Joanne Bell lives in Boggabri, NSW, where she runs a hardware shop with her husband, Paul. She began feeling ill nearly 20 years ago and it wasn’t until she went to The Ozone Clinic in Castle Hill, Sydney, that she found some relief from the intense pain she was suffering from. She did a series of treatments at the clinic and found she was able to work her way to becoming fully well again.
Here’s some of Joanne’s story on video:
When did you first feel there was something wrong and you were sick?
It would have been close to 16 to 20 years ago. There was a lot of symptoms that I never realised were part of it until now… It’s one of those things when you look back in hindsight you notice things like when I was in bed for three days with the flu. And I do remember going to doctors and there were a lot of things they were saying such as what’s going on with your immune system?
I trusted them and felt if they weren’t worried, and they did nothing about it, I didn’t need to worry. I did try things myself, and felt I needed to boost my immune system. So I cut back on sugars and drank more water. Looking back now, I didn’t have a clue.
But then things started getting worse. It got to the point where I was going to neurologists and rheumatologists. I tried massages, physio, Bowen and naturopaths. I had my teeth pulled out and more – and that journey went on and on and on for me for years. I have had so many CT scan, X-rays etc done, to no avail. I was only getting worse.
It got to the point I could barely walk anymore. I know it sounds terrible, but I just didn’t want to be here. I was in pain 24-7 and it was excruciating. It’s like a nerve pain and there was nothing you could do to get away from it. I’d go to the doctor and they’re quite happy to give you whatever drugs you want and I used to say to my husband, look, I’m taking three or four drugs for this and more for this. I was on a lot of tablets.
I couldn’t handle the pain and I thought, what if I don’t wake up? It’s terrible, but I just wanted one minute – one minute without pain! So my husband was putting me into bed and I couldn’t roll out. I couldn’t move my legs straight and then I couldn’t move them at all. I was losing my vision. I’ve got a twin sister and she’d come up and visit me and she’d say – “Joanne – what’s wrong with you?” Because she knew I was capable of doing things, but she could see I wasn’t any more. She could see the change.
I had trouble walking as well. The thing was, I could get up in the morning and then it would come on me later. I would get up in the morning but it could hit me at 10 o’clock or 11 and suddenly I couldn’t walk. I was shuffling. The pain level was so high – I’d be in screaming pain. There were at least two occasions where the ambo came to the shop because I couldn’t move – I was in so much pain. And I had no control over the situation. If my husband put me in a chair – that’s where I was. I had no choice in it.
So, you were aware there was something major wrong with you and you knew you had to do something about it – and yet when you went to the doctor, did you find they said it could be all in your head or you’re making it all up. Did you find that at all?
I was told by a specialist that there’s no such thing as Lyme disease and that it doesn’t exist. Then they said: “I know because I’m Professor, Lala Baba, blah!” They make you feel stupid. I was trusting and believing that we would finally get to the bottom of it and find out why I was sick. I was just in search for what was wrong with me! I knew there was something wrong with me and I knew I wasn’t putting this on.
I did absolutely everything to find out what it was – blood tests that found absolutely nothing. The only ones that came close to it was a Naturopath and Bowen Therapist. They were great and they knew something was wrong on the inside, but they didn’t know what it was.
But then I started questioning myself and I thought I’ll have to go somewhere else. I wasn’t that kind of person that wants to lie on the lounge all day. I’m not an attention seeker, so I knew within myself, there’s something desperately wrong but I had no idea what to do.
Where do you live Joanne?
I live five and a half hours away from Sydney in Boggabri.
There are probably quite a few ticks in that area. Do you remember getting a tick bite?
Yes, at that time I was living further north in Rockhampton Qld and when I look back on it, yes, I do remember a tick bite, and I remember like a ring worm pattern around the bite. I was a little embarrassed by the rash because we had a service station we were running, so I was dealing with customers. I remember being embarrassed by the rash being there.
But I’m used to being bitten. Like I’ve always said – if there was one mosquito in the world, it would find a way to somehow be in Australia – just to bite me. It’s a family joke – if anyone is going to get bit by something, it will be Jo!
So how did you come to hear about The Ozone Clinic?
I was on a trip to Sydney to see doctors and go to hospitals again, trying to figure out what was wrong with me. I had been down there to see a neurologist and I could barely even walk out to the car. They said there’s nothing they could do to help me. We stayed at our cousins and my husband pretty much carried me into their house and they just said, “Oh my God, what’s going on here?”
And I’m screaming in pain at the time because I was quite bad. My cousin said she knew of a place I could go and she’d book me in the next day. I went, okay, and they took me to see Dr Dulitsky {PhD MD (Ru)}. He had treated their daughter so I went there the next day and he started to just give me some injections in my back. I was going once a week for a few weeks for a while, having these injections. I remember one day Dr Dulitsky rang me at the shop and he said, I’d like you to do a blood test.
So, I went down and did the blood test and then he asked me to come back and see the results. On the journey down, I thought to myself, he is going to tell me to take better care of myself, drink more water. I’m sitting in the chair at the clinic and he said, you’ve got Lyme. And I remember thinking what?, What is Lyme? I just need to drink more water. He asked me to take some notes, and started to tell me what was actually wrong with my body. It was all a bit overwhelming. I thought I was the only one in the world with this Lyme disease. I had never heard of it.
But I started to find out more about it – for example, if you’re a mother who has Lyme and you fall pregnant, you’re going to pass it on to your children.
Was it difficult – the journey you had to go on to get better from Lyme?
It was, but I had a mentor – Lisa is her name – and she had Lyme and she helped me start the journey to get treatment and I walked out of the medical world.
It’s a whole new world and it can be very overwhelming. It’s different to what we’re used to – we’re used to taking pills or having a scan so it’s completely different. And if I hadn’t had Lisa, I would have found it very difficult. She was the one who had been through it all – she had been overseas and been treated for Lyme.
Every time I did some treatment she’d say: “Yes, yes, that’s good. That’s exactly how you should be feeling. That’s what you should be doing. That’s good. And it gave me the belief that what I was doing was the right thing.
Did you feel at ease with the treatments you had from Dr Dulitsky PhD MD (Ru) at The Ozone Clinic?
Yes, once I found him, I believed in him. Once I realised that Lyme was bigger than I thought – once I realised how many people had it and what the symptoms were and that the patients were all going through the same thing, I felt happy to be getting these treatments. But I didn’t look at the medical side of it all the time because I needed the energy to actually look after myself.
Did you find that sometimes you just needed a break from it all?
Yes, exactly. I have turned away from some of conventional medicine but I’m not suggesting for a minute they’re not good at what they do. My husband’s had a bi pass and I wouldn’t have him if we didn’t have western doctors.
What sort of treatments did you have at The Ozone Clinic?
Yes, I had Ozone, IVs and Xenon treatments and others. Well because I live in the country, initially when I started the treatment, I would come to Sydney for two weeks and have treatments every day for two weeks, and then I would come home for two weeks, then I’d go back for two weeks and I don’t know how many months I did that. It was very, very tiring. Just a lot of traveling alone.
at The Ozone Clinic in Sydney.
Then I was able to stay home for longer and every two months I would come down and do some treatments. Dr Dulitsky also wanted me to have warm baths with special herbal mixture. That was very difficult for me because they had to be very hot – something like 41 degrees. But I kept to it and I believe that was really something that helped me a lot.
So, it was like you were giving yourself a fever?
Yes, and I honestly think the baths were such an important part of my treatment. Your body is reacting to the temperature and I think it was to kill the bacteria.
How often did you do the baths?
Every night for months.
How are you feeling now?
I’m going well. I followed what Dr Dulitsky said because I remember thinking – you’ve got your job to do and I’ve got mine to do and that’s how I saw it. I kept to the treatment. I remember thinking, I will do what you ask me to do and we will work for it, but I’m not going to stop smiling. I knew I had 500 steps to climb, but I would climb one a day.
Some people start to feel sorry for themselves and you can’t do that with any of this. Some people might say it’s a lot of money and yes, it is. So, you’ve got to believe in it.
I remember sitting there in one of the treatment rooms and there was a gentleman who came in and he was very negative. We just got chatting and he said he was taking a lot of different drugs (pain killers etc) And I said: “Man, are they helping you?” And he said, “No, they don’t. So I said: “Why are you taking them then? They’re just messing with you – they’re not working.”
So, he actually stopped taking them and then weeks later, I talked to him and he said he felt so much better! It’s inspiring and it’s hard because you don’t want to let go of something that you relied on. You’ve been taking the drugs and you’ve had the medical world telling you to take these drugs. They are just a ‘bandaid’, they are not actually fixing you.
I was on them as well and then I started on my journey to get healthier and I changed that, Now I’m doing natural plant-based products, guided by Dr Dulitsky. You change what’s going into your body when your really sick and it really helps. But when you’re really sick you often don’t have the energy to even think of those things.
But when you change your diet etc, you’re not putting your body under pressure or strain. Really, after something like Lyme, you lose that ability. You have to sort of treat your body well forever, because it’s sensitive now, isn’t it?
Absolutely, it’s a different ball game after you’ve had something like Lyme disease.
Exactly. You know you don’t want to have that drink because you’re going to pay for it. You learn to read your body too – you learn to understand. Early on, it’s not like this because you’re just too sick to care, but once you start to get better, your food is important, then you know what you really need to put in there and totally no medical drugs whatsoever. I don’t take any pain killers and I don’t need to.
Yes, I think what might happen is we become so in tune with our bodies and before we were sick – we weren’t in tune with them but once we are, we sort of can’t do those things because we’re too aware of what happens when we do.
I think you’ve hit the nail on the head there – that’s right, you see things differently once you’ve been on this journey. But it’s hard to tell people about this unless they’ve done it as well. You can’t tell anyone about it until they’ve done it themselves. I try and talk with my family but it’s hard sometimes.
It’s very personal, isn’t it? People still can’t really get it sometimes when I tell them. But the great thing is that you’ve stayed well. How long is it since you’ve been doing any treatment?
I think it’s probably been five or six months since I’ve done any treatments.
Recently, I did find out I had a skin cancer on my face. Dr Dulitsky was the one who told me I had a skin cancer on my face. That’s pretty good, isn’t it? I wouldn’t have checked on it. This was on my face and I knew that I was there, but I wouldn’t have gone to the doctors to check it. Dr Dulitsky was the one who asked me to please have it checked.
So again, I have to say, thank you Dr Dulitsky.
It’s been a long road back to full health for Joanne and she’s made it but she understands so much more about it now. For more information about Lyme disease you can visit the Lyme Disease Association of Australia.
To contact The Ozone Clinic in Castle Hill, Sydney, call on (02) 9188 8599 and ask to make a time for your free consultation. Or email the clinic on info@ozoneclinic.com.au
Disclaimer: In Australia, some of the therapies offered at the Ozone Clinic are not officially recognised as a part of mainstream medical practice. These therapies are known as complementary therapies and are considered to be useful as an additional treatment to those offered by your medical practitioner. The Ozone Clinic and its personnel are fully trained in the application of these complementary therapies but they’re not registered medical practitioners and are considered to be complementary therapists.
