posted
For the last 2 months I have been dealing with fatigue,headaches, sores in mouth, drooping eye, pins and needles in hands and feet, insomnia, sore muscles, very bad joint pain and loud cracking all over all day long. These symptoms I just would wake up with on a certain day and they would remain. I have been tested for Lyme by my doctor twice and loads of other tests all come back negative until last week Mercury came cback as 22 in a blood test. I do consume large amounts of fish especially tuna and never thought I could get poisoning. I talked the Dr. into trying Doxycycline after 6 weeks of symptoms thinking I had Lyme and they changed nothingeither way, better or worse. I am wondering how the heck am I suppossed to know if I have Lyme or if the mercury could be doing all of this on its own. I see a toxicologist tomorrow. I have only been sick for 2 months but I've had it. I feel like I'm dying a lot of days. This all started after a 2 week battle with a bad upper respiratory infection at Christmas. Any ideas would be so appreciated.
Thank You
Posts: 319 | From Mass | Registered: Feb 2010
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Keebler
Honored Contributor (25K+ posts)
Member # 12673
posted
- Cattail,
Welcome but sorry you are not tip-top. Because many here have spasms of their vision or, for other neurological reasons, need short paragraphs and with breaks for each new thought or question.
Here's your post broken up - so that you'll get more replies. ===============
Cattail's original post:
For the last 2 months I have been dealing with fatigue,headaches, sores in mouth, drooping eye, pins and needles in hands and feet, insomnia, sore muscles, very bad joint pain and loud cracking all over all day long.
These symptoms I just would wake up with on a certain day and they would remain.
I have been tested for Lyme by my doctor twice and loads of other tests all come back negative
until last week Mercury came cback as 22 in a blood test.
I do consume large amounts of fish especially tuna and never thought I could get poisoning.
I talked the Dr. into trying Doxycycline after 6 weeks of symptoms thinking I had Lyme and they changed nothingeither way, better or worse.
I am wondering how the heck am I suppossed to know if I have Lyme or if the mercury could be doing all of this on its own.
I see a toxicologist tomorrow.
I have only been sick for 2 months but I've had it. I feel like I'm dying a lot of days. This all started after a 2 week battle with a bad upper respiratory infection at Christmas. Any ideas would be so appreciated.
Thank You
(Cattail - in Massachusetts)
Posts: 48021 | From Tree House | Registered: Jul 2007
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Keebler
Honored Contributor (25K+ posts)
Member # 12673
posted
- Mercury seems the most important thing to address ASAP !
Then, you can better assess for lyme or other tick-borne infection. All lyme patients have to deal with mercury matters, anyway as lyme really likes to hold onto mercury and when lyme is killed off, mercury is let out for a ballgame, of sorts.
Yes, tuna is sky high with mercury. And, yes, even moderately elevated mercury can make one feel as if they are dying.
However, the fact that you said this started after a respiratory infection a couple months ago concerns me that a dormant infection may have come to life.
I have questions about what test you had (no test is perfect, though). Lyme is a clinical diagnosis and an ILADS-educated LLMD is usually best as they have lots of experience. Most doctors simply don't have the exposure or background.
Six weeks of doxy, though, if lyme will just barely touch it. Some LLMDs say that minimum of 30 weeks treatment is required and that is usually a combination.
The fact that your MD though 6 weeks of one drug should wipe out lyme seems to imply that he is not a lyme specialist.
Also, I'm hoping you took milk thistle and PROBIOTICS. LIVER support supplements are also essential with abx (antibiotics). Milk Thistle is the most common.
Without probiotics, you could feel worse from system candida (yeast) as result of abx. Probiotics are required for lyme patients. Candida can also make one feel horrible so it's best to prevent it with probiotics.
In addition to lyme, there are other tick-borne infections and other chronic stealth (hidden, dormant, sneaky) infections that can make trouble after a common cold, etc. These other infections would need totally different medicines so doxy would not help in most cases.
I'd say - tomorrow, talk to the toxicologist about the full range of heavy metals and what will be suggested for treatment.
Is he looking at your blood, your liver, your kidneys? Or is this a followup to suggest treatment?
A good LLMD assessment may still be in order. If you could find one who also guides heavy metal treatment, that would be wonderful.
*** LIVER SUPPORT is vital during all heavy metal detox. It is very complex and specific things in a certain combinations and a certain order really matter.
[ 03-08-2010, 04:45 PM: Message edited by: Keebler ]
Posts: 48021 | From Tree House | Registered: Jul 2007
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Keebler
Honored Contributor (25K+ posts)
Member # 12673
posted
- Did you have an ELISA for your lyme test? If so, they are worthless. Western Blot IgG and IgM should be done. But, again, testing is not so clear.
Dr C's Western Blot explanation is discussed here:
CONTROVERSY CONTINUES TO FUEL THE "LYME WAR" - By Virginia Savely, RN, FNP-C May 18, 2007
As two medical societies battle over its diagnosis and treatment, Lyme disease remains a frequently missed illness. Here is how to spot and treat it.
Excerpts:
Meet the players
The opponents in the battle over the diagnosis and treatment of Lyme disease are the Infectious Diseases Society of America (IDSA), the largest national organization of general infectious disease specialists, (and)
and the International Lyme and Associated Diseases Society (ILADS), an organization made up of physicians from many specialties. ( www.ilads.org )
ILADS, by contrast, asserts that the illness is much more common than reported, underdiagnosed, easier to contract than previously believed, difficult to diagnose through commercial blood tests, and difficult to treat, (especially)
especially when treatment is delayed because of commonly encountered diagnostic difficulties ( http://www.ilads.org/guidelines.html - Accessed April 6, 2007).
. . .
" . . .To treat Lyme disease for a comparable number of life cycles, treatment would need to last 30 weeks. . . ."
`` . . .Patients with Lyme disease almost always have negative results on standard blood screening tests and have no remarkable findings on physical exam, so they are frequently referred to mental-health professionals for evaluation.
"...If all cases were detected and treated in the early stages of Lyme disease, the debate over the diagnosis and treatment of late-stage disease would not be an issue, and devastating rheumatologic, neurologic, and cardiac complications could be avoided..."
. . . * Clinicians do not realize that the CDC has gone on record as saying the commercial Lyme tests are designed for epidemiologic rather than diagnostic purposes, and a diagnosis should be based on clinical presentation rather than serologic results.
- Full article at link above, containing MUCH more detailed information.
===================
In addition to the usual coinfections from ticks (such as babesia, bartonella, ehrlichia, RMSF, etc.), there are some other chronic stealth infections that an excellent LLMD should know about:
posted
Although 6 weeks of Doxy wouldn't cure Lyme, it usually spurs on some sort of reaction, a herx... something. After dealing with the mercury issue, you can revisit Lyme, perhaps trying a different drug as a test.
If after two antibiotics, if you have Lyme, I expect you'd feel something -- at least some sort of herx.
Worth getting co-infections tested too, if you haven't already, and retest WB after antibiotics, through Igenex.
Posts: 584 | From NY | Registered: Feb 2009
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posted
I hope you have had a test through Igenex Lab... Tests #188 and 189... www.igenex.com
-------------------- --Lymetutu-- Opinions, not medical advice! Posts: 96223 | From Texas | Registered: Feb 2001
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Haley
Frequent Contributor (1K+ posts)
Member # 22008
posted
Yes, I would agree that the abx would have done something. The first day I took doxy a had a herx like crazy.
Also, in the past (before I knew I had Lyme) I would get a script for an infection and all of a sudden I would feel better but my symptoms would always return. I knew that I had some type of bacterial infection because of this.
Posts: 2232 | From USA | Registered: Aug 2009
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posted
I don't know. Personally, I was SO sick when I was finally diagnosed that after I started antibiotics I only felt worse. I couldn't determine if it was a herx or just the illness. I remember wondering if it was a herx or just the LD that was making me feel so bad. It took a couple of months before I started to feel a little better.
Depending on the individual, it might take longer than 6 weeks to realize that you're improving.
FWIW, my first real collapse also came after a bout with a very bad cold that I had taken a Z-pack for. I realize now that it was a herx, but at the time, I didn't know what I had. Also, I started getting progressively worse for the next month and a half. I never felt better.
Posts: 975 | From California | Registered: Apr 2007
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