Strange things going on...just venting mostly...

I was told the sore throat was a cold. I think it was a combination of a cold and allergies - I have a ton of tree pollen allergies, and tree pollen season started to really get going in Feb/March here. Now it is birch pollen season, and that is one of my worst tree pollen allergies...I am on 3x the usual dose of Claritin (with my Allergist's permission), and still get some allergy symptoms...

The rashes haven't responded to anything I've tried so far - antibacterial essential oils, cold laser, Cortaid, iodine tincture, Benadryl cream, etc. Nobody has been able to tell me what is causing the rashes. The one on my shoulder is old - has come and gone several times since 2005, and when I went to the Dermatologist for it, he basically threw steroid cream at me and dismissed it. He didn't even tell me what the name of the rash was... And I haven't been able to find anything that quite looks like it online either...although some of the pictures of eczema and of ACA (the European Lyme rash) have some resemblence...

Yes, I have abnormal immune labs. Yes, I've had labs drawn on a regular basis for nearly 3 years now...and fairly frequently prior to that.

Abnormal labs:

Low RBC and HCT. These do not increase with supplementation of Vitamin B12, Folic Acid, or Iron...it has been diagnosed as "Anemia of Chronic Disease"

High total IgA - nobody has been able to tell me why...
High IgG subclass 2 - nobody has been able to tell me why...

Low Lymphocytes, Low T-Cells (esp. CD8 T-Cells), and occasionally low B-Cells ~ I believe I have had this problem for a long time.  This is my "immune deficiency" though nobody seems to be able to tell me what this means, why I have it, or how to treat it...

Intermittantly high ANA (homogenous or duel homogenous/speckled), and sometimes I get a positive on anti-Smith antibodies. I've been diagnosed with Lupus, but it is most likely secondary to Lyme. As is common with Lupus, sunshine aggravates a lot of my symptoms, so I tend to avoid direct sunshine most of the time.

Lyme IgM IGeneX positive in 2007; CDC positive via another lab in 2008. No coinfection tests have come back positive (was tested for the full panel of coinfections at Fry Labs, and also for Ehrlichia/Anaplasma at IGeneX). I have a clinical diagnosis of Bartonella in addition to Lyme, and personally suspect possible Anaplasma (because of the low lymphocytes) but we haven't been able to confirm with tests...

Viral tests (EBV, CMV, HHV, HIV, etc.) are all negative, much to the surprise of the Rheumatologist who ordered them...

Parasite & Candida stool tests are negative.  H. Pylori tests done on biopsies of my stomach are negative.

Candida tests (cultures taken during annual female exam) are negative...but I know these tests don't check gastrointestinal yeast.  I have used a variety of antifungal herbs and probiotics to prevent yeast, and do not believe it to be a major issue for me at this time (I do not have a white tongue, etc.).

Vitamin D (both 25 OH and 1,25 OH) is low - Vitamin D is a problem for me - I do not handle high doses well when they are taken orally. I'm currently experimenting with topically applied Vitamin D3 to see if that makes a difference...

Ferritin is high (~3000), partially due to inflammation and also due to attempts at treating my anemia with IV iron last year. The IV iron has been discontinued (I was in danger of over-dosing).

C4 is intermittantly high. C4 is an acute-phase reactant, meaning my immune system is "busy" with something...

ESR (Sed Rate) is high (ranges from 35-102 since 2005; hasn't been normal since 2005) - this means there is inflammation in my body but we don't know where. Some is gastrointestinal, but not enough to explain how high my ESR has been.

Lupus Anticoagulant is sometimes positive (this is an anti-phospholipid antibody, which means that I can become more prone to developing blood clots when this is elevated).

Factor VIII is low, but I do not have VonWillebrand's Hemophilia. I do have elevated PTT sometimes, meaning it may take me a little longer to stop bleeding after a cut, but usually this has not been a significant problem for me.

Elevated PTT - intermittantly an issue...can be caused by Lupus Anticoagulant (in which case the elevated PTT is falsely elevated), or by Factor VIII deficiency...and I have both (aren't I having fun yet?)...

Anti-Gliadin IgG is high. I have a diagnosis of non-Celiac Gluten Sensitivity.

Many other food-specific IgG, IgA & IgM are high. I try to avoid most of these, since most of them give me symptoms.

Sometimes my albumin or pre-albumin is low, but I think that's because I tend to eat low-protein because I have trouble processing sulfur amino acids (due to methylation cycle genetic variants). I also think this may be due to problems with my liver that are the result of having been on TPN (food through a vein in my arm) for a little over 2 years (just came off TPN in November of 2010), which is known to be hard on the liver. I was diagnosed with Fatty Liver (secondary to TPN) in 2009, but most recent labs have my liver enzymes back into the normal range finally. But just because the enzyme levels are normal does not mean the damage from the TPN has all been corrected...

Thanks,

Razzle,
I am sooo sorry that you have had such a difficult time! I have read your posts for a few years now and have always been impressed with not only your attitude, but your knowledge of so many things medical -especially in the Homeopathic therapies.

I know that you have most likely researched all possible treatments for the things you have to live with, and I can certainly understand the frustration you expressed in your first post. I wish I knew of something helpful!!

about all I have to offer though is understanding of your frustrations, and plenty of sympathy. Big gentle hugs.

Hang in there! You are one tough Lady!!!
Trav.

Razzle--

This might be no help at all, but my mom got this very itchy, scaly patch of skin on her back quite a few years ago. Just the one weird patch. 

She carried a back scratcher around with her all the time . It drove her crazy and no doctor could figure out what it was or what could be causing it.  

She never had Lyme or any allergies-- never was sick a day in her life except for getting Poly MR.  But that was 10 years earlier, so unrelated.

Eventually the itchy patch just went away.  IMO it was from worry and stress.  But who knows. 

I think our bodies can 'act out' in very individual and strange ways sometimes. 

A long time ago I used to get hives-- really bad--- with no known cause.

I also got boils once (YUCK !!!)  seven of them, one after the other even on my legs! 

They started out as angry red lumps. Very painful and totally gross!

.....again with no known 'medical' cause.  Battery of tests revealed nothing.  Never got them again, thankfully!

I was really stressed out back then (job related). So I attribute all of it to that, in hindsight. 

Maybe the lump on your leg is an emerging boil????  It can take a week or longer for them to come to a head.  Horrible, nasty things! 

Hope you get through this soon!   

 

Well, the lump on my leg has been there since April 9th...over 2 weeks, and still won't come to a head... Doctor says abscess...put heat on it... Well, so I did, and that was a huge mistake. The pain skyrocketed to the point I couldn't put any weight on that leg, and the area of redness got huge. Stopped the heat packs and the redness and pain went back to how they were prior to trying the heat packs.

I thought heat was good for infections, would make them feel better??

I mean, I've tried everything on this darn lump... Essential oils (frankinsence, thyme, clove, cinnamon, lemon, eucalyptus, rosemary), topical Bactroban, colloidal silver, homeopathy, and I'm taking herbs internally (thyme, fenugreek, elderberry, nettles, peppermint)...and have been on the Ceftin for almost a week with only a Lyme herx to show for it...the lump on my leg has not changed one bit.

So yeah, I don't think I've had adequate treatment for the Lyme. I've only had low-dose abx. one at a time - no cyst busters, no combinations. Cipro, Doxy, and Ceftin. No macrolides. I'm allergic to sulfa, erythromycin and vancomycin.

When I try herbs that stimulate my immune system, I get really, really sick.

Stress has been a part of my life for a lot longer than this current batch of skin symptoms have been present. The first rash appeared 6 years ago, and the rest of the stuff has occurred this year. I really don't think this is stress-related as much as something that was kept under control by the abx until I stopped the abx earlier this year. I think I was off of them for about 3-4 weeks when the other rashes appeared...

I wish I could afford a different doctor, but the other Lyme docs here don't take insurance and charge huge fees. And I'm not convinced they could do anything different for me than my current doc.

The problem is that when we try to get aggressive with the Lyme/co's, it sends me to the hospital. The reason is because my methylation pathway (detox pathway) is messed up. I've been trying to find out how to compensate for this, but am getting nowhere. The stuff is just too complicated. And the supplements recommended by the place where I had the genetic tests done for the methylation cycle genomic variants all pretty much have something in them I can't do (for example, I'm anaphylactic to nuts, so can't get by with the "small amount" in the supplements).

So yeah, I'm in a pickle and not sure where or what to do next. But life goes on, and someday a lightbulb will go on...hopefully...

Well, so my doctor is actually a Naturopathic physician, with an extra bit of research background with infectious diseases...

He has switched me to Keflex, so we'll see if that does any better than the Ceftin...we had a bit of a chat about this today.

What's a drawing salve? Any product examples you can think of would be helpful here...I'm not familiar with this concept...

Thanks,

Wow, looked up the ichamol and it is really high in sulfur...I think it is better for me not to use this. I react pretty badly to Neosporin, which contains sulfa antibiotcs, and many other sulfur containing products.

Thanks for the suggestion, though. I'm going to talk to my doctor tomorrow again. I've been on abx for 9 days and this thing on my leg looks and feels identical to when I started...I don't think the abx are working...