Does lyme sound likely?

[lindsay0891]

I'm about to turn 22, and my problems started right after I turned 21. Started with some spells of fatigue and nausea, then in April I came down with some kind of viral infection... might have been coxsackie because I had a lot of chest/rib inflammation but I never figured out what it was. Recovered and felt pretty good for two weeks, then in the middle of May I started getting the dizzy/fatigued/nauseous spells telling me I was getting sick again, and then I got what I thought was a stomach virus but it never fully went away. For a while I was waking up every morning and vomiting like a pregnant woman, and I could barely eat anything. But I did have good days where I felt pretty good. The symptoms were really off and on. I was also constantly lightheaded/dizzy, and had some weird symptoms like hair loss and slight weakness in the left side of my body. I also had a lot of gas and bloating and would belch all the time. I had heart palpitations and anxiety, and headaches a few times a month. Finally, I started noticing that I had to eat at least every two hours or I would get really lightheaded, and because I was nauseous a lot I had to force myself to eat.
So that's how I felt from May to September with gradual improvement. In October, November, and December I felt better but hit a plateau. The main symptoms that lingered were the off and on lightheadedness, needing to eat frequently, on and off nausea, and gas pains. Then in January I started getting slightly worse... more stomach issues than I'd had in the last couple months, more lightheaded feelings, couldn't go as long without eating, etc. February has been horrible. Fatigue, nausea, feeling like my blood sugar is crashing even though it's normal, headaches, lightheaded, and more. For the past few days I've felt really weak in my arms and legs.

Someone on the general health forum suggested lyme because I seem to have bad reactions to antibiotics. I recently developed an infection in my finger and started taking antibiotics, and every time I take the antibiotics within a few hours I feel very sick to my stomach, have chills and the weakness gets worse.

[youvegottobekidding]

I've had all these symptoms with lyme disease, and you should definitely get a test for this.

I've had extreme intestinqal and gastric problems with lyme but this is one of the less common symptoms among lylme patients.

There are some other illnesses that I think you should also get checked for.
You'll find you don't get a detailed or really balanced symptoms description on Wikipedia or other sites that come up top of the heap on Google so you need to dig deeper and find sites where people with these illnesses describe the symptoms for themselves:

Addison's disease (especially explains tirednes and nausea vomiting)

Giardiasis (explains the gas, pains and nausea)

Chlamydia pneumonia (huge variety of symptoms, esp cardiac ones and chest pain, tiredness etc)

Hypothyroid (less likely but needs checking - are you constipated?)

I've listed these in order of what I think sounds most likely.

What antibiotics have you taken?
Those symptoms could be a herxheimer reaction (symptoms of your infection get worse as the bacteria die in huge numbers) but they could also be side effects of some antibiotics.
If you tell us, then we can give more info.

[mojogal]

I agree with youvegottobekidding . I have had all those problems with lyme. My severe Lyme symptoms started with non stop diarrhea.  I would rule out regular gastro problems and other basics with your Doctor and then move on to Lyme.

I became hypothyroid and my hair fell out and is still falling out despite meds. My blood sugar went nuts. I had muscle weakness so it could be Lyme.

I am still to ill to write much more but others will step in to help and give much more info.

Take care

[lindsay0891]

Thanks guys. I have had my thyroid checked and I was leaning more toward hyper, now it seems more normal.
youvegottobekidding, the antibiotics I'm taking are cephalexin and sulfamethoxazole. I actually didn't take either last night because I was hoping I'd feel like going to class today, but I still had some diarrhea earlier. Diarrhea isn't a usual symptom for me.

[mojogal]

I forgot to say that if you take any antibiotic, you should take a probiotic supplement. This helps with the gastric problems.

[lindsay0891]

I've been on a probiotic for months. Went back to the doctor and they drained my finger a little big. I hope I start feeling better soon. I was on an "ask a doctor" website and the one I was talking to said the infection could be causing some of my other symptoms.

[pally10101]

You sound a LOT like me. Especially the having to eat often or you'll get lightheaded.  I hope things improve for you!  

[lindsay0891]

Thanks! Do you have that symptom from Lyme or something else? Before all the other symptoms I started getting this week it was my most annoying one.
It seems that the antibiotic cephalexin gives me more of a reaction than the Bactrim. I took the Bactrim earlier this evening and with the exception of some mild nausea I've been feeling pretty good. Maybe it wasn't the antibiotics making me feel bad...

[pally10101]

I'm an unconfirmed case. I suspect lyme as I had a negative spinal tap for MS but some minor brain lesions on my MRI which lyme can cause. I decided to stop messing around and am trying a few rounds of antibiotics through my doctor to see if I improve.  

[lindsay0891]

That's a good idea. Are you feeling any better so far?

[pally10101]

Nope. Worse actually. Supposedly that's normal and related to massive die off of the lyme bacteria.  

[lindsay0891]

Oh, well hopefully that will change soon! How long have you been on them?
This might be a stupid question but since I am on antibiotics for something else, is it possible that I might feel slightly better once I finish them if I do have lyme? Or would the bacteria reproduce too fast?

[youvegottobekidding]

Hi Lindsay,
I'm afraid most of us with lyme need to take antibiotics for months or years to get cured, so unless you take them that long, it's unfortunately unlikely you'd get cured of Lyme.

Bactrim didn't cause me any of the problems that you have, but it can cause tummy trouble in some people. However I think you had the tummy problems before taking it, didn't you?
I used to have diarrhoea 20 times a day, it was seriously limiting what I could do as I was unable to leave a toilet long enough to get to work.
I got it worter out by taking combined antibiotics (3 different ones) for 2 years, plus a massive heap of probiotics.

I don't know about cephalexin, has anyone else taken that?

There's a good change your probiotics aren't strong enough. You need 25 billion live bacteria a day and the wider variety of different bacteria there are, the better. there should be AT LEAST 4 different types in your capsules. Also you must take them with a distance of at least 2 hours from your antibiotics or else they will do nothing.

I still think you had enough sympotoms before the antibiotics, and enough of a reaction to the antibiotics, to make lyme your most likely candidate.

I also think the wild blood sugar curve variations are most likely caused by adrenal insufficiency, which is what happens to many people with lyme disease. Do you take a lot of caffeine to try to dredge up energy? That will make this adrenal thing worse and also make your diarrhoea worse.

The rules for any intestinal problem from IBS to Crohns disease (I've been misdiagnosed and indeed treated for all of them so I am quite knowledgeable!!) are
no coffee
co tea
no alsohol
no spices
no coca cola or other carbonated drinks
These all irritate the intestine

There are lots of rules for helping you if you have adrenal insufficiency, which means that you are not making enough cortisol or adrenaline (hence feeling tired and weak and getting endless blood sugar crashes).
Every time you're hungry you must eat a salty snack not a sugary one. Healthy choices are olives, salted nuts, delicatessen meats and smoked salmon (I think Americans cal that lox?).

The lack of cortisol that I strongly think you could have would come from Addisons disease or in a milder form from lyme disease.
There's a blod post about it here, have a read:
http:// ihateticks. wordpress .com/2012/10/09/do-you-feel-tired-all-the-time/

(You need to get rid of the spaces I've put in here)

[youvegottobekidding]

Sorry about all the typos above. I hope you can understand what I wrote!

I tried to include a lot of info, if it doesn't make sense please ask me again!!

I forgot to mention, to get tested for Addison's disease you need to ask the doctor to measure your ANA titers and your cortisol level.
It's important you get tested for this. Ify ou have Addisons, the ANA titers are too high and the cortisol is too low.
You'll need to spell this out to the doctor as Addisons is one of the top ten most underdiagnosed illnesses in the US. Most people with Addisons are sick for 4 years before their doc finally thinks of testing them!

[lindsay0891]

I didn't think the antibiotics would cure me but I thought if I noticed even a tiny bit of a difference, it might make lyme seem more likely and I might be able to convince my doctors that it's a possibility.

I have had stomach issues prior to now but not diarrhea. The probiotic I take is 42 billion cells, actually I took two capsules the first day I was on the antibiotics. Fortunately today I only had diarrhea when I woke up and my stomach felt much better throughout the day.

I do have a lot of symptoms for low cortisol but also some for high cortisol (I have gained a few pounds instead of losing weight, my BP isn't low). I have had the ANA antibodies test and it was negative. How sensitive is it for Addison's?

[mojogal]

Just to let you know, I was misdiagnosed with a couple of autoimmune illnesses,  Lyme can mess with your adrenals and many systems in your body. Youvegottobekidding was right, with Lyme most of us take months or years worth of antibiotics.

[JackieCalifornia]

I agree with mojo and youvegot, a short course (days or a few weeks) of antibiotics will not likely have any effect that the docs would credit as proving you have something, esp. when it comes to Lyme.  It's a complex disease, and it often brings along other infections carried by the same ticks, which confuses the whole picture, because the symptoms are different and different meds are needed.  Also, Lyme does not generally respond to a short course of the ordinary kinds of antibiotics that are given for less complex conditions.

Bottom line, Lyme is not a do-it-yourself project, and self-medicating with ineffective doses and courses of the wrong antibiotics is what is causing antibiotic resistant infections creating 'super-bugs' that cannot be treated at all.  Please don't do that to yourself or the rest of us!

Hope you find your way to a good doc soon --

[lindsay0891]

Thank you, I appreciate the advice!
It's just so confusing. I don't feel like lyme is very probable since I don't remember any tick bites and when I read other threads on here, other people's symptoms aren't that similar to mine. But so much other stuff has been ruled out!

[lindsay0891]

I'm feeling a little better today than I have for a few days (so far anyway) and the infection on my finger is looking better. So hopefully that's at least part of what was making me feel so much worse.

[Stargazer_Lilies]

Can you list all tests you had done up to now? How long ago did the infection on your finger started?

Sometimes test result may deemed normal, but in the reality it is abnormal. It depends on how medical practitioner or lab interprets the result.

For instance, my DHEA level is below normal range, and many doctors felt it is irrelevant. However, wholistic/naturopath doctor may interprets it differently.  With thyroid, you may have heard about it--many doctors typically pays attention to TSH level only, ignore Free T3 and Free T4.  

[Stargazer_Lilies]

Cephalexin is in the same class (cephalosporin) as Ceftin, Rocephin, and such. It is cell wall inhibitor antibiotics.

[Stargazer_Lilies]

Oh,related to youvegotttobekidding's comment, salty snack is good if one have experience dizziness/faintness due to drop in blood pressure or to hypotension(low blood pressure) as it is with Addison's disease.

Person would find themselves craving salty foods.  Do you find yourself craving for salty foods?

I have hypotension, adrenal fatigue, and had neurally mediated hypotension/neurocardigenic syncope. This is where my experience with craving salty food came from.  It is better now although.

[lindsay0891]

My BP is actually not low at all. It's usually anywhere from 110/70-134/82 (usually if I'm feeling anxious). Last time it was 112/82. And once it was even higher at a time when I felt like I really needed to eat. I feel like I have some symptoms of both low and high cortisol.
I'll try to list the tests I've had when I get copies. The only ones I know right off are my thyroid levels... January: TSH 0.71 (range 0.45-4.5), free T4 1.14 (0.8-1.8). It was TSH 0.34 FT4 1.44 in December.

[mojogal]

Not everyone remembers getting a tick bite so keep that in mind. We hope you don't have it but if you do you need to be treated so it doesn't get worse.

[lindsay0891]

If I had lyme would it be getting progressively worse? I was feeling the worst over the summer, then a little better in the fall/early winter, then a little worse this month.