I am 5'7 and now weigh 115 lbs. I was 150. Since starting treatment in Feb 09, I have lost 35 lbs.
I am unable to eat except for supper and if I do eat something besides supper it comes right back out, or causes unbearable stomach pains. I am on biaxin and plaquenil.
I feel weak, shaky most of the time. My duck of a PCP keeps saying "aren't you happy, most women would kill for your weight loss", so needless to say he is of no help with this issue.
LLMD won't return calls and I don't see him til end of Aug. I feel like I am slowly killing myself... and I feel like CRAP all the time, whether I eat or not....
Anyone have ANY advice, and should I be worried at this point about the weight loss. People keep telling me I look anorexic. I am very discouraged.
Thanks Posted by Melanie Reber (Member # 3707) on :
Goodness Erika,
I'm so sorry you are going through such a hard time right now. And YES, that sort of extreme weight loss IS TOO MUCH. (that doc with the dismissing comment should be shaken)
Anyway, you have simply GOT to eat! You MUST force yourself of course, no matter if you want to or not. This advice has been given to me countless times, so I speak from experience here.
See if you can try just eating a bite or two of SOMETHING every few hours. Keep a clock handy, and do this on all even hours. 8am, food. 10am, food, etc.... throughout the day.
This sort of 'grazing' behavior will stimulate your digestive system into working more consistently. As is, with just a meal at suppertime, is not a real good plan. You at the very least need to eat with EACH medication dose to buffer the tum.
The consequences of not taking this seriously are really not all that fun, as you have found out. Once you get to a certain point, things will begin to quickly deteriorate further and that opens the door for far too many serious and long lasting complications.
Eat...Eat...EAT!
Posted by TerryK (Member # 8552) on :
I agree with Melanie, you must get some nutrition down somehow. Your PCP is awful.:-( Completely missing the point that something is very wrong when one has this kind of unintentional weight loss. Also, if you can't get a return call from your LLMD, maybe try faxing them? Sometimes that seems to work for some of the LLMD's.
Since you are throwing up when you eat, perhaps try a protein shake or some other functional food product. Are you able to take supplements? At least take a multi vitamin until you can get this figured out.
Have you had a thourough evaluation for this yet? If not, please do so ASAP. Something is wrong if you can't hold food down or get a terrible stomach ache after eating.
Have you tried digestive enzymes? Are you on probiotics? Has your hydrochloric acid been checked? You need to have some GI tests. You may ultimately need to go to a naturopathic type doctor to get this solved if it's not something fairly simple.
If you can't stop this, seems like you will have to go off meds until you can eat again.
Be sure to check all meds and supplements to see if any of them can cause this type of symptom.
Hope you get this solved soon and start to feel better. The last thing a lyme patient needs is to become malnourished. Makes healing even more difficult.
Terry
Posted by Buster (Member # 19472) on :
Do you have gastroparesis, you are describing what I have...
I have lost about 20-25lbs since being ill with lyme and I have to force myself to eat each bite I take a day and then try to keep myself from throwing it up.
Stomach problems are the worst on the list.
Posted by sutherngrl (Member # 16270) on :
Well my experience has been weight loss that is not neccessarily related to if I eat or not. I am 5'4". I started at 128 and now weigh 105.
There have been times when my apetite decreases depending on how meds make me feel, so I can relate to that miserable feeling; but for the past 6 weeks my apetite has improved greatly on low dose doxy. However, I also started juicing raw veggies at the same time that I started doxy, so I wonder if the juicing has something to do with my increased apetite.
Still I haven't begun to gain any weight back yet. I feel that my body is just off balance due to LD and it is effecting my metabolism.
Juicing at least gives me the nutrition that I need. And I feel like I am starting to feel better too.
If you can drink, then consider juicing or if you can't stomach that, what about protein drinks. There are also drinks, I can't think of the name of them now, that you can buy at the grocery store that have nutrition and calories in them.
Taking a break from meds is another option.
Posted by ichelp73 (Member # 19559) on :
I make a shake with whipping cream (very fattening), blueberries, nut butter (lots of protein), olive oil, yogurt, and even a little pudding mix if I'm living on the edge! You can add other fruits as well of course...
This has truly helped me at times when I could not eat due to bladder pain, stress, and whatever else.
Also, it helps me if I'm experiencing pain, anxiety etc. if I take a little xanax. My body backs down, relaxes and I am better able to eat.
Hope this helps! I weigh less than 100 lbs and 5'2" so in the same boat :-) You must eat!!! Force yourself.
Posted by ichelp73 (Member # 19559) on :
Oh - and you may want to add stevia to your shake for extra sweetness!! Blend it well and the shake tastes pretty darn good.
![[shake]](graemlins/shake.gif)