Tick Boot Camp

Episode 279: Bachelor Nation - an interview with Kelley Flanagan

Ms. Flanagan has dedicated her powerful platform to Lyme disease advocacy

Kelley Flannagan is an attorney, model, celebrity spokesperson and reality tv personality from North Barrington, Illinois and Miami, Florida. She became a household name when she starred in the ABC reality series: The Bachelor.

Ms. Flannagan grew up in a large mid-western family. She and her siblings enjoyed a variety of outdoor activities during their childhood. At the same time, her body was forced to cope with the ebb and flow of a variety of childhood illnesses.

After graduation from High School, Ms. Flannagan attended the University of Alabama and then the Chicago-Kent College of Law. After earning her Juris Doctorate degree and passing the bar exam, she joined a prominent Chicago law firm.

In 2020, Ms. Flannagan was invited to pivot from her law career to become a member of the Bachelor Nation reality series. During season 24, she was eliminated after seven stressful weeks on the show. Shortly after departure from the show, she began to suffer severe health complications.

After visiting with an array of doctors, she began to fear she may be suffering from Lyme disease. Sadly, several of her siblings were diagnosed with Lyme disease and she followed in her brother’s footsteps and tested for Lyme disease with IGeneX.

When her lab work revealed positive results for Lyme and several co-infections, Ms. Flannagan felt called to share her diagnosis on her social and mainstream media platforms to build Lyme disease awareness. If you would like to learn more about how a lawyer and reality tv star is using her celebrity status to generate attention to the Lyme disease crisis, then tune in now!

Episode 278: Cellular Wellness - an interview with Dr. Bill Rawls

Tap into your full health potential with the science-backed power of herbs

The Cellular Wellness Solution - Tap Into Your Full Health Potential with the Science-Backed Power of Herbs” is the newly released bestselling book by the brilliant Lyme Literate Medical Doctor (LLMD) Bill Rawls. During Lyme Disease Awareness Month (May 2022), Tick Boot Camp challenged Dr. Rawls to “unofficially launch” his then unpublished book, live and unscripted. Dr. Rawls took up the gauntlet and this podcast is the audio of the Instagram Live broadcast.

If you would like to learn more about why herbs are a vital element of every Lyme disease patient’s toolbox, then tune in now!

Note: The Cellular Wellness Solution is now available as the #1 New Release on Amazon. If you order the book today and then visit CellularWellness.com, Dr. Rawls will provide you with bonus extras including the Cellular Wellness Workbook.

Episode 277: Transforming Medicine - an interview with Dr. Jess Peatross

Dr. Jess' personal and professional transformation allowed her to become the top infotainer in the Lyme disease community

Dr Jessica Peatross is medical doctor and board-certified hospitalist. She is the founder of the Wellness Plus by Dr Jess platform and the highly acclaimed Lyme disease medical infotainer.

Dr Jess was raised in rural West Virginia by a preacher-missionary father and dietitian mother. Her sheltered religious upbringing and a broken back suffered in an auto accident informed her decision to prepare to serve by attending medical school.

While attending medical school, she developed a passion for internal medicine and after completing her residency she chose to work as a hospitalist. Unfortunately, her time as an in-hospital “first responder” negatively affecting her health because she was constantly in “fight or flight”.

Dr Jess left her job as a board-certified hospitalist to focus her practice on root cause answers for her patients. When she understood that “disease is not one thing but a combination of toxicity and pathogens,” she built a platform to entertain while teaching complex medical topics.

Today, Dr Jess is serving the community on both free and subscription platforms. She offers unparalleled free content on her social media and in-depth video courses and community through her subscription Wellness Plus platform.

If you would like to learn more about how Dr Jess’ post traumatic growth allowed her to transform medicine and the treatment of Lyme disease, then tune in now!

Episode 276: Epitome of Loyalty - an interview with Nicoleta Forbes

Loyalty is the dominant character trait that has allowed Mrs. Forbes and her husband to heal from Lyme disease

Nicoleta Forbes is a married 36-year-old realtor from St Petersburg, Florida. She and her husband co-manage their family, a successful real estate business, and Lyme disease.

In 2016, the couple were both physically unwell and Mr. Forbes was diagnosed with Lyme disease. His debilitating symptoms became life threatening, forcing the family to close their business, sell their house, and focus full time on healing.

While supporting her husband’s healing, Ms. Forbes felt like “she understood her husband’s symptoms so well and could truly understand what he was going through”. In 2018, she discovered her sympathy was in fact empathy because she tested positive for a cocktail of tick diseases including Lyme, Bartonella, Babesia, and Rocky Mountain Spotted Fever.

Her diagnosis helped her to understand why her life was bookmarked with “seasons of feeling good and then not”. Fortunately, “the trial and error with [her] husband” allowed her to shorten her treatment journey and work with a health care provider she trusted.

Ms. Forbes treated with antibiotics, herbals, lymphatic drainage massages, a rife machine, ozone therapy, cryotherapy, and glutathione through a nebulizer. She modeled her husband’s treatment path except he utilized additional SOT and Lyme N therapies.

Today, the couple have returned to work and have rebuilt their real estate business after learning how to turn their treatment into a lifestyle.

If you would like to learn more about how a real estate professional performed her “due diligence” and paid the customary “commissions” in order to go to “closing” on Lyme disease, then tune in now!

Episode 275: Community Healing - an interview with LLMD Casey Kelley

Dr. Kelley answers community questions on an Instagram Live event during Lyme disease Awareness Month

Dr. Casey Kelley is a Lyme Literate Medical Doctor and the founder and Medical Director of Case Integrative Health. Tick Boot Camp has featured Dr. Kelley’s work online and on episodes 98 and 170 of the Tick Boot Camp Podcast. For the past two years, podcast co-hosts Matt Sabatello and Rich Johannesen challenged Dr. Kelley to honor Lyme Disease Awareness Month by answering your questions in real time on Instagram Live. This podcast is the audio of the 2022 Instagram Live broadcast. If you would like to learn more about how Dr. Casey Kelley demonstrated that she “really knows the ropes” and gave Matt and Rich “the ole one-two”, then tune in now!

Episode 274: The Healing Rod - an interview with Hilary Jane

Hilary discovered an ancient Egyptian healing modality that's been a gamechanger in her Lyme recovery

Hilary Jane is a 32-year-old multidisciplinary artist, entrepreneur, and internationally recognized tattoo artist from Montreal, Quebec, Canada.

Her Lyme disease symptoms began when she was in her early 20s. She suffered a “gigantic bullseye rash on [her] thigh that kept spreading.” The rash got infected, triggering her to seek treatment from a medical doctor that “didn’t catch on to what it really was.” She believed the rash was from “a spider bite or maybe Lyme,” but her speculation was not supported by her doctors.

For the next 10 years her artistic endeavors progressed, and her career offered her the opportunity to travel the world. Her extreme travel, social, and work schedules suppressed her immune system causing her to develop progressively debilitating symptoms, eventually resulting in total burnout.

Seeking solutions to her health crisis, she turned to a naturopathic doctor. The naturopath diagnosed her with Lyme disease and treated her with “supplements, detoxing, hyperbaric oxygen therapy, and infrared sauna.” The game changing treatment for Hillary Jane was the discovery and use of ancient Egyptian healing rods.

If you would like to know more about how an internationally renowned artist used an ancient treatment to make significant health gains, then tune in now!

Episode 273: Lyme Warrior - an interview with Lauren Lovejoy

Ms. Lovejoy is the powerful inspiration behind one of the Lyme community's top service organizations

Lauren Lovejoy is the charismatic entrepreneurial founder of the Lyme service organization Lyme Warrior. She grew up and lives in rural Virginia.

Ms. Lovejoy was living a life of a normal 20 something, working in a law office by day and attending graduate school studying Analytics at night. She filled her remaining time participating in social activities and training at a CrossFit gym.

One weekend, when she took an 8-hour road trip, she suffered a panic attack, shaking, and an out of body experience. After returning to school, she began to suffer from disorientation and vision loss. Her symptoms continued to build to the point that she had to acknowledge she “could not continue her job or her education.”

Her illness remained undiagnosed, despite visiting “piles of primary care doctors, every category of specialists (twice), and functional medicine” professionals. One renowned neurologist told her “there was nothing he or any doctor could do for [her]” and she had to accept her “life as being home bound.”

Her diagnosis arrived as a gift from a nurse at a holistic clinic that rejected her as a patient. He told her “based on your symptoms, you sound like you have Lyme disease” and encouraged her to attend a specialized Lyme clinic.

During her time studying Lyme disease, she discovered her story was not uncommon. She learned that the well documented disease was “still denied by [her] government, and most doctors.” This information inspired her to create the Lyme Warrior non-profit from her couch.

If you would like to learn more about how Lyme Warrior Lauren Lovejoy discovered that it was her job to try to prevent her Lyme disease story “from happening to as many people as possible,” then tune in now!

Episode 272: Transforming Hearts - an interview with Blakeley Boyd

Ms. Boyd is transforming the hearts of people all around the world through the Chronically Care Project

Blakeley Boyd is a 20-year-old farm girl from Alabama who has a heart of gold and a passion for spreading the love of Jesus to those around her. She spent her growing up years with her eight siblings working her farm with her dad and being homeschooled by her mom. All growing up Blakeley often was there always offering a helping hand to those who need it. That good work ethic and passion for loving others running through her veins drove her to dream of doing mission work into her adult years. At a young age, Blakeley felt greatly called to spend her life being the hands and feet of Jesus.

When Blakeley was 17 years old, she quite suddenly developed many unexpected symptoms that left her incapacitated and seemingly cemented to her couch for a time. She spent her first year of Lyme looking for a diagnosis, suffering greatly, and treating her Lyme and coinfections with antibiotics. With little results seen on that path, Blakeley and her mother went searching for answers for other alternative treatments that placed her feet on the path of healing.

At this time, Lyme and coinfections seemed to rob Blakeley of her dreams and deprive her of her capability to do anything she had once done or ever desired to do. Blakeley also found that she lost many friendships and relationships due to her persistent suffering. And like many of those in the Lyme community, that hindered her ability to heal.

About a year and a half into her Lyme journey, Blakeley was able to connect to the chronic illness community online and eventually meet some of her best friends and community. Throughout these experiences, Blakeley is well on her way to healing now and beautifully finding ways to fulfill her dream of being the hands and feet of Jesus through The Chronically Care Project, despite her suffering.

If your interest is piqued, and you want to know how a small-town girl from Alabama is healing from Lyme through Jesus and a constant drive to transform hearts, tune in now!

P.S. Claire Dalton, Blakeley's best friend whom she because of their commonalities in Lyme and in life, special guest co-hosted this episode with Matt from Tick Boot Camp! You don't want to miss this episode all about The Chronically Care Project, how it can help you, and how you can get involved in giving back to the Lyme and chronic illness community!

Care Package Applications for #TheChronicallyCareProject open on June 6th, 2022. Go apply for a care package!

Episode 271: The Ultimate Fighter - an interview with Jim Miller

Mr. Miller overcame Lyme disease using the same tools that led him to become a legendary professional athlete

Jim Miller is a 38-year-old professional mixed martial arts athlete from Sparta Township, New Jersey. He currently holds the UFC (Ultimate Fighting Championship) records for the most wins, most bouts, most submission wins, and most fight time (6:03:59) in the lightweight division. He has been awarded Fight of the Night 7 times and Fight of the Year.

In 2016, after losing a unanimous decision, he decided he would announce his retirement after a final bout at UFC 200. Because he believed that 11 years of MMA had taken a physical toll, he planned to stand in the middle of the Octagon, “thank his fans, and call it a career.”

Prior to his retirement bout, he visited his doctor and described the ever-widening array of symptoms that began in 2013, the same year he suffered a tick bite. His doctor diagnosed him with and began to treat him for Lyme disease.

Initially, he treated with 6 months of doxycycline and followed a disciplined exercise, diet, and mindset strategy he developed for MMA bouts. When his symptoms returned, his doctor prescribed an additional 2 years of antibiotic treatment.

After treatment, Mr. Miller returned to the Octagon and defeated Ultimate Fighter Champion Joe Lauzon on Fox in Vancouver and then put on his best performance of the year by defeating Thiago Alves at UFC 205 in New York.

If you would like to learn how Lyme disease landed a near career end blow to a UFC mixed martial arts legend, then tune in now!

Episode 270: Stopping Lyme - an interview with Kayla Stevens

Ms. Stevens shares how she overcame chronic Lyme disease after failed long-term antibiotic treatment

Kayla Stevens is a 27-year-old woman from Atlanta, Georgia. She has a Bachelor of Science in Kinesiology and Health Sciences from the University of Maine, a Master of Health Administration (MHA) from Georgia State University, and she’s currently finishing up her Integrative Health Practitioner (IHP) certification.

Prior to contracting Lyme disease, Ms. Stevens worked for a local hospital, was known as the “party girl,” and traveled frequently.

At the age of 25, Ms. Stevens quickly fell ill from Lyme disease the day after a tick bite with flu-like symptoms and a bullseye rash. Within a week her symptoms rapidly progressed and included severe psychiatric symptoms she’d never before experienced, such as suicidal thoughts, panic attacks, severe depression, a constant feeling as if she were dying, seeing shadows, and feeling schizophrenic.

Ms. Stevens went to the Emergency Room (ER) 3 times, saw an infectious disease specialist, rheumatologist, and Lyme literate doctor before she was diagnosed with Lyme disease through IGeneX and muscle testing a few months after getting sick. Her infectious disease doctor said she “couldn't possibly have Lyme disease” while all the ER doctors suggested it was a mental health disorder or Lupus.

Ms. Stevens first treated using antibiotics for 16 months in combination with a mix of herbs. She then went on to treat at LymeStop in Idaho for 4 months.

If you would like to learn how Lyme disease inspired a western trained medical professional to study and utilize integrative medicine, then tune in now!

PS Kelsey Watkins special guest co-hosted this interview with Matt from Tick Boot Camp!

The goal of the Tick Boot Camp Podcast is to help people liberate themselves and others from suffering caused by Lyme disease through validation, community building, belief that healing is possible, and modeling success. Listen to our Tick Boot Camp podcast using all major podcast streaming services such as Apple Podcasts, Spotify, and YouTube Music. Our podcast is also integrated with smart home devices, such as Amazon Alexa and Apple TV. Ask your device to "play the Tick Boot Camp Podcast!"