PLEASE HELP ME! my mom and I need adivce!!!

Hi I have posted here and you all have always been so helpful. I have been sick since I was 12 for about 9 years now and my mom has been sick for about 2 years. Migraines, nightsweats, tremors, horrible neck pain, joint pain stiffness, I have HORRIBLE calf and bicep, foot, hamstring cramps and pain and much much more. Thank God my mom is finally starting to improve. But I am having a harder time of it. So last year I had a HORRIBLE stomach flu and ever since I have been out of control and have had a whole lot of stomach issues. Horrible nausea, stomach pain and not to mention that I have lost about 55 lbs. I simply cannot eat. It gives me horrible nausea and stomach pain and I am also afraid to eat because every time that I do I get horrible nausea and stomach pain. I am very malnutritioned and have malabsorbtion which means that my gut does not absorb nutrients form food or anything. My family thinks that I am becoming anorexic which I probably am and I just want to be clear that it is NOT because I want to be skinny or anything it is just because eating causes me nothing but pain and discomfort. Everything I eat causes me pain. My gastro guy says that it is probably my Lyme and Bart and all the antibiotics that are causing my stomach issues. I do have some markers for Chron's disease but I have never tested posative for it. My Lyme doc says it is probably all the bacteria also. So my question is this? Do any of you have stomach troubles? If so what do you eat? Are there any tricks I could do? Have you heard of all this type of stomach trouble with Lyme? Do you think it will ever go away? Also random but just wanted to know what you guys thought about massage? I have really bad aching and cramps in my calf and arms and wondered if there were any tricks or something that might help, especially because it gets SO bad at night. Sorry I wrote so much. Any help would be great I get really scared when I have pain and my mom is really scared about my weight. BTW I am on amoxicillin and zithromax right now and have taken pretty much all of the antibiotics in the past including a PICC line. I really hope to hear from you soon! Thank you so much!

Thanks Gary. To answer you questions I do take probiotics. I don't really do detox I drink alot of ginger tea if that counts as a detox. I feel like every time I try to detox like an epsom salt bath or something that it gives me a herx i don't really know if that is possible.

JiJI,

Well, ginger tea has some benefits, no doubt, but I don't think I would count that as detox. Some people do have uncomfortable experiences after a detox bath but it usually only lasts for a couple of days or so. Two things you could do, one is to cut back on the amount of epson salt you use and gradually build up to the amount in the recipe. Maybe cut back by half or more then build up as you can.

The other idea is to simply use sea salt instead of epson salt. Some people prefer that method over epson salt because they don't want the magnesium in their body as they think it "feeds the bugs". I'm not sure I agree with that, but that's beside the point. The point is, maybe your body isn't capable of handling the magnesium at this time, so you might consider using sea salt and see if that helps. If you still feel like you're herxing, then all I can say is to try to tolerate it until it stops because detoxing our bodies is just too important to ignore.

Have you read the "Hansa Center Update" thread on this forum? It talks about my journey to healing (which I'm still on) using natural medicines. You, in my opinion, would be a perfect candidate for this protocol. It's so much more gentle than what you're doing now with abx. Please check out the thread I started there and read about how I got better (still am) using natural medicine, treatments and therapies. Even if you can't go to the Hansa Center for treatment I would recommend you purchase the book, "Beatiing Lyme Disease" http://www.hansacenter.com/beating_lyme_disease.php

Believe it or not, I was once as sick as you are right now and lost 75lbs in six months due to not being able to eat. It was triggered from steroid shots that messed my immune system up something awful. (By the way, you aren't on any kind of steroids or cortisone or anything like that are you?) Anyway, I didn't get better until I started detoxing. I used some natural remedies that Dr. Jerningan makes Neuro-Antitox ll. He has four different formulas that you can read about here: http://abc.eznettools.net/jernigannutraceuticals/Neuro-Antitox2.html .

Of course, I'm no doctor, and in no position to tell you what to do, that's something better left to the professionals. However, based on my experience, which is very similar to what you're going through right now, your body is crying out for detoxing. I would make every effort possible to detox my body if it was me. I say this based on my own experience. Most of the symptoms we lymies have, which causes us to feel very miserable, is usually due to lyme toxins. Here's an excellent article on the subject: http://findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_m0ISW/is_285/ai_n19170382/?tag=content;col1

For nausea, I took chicory ginger bitters right before eating and it helped me tremendously. I could not eat without first taking this. Plus, this is a great detoxifier as well, and in my opinion, based on what you've shared, your body really needs all the detoxifying it can get right now. This is what I took when I had nausea problems right before eating. It helped me to be able to eat better and gain my strength back
http://shop.urielpharmacy.com/liq-chiginbit240.aspx

Again, very sorry for what you are going through. Hope some of the suggestion Razzle and I have given you will be of some benefit to you. I'm sure others will post their suggestions as well.

Keep us posted

Hi JIJI,

Nausea, abdominal pain, and weight loss are hallmark symptoms for adrenal insufficiency.  There are of course many causes of nausea, but adrenal problems are not something that most doctors assoc. with nausea right away.  Aching muscles happens with low cortisol from adrenal problems, it can be very painful.  I had horrible nausea for months, lost wt. and all the docs blamed the nausea on lyme, but it turned out to be adrenal failure.

Also In my experience my muscle cramps have been caused by toxins, low potassium and hypothyroid.

Other symptoms of adrenal problems may include imbalance in electrolytes (sodium & Potassium). 

How are your sodium and potassium levels?

Have you had your cortisol or aldosterone level checked? (both are produced by adrenals)

Have you had ACTH level checked?

Have you had your thyroid tested? FreeT3, FreeT4, & TSH?

Blessings,

Paulette

JIJI,
I have had issues with my stomach & my intestines similar to what you describe, for quite a few years now. I have tried many different 'natural' products and 'scripts, hoping to just be able to eat when I need, although I always seem to have to go back to using phenergran. I get nauseated instead of feeling hunger, & eating doesn't usually help, 'cause I'm then nauseated because I ate (talk about being a mess!!!). I also seem to get nauseated right around the time I usually go to bed, so I drink a tea that has peppermint in it several nights a week.

I know that it may seem to some here that I am suddenly pushing this(I promise I'm not), but drinking kefir has been a big help to me in many ways. I make my own kefir as it has a lot more beneficial bacteria that way. I have issues with lactose intolerance, but am able to handle the kefir fine, but it can also be made with some soy milks, and even in water. Drinking kefir daily has really eased some of my stomach & intestinal issues.

I also had a lot of muscle cramping & twitching, and quite by accident, I discovered that I had a significant decrease in this after I started taking extra magnesium for intestinal issues.

I'm hope you are able to find something soon that will help you out!!!