For lunch, he can barely eat half a Potbelly sub (they're small)

He may eat the other half for dinner and in the middle of the night eat half a peanut butter sandwich.

This has been going on for the last five weeks.
It has nothing to do with taste or stomach problems.

Trout

I also received two emails that suggested bart based on personal experience.

The tests for babesia are very inaccurate, so it is important that your son be treated for it. If he doesn't respond to the meds, then perhaps he doesn't have it.

I hope he can recover from the worst of this very soon!

My daughter has had trouble with her appetite this last year related to her lyme.

She had her gallbladder out..She had Rochephin which I believe finished it off..
but I suspect the GB was in trouble before the IV antibiotics.

Lyme can get into the stomach lining etc.
My daughter is slowly getting better. Unforthunately, her biggest complaint is still nausea and stomach pain. We are going to a gastro dr. tomorrow. We got an appt. with the gastro dept. head at Duke, so that is a blessing.

How old is your son? I wonder if he is able to verbalize what he is feeling. My daughter wasn't really able to put it into words and she's 14.

My approach on drs advice was to focus on treating the lyme with antibiotics and rest and wait and see on the stomach. If I had to do it over again; I would address the digestive stuff right away.

Wish you luck at Duke, but as the saying goes -- been there done that.

Hubby went there when he had his mercury toxicity problem (before Lyme diagnosis) -- to both a movement specialist neurologist and a gastrointerologist. Neither was any good at thinking out of the box and had no suggestions as to how to treat a "functional problem" other than the usual -- go see a psychiatrist.

I really do wish you well, and maybe things have improved some in the last 5 years. If this doesn't pan out you can send me an email and I can offer some suggestions.

With the Lyme, babesia and bartonella hubby's primary symptoms are again nausea/vomiting/dry heaves and tremors/myoclonus/seizure-like episodes. G.I. and neuro systems are obviously his weakest systems so that is where his main symptoms lie.