Hi Alexa
Sorry I missed your post. You already had good feedback. Just wanted to add a few thoughts:
If you can, take measures to stay out of the ER. Those MDs are trained for triage and will miss most complicated conditions. Plus, they don't have the resources to learn your specific medical history, nor the time to make an effort. And lyme is probably the most complex and misunderstood diseases. And, by law they have to do stupid things if they suspect mental health issues. And since they're not really trying very hard to explore areas of medicine they don't understand, their fallback is that your problem is in your head. IGNORE IT. and do your best to stay far away.
These sx are horrible and scary, but common and they do not indicate you are dying or anything urgently dangerous. We can help guide you to the help you need. It's really smart of you to reach out and post. This forum has a wealth of information and really great posters and moderators. You should acquaint yourself with the "New to Lyme?" thread at the top of the page if you haven't already... educating yourself about
what these symptoms mean is absolutely critical.
The reason your lyme tests were misinterpreted is, the MDs don't understand them, don't understand the illness and so they ignorantly dismiss the tests because there are a lot of issues with accuracy with the tests. But this doesn't mean they should be ignored. This means these MDs need to educate themselves and expand their knowledge.
Yeast/fungal overgrowth:
Also, I think you probably have developed a yeast/fungal overgrowth situation in your gut, given your mention of the drinking and most of your sx align with y/f overgrowth (they also crossover w/ lyme sx but I think the y/f overgrowth is your dominant issue right now. )
Alcohol converts to sugar very fast and yeast THRIVES on sugar. It is very likely that the lyme infection (and often ticks carry several other infections, which also burden the immune system, viruses and fungus are very common with lyme) has stirred up trouble with your immune system. 70% of your immune system lives in your gut. So if there is trouble in your gut, and lyme and co-infections can create trouble there as well as too much alcohol, poor diet, stress, the mucosal lining gets damaged and it can affect how your immune system functions.
Yeast/fungus overgrowth also damages your immune system directly. If left untreated, the yeast can grow roots into your mucosal lining, basically creating holes in it. These holes damage the immune functions, make it difficult for you to digest food and nutrients properly (as well as medications/supplements) and also allow yeast and fecal matter and other debris and toxins to leak out into your blood stream, causing leaky gut. Food particles are not supposed to be in your blood. So your immune system then starts working overtime reacting to all the food and next thing you know, you start developing reactions to everything you eat. Even the healthy foods. Leaky gut is a VERY difficult situation to solve. It takes a long time and a lot of effort to heal your gut so y/f treatment is critical. And, without a supportive immune function, healing from lyme and co-infections is very difficult.
Also, the "psycho-neuro" problems you're experiencing are likely directly related to the lyme infection, the GI damage and the y/f overgrowth. Lyme and y/f causes nuerotoxins (gases) that reach your brain and cause disruptions to your neurotransmitters, the hormones and chemicals that balance mood and cognition and psychological functioning. But also, there has been new research that PROVES what NDs have known for centuries, that there are blood vessels that connect your gut to your brain... so what goes on in the gut directly affects our brain functioning.
My advice is to address the y/f overload immediately. It's very difficult to treat the lyme if your gut is unhealthy because your immune system is struggling.
Here is more info--please read through it and let me know if you have any q's.
yeast/fungal overgrowth:
www.healingwell.com/community/default.aspx?f=30&m=3287783&p=2www.healingwell.com/community/default.aspx?f=30&m=3413180www.healingwell.com/community/default.aspx?f=30&m=3446175Leaky gut:
www.healingwell.com/community/default.aspx?f=30&m=3294327Pure Nystatin w/out fillers:
www.healingwell.com/community/default.aspx?f=30&m=3274111dosing
www.drmyhill.co.uk/wiki/Nystatin_-_how_to_take_it-p
Post Edited (Pirouette) : 7/18/2015 1:07:26 PM (GMT-6)