Linda Fournelle: My story starts at least 10 years ago, if not earlier, when I start to think about when I started feeling just weird things. Like
I started with a lot of headaches, nerve pain, and I thought that it was like tension headaches and things like that. And so I started to see a lot of chiropractors.
I woke up one day with the left side of my face feeling numb and doctors thought that I had Bell's palsy and I had MRIs and things like that. And that was actually almost 20 years ago when that started.
Dr. Kyle Warren: Oh, wow.I didn't realize it was that long ago when you started having these weird things interject into your life here.
Linda Fournelle: Yeah. And so it would be one weird thing and I'd get that checked out by a doctor and then nothing's wrong with you kind of thing and just kind of move on and be like, okay, well, this is just what I'm going to deal with. And I just kind of continued.
I saw chiropractors and I was young at the time and in college and things. So I didn't like, my health wasn't maybe my top priority. It was like, whatever, you just keep going.
And then as I continued to get older and became a teacher, actually, I started to have a lot of headaches almost every day and a lot of pain, like just with my legs and standing, like it was hard to stand for a long time. I also started to get pain in my wrists and it was really hard to use my hands. And like, I couldn't peel a potato because I couldn't hang on to it.
Dr. Kyle Warren: At a certain point you went, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa. This is not normal.
Linda Fournelle: How can this many different things be wrong with me? And I'm seeing different orthopedic doctors and getting EMGs and just, oh, I was trying everything. I had did acupuncture and I just had a lot of pain, nerve stuff and headaches.
And then 2017, I think when things got really bad and it took me until 2019 to figure out that I had Lyme. My hips hurt and it hurt to stand. My joints felt like they were on fire.
I did not have arthritis. And then I started to notice that I would get a cyclical headache and stiff neck, really, really bad about every four weeks or so. And so I remember telling my husband, like, I think that I'm getting it recurrently.
And that's what made me think of Lyme. So I went to my doctor and I did get tested for Lyme and it came back positive, negative.
Dr. Kyle Warren: Yes, I remember this. We have these kind of, I mean, two things I'll comment on there is so often Lyme looks like that rheumatoid arthritis or inflammatory arthritis, but then they start testing like, no, it's not that, but it kind of looks like that. So we have a lot more pain than someone your age should really have a lot of those problems.
And then we ran the Lyme test and got these, it's not negative, but it's not positive kind of result, which is what happens. That's where so many people just, they hit a wall and it stops.
Linda Fournelle: Yeah. Yep. And my doctor decided to do a clinical diagnosis of Lyme and treat me with antibiotic.
It wasn't a very long, I think it was a two week thing of antibiotic and my hip pain went away. My headaches like that cyclical headache stopped and my neck pains up. So I actually did feel better. The really bad things felt better.
Dr. Kyle Warren: And then when you take an antibiotic and get some relief, we're like, okay, we're on the right line of thinking here. So you were better, but not all the way better.
Linda Fournelle: Right. I would still get headaches. I actually ended up getting like orthodontic work and aligning my teeth because I thought it was in my jaw alignment.
So a lot of money on that. And I just was really tired still. And then a lot of lightheadedness and like fainting or getting like wacko kind of stuff feeling very, like I would go to work in the morning and every morning, I just felt very dizzy. Like telling my coworkers, like, I don't, I don't feel right today. I'm not sure if I'm going to fall over or not.
Dr. Kyle Warren: Now I met you a little over a year ago, right? It was last, it was the beginning of last summer.
Linda Fournelle: Yep. Last July.
Dr. Kyle Warren: Okay. So when I met you last July, it wasn't the worst you had ever been, but it was still, it was still not healthy. You know, we would say not healthy.
You still have a lot of like eights out of 10. Like I remember on your paperwork, it was like joint pain and it was still an eight. And you were like, but it's better.
And you're like, but it's still an eight out of 10. And the fatigue was like an eight and the dizzy was a six. And it was like, you still had a whole bunch of stuff at a pretty high level.
I just remember you were so positive about it. You were just like, well, but it's been worse. I remember being like, okay, I like the positivity. Right. But I was like, but I think you can be better. And you were like, yes, I hope I can still be better.
Linda Fournelle: I think it started in January, just with my normal checkup with my doctor. And I was just still telling her some things that I just wasn't feeling good. And she had mentioned that when we did the Lyme test back in 2019, that my ferritin was high.
And that's kind of what led me actually to you is that she's like, let's test that again to see my ferritin was high. So they checked out my liver. They were worried about iron overload and did genetic tests and ultrasounds and MRIs and all of this stuff.
And working with the rheumatologist, they tested me for Lyme again, which was positive, but like the positive where they say it's just because you might've had it. And she was really great trying, like she knew something was wrong with me. And so we just tried to test everything.
And the rheumatologist kept saying like, it's gotta be the Lyme, but she had to say like, well, it can't be the Lyme because you don't technically have it.
It was at the lowest point. I just don't know what to do.
I feel terrible and nothing is wrong with me, but I know everything is wrong with me. Another thing that pushed me into that was like, I was waking up now with panic attacks and night sweats. And so I wasn't sleeping and just these weird things that are not in my personality, but it was uncontrollable.
And so she had referred me to the infectious disease and I just didn't, after talking to her and the rheumatologist kept saying Lyme, I'm like, you hear stories about people and having Lyme and I know family members have had it. So that's when I started searching and especially being in Minnesota, it was Lyme doctor. And I was like, okay, Lyme doctor, this seems weird.
Like, are you really the Lyme doctor?
Dr. Kyle Warren: It was early enough. It's a pretty good website name, right? It was pretty good.
I was like, oh, this one's open. That's a good one to get.
Linda Fournelle: It was like too good to be true. Like, oh, I'm looking for a Lyme doctor. And that's what it says.
And so when I called you and talked to you and we had that consult on the phone, it was like, I was so nervous because I was so used to going in and saying something was wrong. And then a doctor being like, no, that's not wrong with you. And some of them being shameful and some of them being just fine saying it's not wrong.
So I was so nervous that I was like coming to you, telling you, and I didn't really have Lyme. But I remember when you're like, no, I think you have Lyme. I'm just like a weight lifted off of me and I canceled the infectious disease appointment.
I told my doctor, I'm like, I can't, I can't go that route anymore. It's not working.
Dr. Kyle Warren: Yeah. And so we, we came in and we ran pretty thorough testing on you and we found, was it Bartonella really on you? That was the big player.
Linda Fournelle: Yep.
Dr. Kyle Warren: And this happens when I find people have done antibiotics and they get some improvement. You know, we technically didn't think the Lyme was really driving your symptoms anymore, but the antibiotic hadn't fixed all the co-infections. This is super common where, oh, the antibiotic helped.
It got rid of something probably. Um, and we kind of assumed that was the Lyme, but it didn't get rid of the chronic Bartonella and Bartonella can be, you know, a huge, huge driver of, of, you know, all these symptoms. Right.
Linda Fournelle: Yeah. And I didn't even know Bartonella existed.
Dr. Kyle Warren: So we started then we found that, was it almost a year ago now? Okay. And just walk me through, you know, how long did it take for you to start feeling better and for kind of some of these symptoms to start, you know, changing for your journey here?
Linda Fournelle: Yeah, I, I think so we started in July, right at the beginning of July with my protocols. And I know in the fall I had days where I felt good. Like I just felt, I could just feel it in my brain.
I was clearer. I just, I like, you just felt lighter is all the way that I could explain it is like, okay, some like something is different. And so in the fall, I would have a little bit of like, um, I'd feel good for a little while and then I'd feel bad again and then feel good.
Dr. Kyle Warren: And then kind of up and down, up and down, which is, which is really hard. So an up and down person at three months is very encouraging to me as a doctor. Cause I'm, I know I'm on the right track.
That's actually very good. Um, but it is also emotionally very hard to have the, cause the down days are almost more disappointing because you have these up days to compare them to.
Linda Fournelle: Yeah. Oh, absolutely. And just to know like, Oh, I could actually feel like this.
And then to go back to feeling that, you know, I was used to feeling icky every day. So then like, Oh, thank you again. And I know how I'm actually supposed to feel.
Dr. Kyle Warren: So it's a lot of, if you're in that mode, it's a lot of me going, Hey, look, you're, you're trending. You're, we're getting there. It is a frustrating stage in the process for, for people.
And I think we had some of that too.
Linda Fournelle: Yeah, it was definitely an up and down. And then I think it was in January. So we started in July and then in January, I think towards the end of the month is when my husband and I kind of looked at each other.
I'm like, I, I think I've been feeling good for a long time. Like, I don't remember the last time I felt bad or like, it's when I got, I think most of February, I went a whole month feeling really, really good. And it was just amazing!
I mean, if you haven't been sick and felt awful for a long time, you can't understand the, like the feeling of like, I just did my life for a month with no problems. And I managed everything and I wasn't in pain. And right before I had been living my life of physically, I showed up to everything still, I wasn't going to not show up.
But it was like, okay, I have to do this thing. And all you have to do is make it through this. And then you can rest or make it through this.
Like I was just making it through little chunks of time to have my life. And so now to be able to just be like, I just, I do things and I enjoy it. And I don't ever think about like, oh, okay, I got it.
This is three hours. I got to make it through the next three hours and then I'll be okay. And I can rest.
Dr. Kyle Warren: You kind of started to hit all your health goals pretty much by six months.
Linda Fournelle: Yeah. Yeah.
Dr. Kyle Warren: And then it was just about, okay, well, how fast do I back you down on, on the protocol to make sure we don't just, drop all the support too quick. But that's really what you really responded very, very fast. And I wanted particularly you to be on because so many people will say Bartonelle is the hardest one.
That's kind of some in some of the Lyme world and it takes the longest. And I've really found that when you do this nutritionally and herbally, I don't think it's really the hardest one all the time. And some people can respond in a fairly timely fashion.
I don't know if six months is long or short to people, but to me, it's fast.
Linda Fournelle: Yeah. Yeah. I'm not on much of the protocol anymore and just feeling good.
Dr. Kyle Warren: And well, is there anything else you'd want to add? Maybe if someone is sick and maybe feeling discouraged and frustrated, how you were feeling, what would you, what would you tell them now? You know, being, you know, you're removed from, from where you were.
Linda Fournelle: I think that what I appreciated most about going to see you is that you looked at everything and not just one thing! Like I was getting treated, you know, singularly for all kinds of different things. And I think the best thing was that looking at everything and being able to find that one, that it was one thing that was wrong instead of many different things!
And so that, and then along with the, like the testing and that when I did get better, we stopped things and change things like that. I just felt super supported. And I had told my family that I had carried the weight of my not feeling well for so long!
And this was kind of emotional, but I remember when I met with you and we found out what was wrong. And I told my family, I'm like, I just decided to give all of that to you. And I wasn't carrying the weight of getting better and trying to figure out what was wrong with me!
And I just decided to put my faith in, in you figuring that out and yeah, best decision I've ever made. So I would say if somebody is watching, if you are feeling really bad, to search you out and give you a try and that you do help and definitely change lives!
Dr. Kyle Warren: Thank you so much, Linda. It was a privilege to work with you and it's so fun to, you know, see now all the things you're doing. Thanks so much for, for being here today.
Linda Fournelle: You're welcome. Thanks for helping me get better!
Dr. Kyle Warren: All right. Have a wonderful rest of your day, Linda!
Linda Fournelle: You too! Bye!