is a science fiction novel, but unfortunately, most people there are many people that are living this science fiction novel like myself.

SPEAKER_00 11:28

So tell us about the so six months uh of the of the worst of this electromagnetic situation, and then and then how did things progress past that?

SPEAKER_01 11:39

Um, so I had about eight years after that, that it was such severe pain and fatigue daily that getting out of bed was a challenge. And and I I really think that my background as a professional athlete and and kind of grit and resilience is what got me through that period because I knew that if I didn't keep my eyes looking forward and and stay goal-oriented within my life, that I would deteriorate completely. So I was still working through this. I didn't go on disability, but I was it I was in survival mode. My nervous system was consistently in fight or flight. You know, I I lived from a space of being afraid of what environment was going to hurt me next, um, how I was gonna operate and get through a day, and not to mention medical fatigue of going to specialists all over the world that were trying to help me figure out what combination was actually gonna help me. And it wasn't until about two and a half years ago now, so I've been battling Lyme for 10 years that we figured out what it was gonna take. And that involves me getting four days of plasma transfusions and immunoglobulin infusions every five weeks to basically remove my immune system and replace it with a healthy person's. And that's something I'm still doing. Oh, yeah, they mix me up to a crazy machine.

SPEAKER_00 13:26

And and how and what is that, like pints and pints of like blood, new blood?

SPEAKER_01 13:32

It's plasma, yeah. So it's it's a portion of the blood. And you know, uh depending on your body weight, basically they remove seven pounds of my own plasma in each transfusion. You know, my blood is run through a centrifuge, all the blood in my body goes through a centrifuge two times to remove the plasma, and then they replace it with equal parts. So another seven pounds of um a healthy person's plasma gets pumped back into me. And man, you would be surprised how pissed the body gets when you put someone else's immune system into it. Yeah, it rebels for a little bit.

SPEAKER_00 14:16

It rebels for what, a couple of days?

SPEAKER_01 14:19

Yes.

SPEAKER_00 14:19

And then it's like, okay, then it's like, okay, I can get with it. But then exactly, then it starts to break down again as the Lyme disease takes hold, and you've established it's about six, five weeks before you start to feel like shit again.

SPEAKER_01 14:34

Yeah, it's about four weeks. So even today, you know, I've got a plasma transfusion coming up on Monday, and right right around you know, today, which is five days prior, I start to feel a little bit sluggish. My pain increases, and it's like, oh yeah, my body still does attack itself when I do have my own immune system in it.

SPEAKER_00 14:57

Wow. And what about obviously things? So I have um not to try and trump you because I don't have Lyme disease, but I have um rheumatoid arthritis and I have Crohn's. The Crohn's is gone, it's completely in remission. The rheumatoid arthritis is a pain, and the literally a pain. And I I also have that in my neck. So I have like uh steroid injections and lidocaine, and and that's the cycle for me, it's every three months, but my wrists become literally useless every three months. Like they'll literally just I can't do it. They're like it's just like these there's nothing I can't useless, and which is crazy. But so I kind of know how that cycle goes, and it's it's nuts to think that like you put an injection in, your body goes, Oh, okay, that's helped, that feels great. I'm not gonna send any pain receptors to your brain anymore. And then literally on the nose, like four days before my appointment, my wrists start going, Is it is it time we're gonna we're gonna need some more injections here, buddy, because here comes the pain and off we go.

SPEAKER_01 16:00

My hands do the same thing, and a lot of times rheumatoid arthritis is a result of Lyme disease. So there's a lot of people that might get their Lyme disease into remission, but because it triggered rheumatoid arthritis or you know, whatever autoimmune disease it is, yeah, you're you're left with that. And for me, because my nerves are being attacked, my hands become completely useless to me about three days before a transfusion. So I can relate to what you're saying because yeah, you can't even do anything if you tried. When when your body just says no, you have to listen.

SPEAKER_00 16:42

And what about that's crazy? So for me, I was on immune suppressants, I was on Metatrexate for quite a while, and then my Crohn's went, it vanished, which is fucking brilliant. But then came the rheumatoid arthritis, so it was almost like, okay, I'm going now. I'm leaving here, I'm leaving your stomach, but now we're gonna go here, you know, to your joints, yeah. So did little beep beep. And we're gonna go here. Um right now I came off the immune suppressants because they didn't make me feel particularly great. But is that something that you can use for Lyme? Like, what are the other treatments that they try?

SPEAKER_01 17:17

Yeah, so I've actually I think the biggest thing that has helped me. Um, when I talk, when I'm speaking to you today, I am a completely different person than I was a year ago. Um you know, I had gained about 90 pounds, and I'm 5'0, I weigh 110 pounds to begin with. Wow, but I my detox system just completely shut down. So I have been on an antibiotic protocol for about two years, and I actually just was taken off of it last week, and it's like the greatest news that I've ever gotten because taking 10 antibiotics a day for two years is absolutely miserable.

SPEAKER_00 18:00

No, good.

SPEAKER_01 18:01

But it got my Lyme, yeah, it got my Lyme into remission. Right. It is officially in remission, and now I'm doing the transfusions because of the autoimmune diseases. Oh, and I have tried those immune suppressants, and man, they they do make you feel yeah pretty dang horrible.

SPEAKER_00 18:20

Yeah, stuck the life out of me. I'm like, I'd rather be alive and have shit wrists than like just like you gotta take, you gotta make a choice, right? But when you say it's crazy to say like the Lyme disease triggers the autoimmune, and uh funnily enough, once you've got autoimmune in your body, it's pretty hard to get rid of, right? It doesn't matter what anyone says. Diet, sure, you can try. Um, and you know, I exercise a lot and I try and keep healthy, and I certainly know the foods that react really badly, like straight off the bat. But when you say your Lyme disease is in remission, does that mean they can't there's no sign of it in your bloods?

SPEAKER_01 19:01

Correct. So I just got blood work done. There's no sign of it now. Because Lyme is the type of um cell that it is, a spirochide, it's really, really good at hiding. And it's something they they they say there's no cure, quote unquote, for Lyme disease, but you can get it under remission because there could be things that flare you back up. So I have to be really aware of, like you said, how I'm taking care of my body, what am I eating? Am I exercising? What are my stress levels like? How you know, how am I really on a day-to-day basis taking care of myself so that I keep my symptoms at bay? Because if I don't, then I'm back, you know, back in bed. Yeah, and it's almost like being back at square one, even though it's not.

SPEAKER_00 19:53

Yeah, uh and is that cycle of the pl because is that cycle something you'll do for forever? Like, how do they put a game plan on it? Like, what are your what does this mean for you, I guess, long term? And I know it's impossible to say, but what does that what does that look like, hopefully?

SPEAKER_01 20:11

Yeah, you know, like you said with autoimmune diseases, it's really difficult to say if they'll ever um go away, if your immune system will ever stop attacking you. But the hope is, you know, I started off that I was doing a transfusion every other day. So I've built up to every five weeks. And my goal is to, you know, continue bumping that up so that maybe I get to a place where it's every other month. That would be ideal.

SPEAKER_02 20:40

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 20:41

Um, you know, if my immune system does not learn what it's supposed to be doing from the healthy immune system that they are infusing into my body, then yes, I will need transfusions and infusions for the rest of my life. Um but there is a lot of science and a lot of you know case studies showing that after several years of doing these transfusions, your body can start to recognize oh, this is what I'm supposed to be doing. I'm supposed to attack things from the outside that are coming into me, not attacking myself. So, my you know, I'm gonna be an optimist and just say, I'm not gonna have to do this for the rest of my life.

SPEAKER_00 21:28

You have to be. And also you read you read, right? You read horror stories and you read success stories. Like I've had so many patients, I've had so many cancer patients on here who have beaten cancer. I had a guy on just a couple of weeks ago who was told he had six months to live, and that was five years ago, and he's like, I just chose not to believe them, and I'm working on it. And I had a you have to because a lot of the time you get into the medical system here, they know how to treat or they think they know how to treat, and then they also know that with the treatment comes comes death when it comes to cancer. So that's where they're able to give you this like terminal. Um is there uh sorry to suddenly talk about death. I don't mean to, but I'm assuming there's a fatality rate with Lyme disease. I'm assuming that takes a lot of people.

SPEAKER_01 22:12

Oh, absolutely. Yeah, absolutely. And and I think that something that I've learned, especially over the last couple of years, has been that, you know, I believe the mind is about 50% of the struggle to getting better. If you're not doing things to treat, you know, whatever trauma is stored in your body, the PTSD of illness, um, you know, whatever negative limiting beliefs are in your brain, if you do not, you know, uh tackle those head on, then I don't believe that you can fully get better. So it's really being able to convince yourself that no matter what any doctor is telling you, no matter what diagnosis, you're telling yourself, no, I am going to get better and I am getting better.

SPEAKER_00 23:06

Yeah. I mean, it's literally mind over matter. I mean, it's the same things with like mental health or like stress, right? Stress can bring you like physical ailments, like stress can take you down. And that is that is something you can recover from from like a mental health standpoint. That's something that I've had a long, long, long fucking journey with addiction and alcoholism and mental health and depression, and you know, and I I'm seven years clean and sober now, and it's like Congratulations. Don't recognize who I am from every single standpoint in the world. Because I'm coming at it from like a I've I've beaten the thing that was literally about to kill me. So now I'm gonna live in a place of what so one thing you said at the very beginning was these are the things that make us who we are now, right? This is the reason why you're here and I'm here, and this is a reason why we come from a place of like hope, strength, resilience. Like obviously, some days are not so great, right? And that comes that goes with everyone. And for me, sometimes I like have a slight regression into like the things I did, or I feel some guilt, or I feel some shame, or my brain starts telling me for me, it's mental, right? Let's go back to that place where you hated yourself and like try and burn everything to the ground. And then you rise above it. Similarly, with your mind over matter or your willpower to stay healthy and do everything you can. We have these stories which are fascinating. Pretty much every single person I know has a story that has resulted or brought them to where they are today. And I sometimes think we're the lucky ones because it's like what what a what a thing to have to be to be living through. Like, talk about a fucking eye opener, you know.

SPEAKER_01 24:48

Oh, I couldn't agree more. And and I look at my life and where I am today, especially how how much work I have done on my mind and and how how comfortable I am in my own skin now. And I don't believe that if I had not gotten sick, that I ever would have done the work necessary for me to live an actual authentic, fulfilling life where you know, where I am of service to others, where I am I am not the center of my universe. It's it's how can I, you know, how can I help other people get through the challenges that they're facing?

SPEAKER_02 25:28

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 25:28

Um, and I never would have put that time or work in. So, you know, I would never wish this on anyone, but I do believe that when we're faced with adversity and challenge in our lives, what we're what we're supposed to be learning is the the deep-seated, you know, limiting beliefs that we have about ourselves. It's it's about overcoming and and coming out the other side stronger, yeah, and seeing it as an opportunity to actually um to gain something incredible because all of these struggles, these stories that we experience, those are all things that you have overcome. Yeah. And later in life, you can look, you know, look at whatever it is that you're facing and say, look, I've already overcome so much. I have gotten myself through, you know, having to live in an RV and being electrocuted by computers, you know, whatever problem or or challenge is in front of me, I know that I can overcome that.

SPEAKER_02 26:35

Yeah, it's incredible.

SPEAKER_01 26:38

And like you said, like it is a gift, honestly.

SPEAKER_00 26:42

You're a very inspiring human, and thank you very much for coming and sharing your story. Um, it is there anywhere where our listeners can find you. You have any social media or any websites that or any blogs even about your journey?

SPEAKER_01 26:57

Absolutely, and thank you for having me. I could talk to you for hours. Um, you're fascinating. But I I would love to connect with any of the listeners, anyone going through anything. Um, I'm I am here. I think the easiest way to get all of my um contact info is just to go to my Instagram, yeah, which is my first and last name, Athena Brownson Realtor. Yeah, shoot me a message, you know. I would love to schedule a phone call. Just help help anyone get through what it is they're going through because we're all going through something, man.

SPEAKER_00 27:32

That is the truth. And um, we'll make sure that that is on the link in the show notes. So if you're listening to this, um go and find Athena's Instagram. And one more question: where do you think the pesky tick bit you? Where do you think that might have occurred? Where was that? Where was that little fucker?

SPEAKER_01 27:52

Yeah, you know, with my career as a skier, it brought me to a lot of heavily wooded areas. If I had to guess, it probably was either in Vermont or complete opposite side of the world. And I was teaching sustainable sustainable farming practices in Uganda. And I was getting bit by things left and right. Um so everyone, you know, tick protection, put on that dude. Make sure that if you if you get bit by a tick, it um just go get three weeks of doxycycline so you don't end up like me.

SPEAKER_00 28:30

So and I know I said that was the last question, but now I'm interested. So if you get bitten by a tick, there is a chance to not get Lyme disease by acting fast.

SPEAKER_01 28:40

Absolutely. So if you act if you know that you get bit and you do go on three weeks of antibiotics, then it's it's kicked from your body. You don't have to deal with it ever again. It's the people like myself that were bit and don't know when it lays dormant in your system and then attacks when your system is under a lot of stress. So if you get bit, could just go to the doctor. Just don't ask questions, just go to the doctor.

SPEAKER_00 29:11

Amazing. Um, Athena, thank you so much for coming and sharing your story. This has been brilliant. Can you stay in touch? And um, we can always have you come back on and do a part two. And uh it's just been it's been a brilliant combo. So thank you so much again, Athena.

SPEAKER_01 29:26

Thank you for having me. You're wonderful.