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Advice for Lyme-Likely Husband - advice for Headaches/IBS Pains

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Posted 12/15/2023 4:36 AM (GMT 0)
Hey All,

Our doctor thinks that my husband likely has Lyme and why he gets flares and just all of a sudden feels awful. He has IBS symptoms and these headaches that he's researched are affecting the trigeminal nerve (go from the base of his skull to behind his eyes and feels like burning). When the headaches are flaring the stomach pain are also causing trapped gas pain and IBS like symptoms.

These issues and headaches particularly started after he had COVID in 2021. He did have remission from symptoms this summer but that's mainly been his only break.

Do you have any advice for him? Any good meds/supplements for these nerve headaches?

Thank you all so much!
Posted 12/15/2023 7:10 AM (GMT 0)
Sorry that your hubby likely has lyme.

It’s possible that it was passed on from from you.

Is your husband going to see a LLMD for an evaluation and possibly treatment?
Posted 12/15/2023 7:30 AM (GMT 0)
We go to a clinic where a LLMD works but we’re seeing an NP there and they don’t switch around providers but they will work with each other for advice. I’m trying to convince him to do the vibrant wellness panel and she thinks he likely has it from me. He has matching symptoms. We just need advice especially for the headaches and why they seem to flare when his gut symptoms flare.
Posted 12/15/2023 11:58 AM (GMT 0)
hi SavedbyGrace

i think the best way to look at it is the main approach to reducing symptoms from Lyme and co is treatment of the underlying infection/s - as that is what is driving symptoms in the first place

unfortunately, as time goes by, an untreated infection is likely to cause new unexpected and potentially serious further symptoms and complications - and the longer these infections go untreated the harder they greater impact they tend to have on our overall health and the harder they tend to be to treat.

i know this can sound alarming - but its best to deal with challenges as they are - rather than we might hope or like them to be.

the good news is if you husband has recently had or is still having bouts of good health then he is likely closer than many to being able to recover - with appropriate treatment.

after that symptoms suppression only really makes sense as a way of coping with life while treatment is ongoing.

Dr J has videos on YouTube that talk about strategies for managing pain with pharma meds.
and
regarding natural approaches -Stephen Buhner's books also have sections on herbs that can help with brain inflammation and nerve damage that might be helpful eg "Healing Lyme 2nd Edition" and could give some relief - but again symptoms suppression is not expected to be curative

I hope its of some help
Posted 12/15/2023 12:05 PM (GMT 0)
ref IBS

my partner and i both developed IBS type symptoms after we became ill with lyme and bartonella
the single best thing by far we found to help with this was changing to a ketogenic diet

in fact my partners health overall turned a corner dramatically within a couple of weeks when she switched to a strict ketogenic diet. i was against this at first but once i saw the change in my partner i had to change tack and adopt it myself.

i can also track the start of my recovery to this time and consider it the best single intervention i have done to date - my progress was slower and less dramatic than my partners ( she went running again after 2 weeks )
but i was sicker to start with and also did not adopt such a low carb approach as she did and my results were slower

i think it works by reducing the load on the immune system that IBS and the underlying leaky gut causes - allowing the immune system to work better at fighting the infections.

by the way - pain syndromes and gut issues are typical symptoms of bartonella - a co-infection present in a high proportion of chronic lyme patients
Posted 12/15/2023 2:11 PM (GMT 0)
I developed IBS symptoms after taking an SSRI, prescribed to treat migraines (which didn't help). SSRIs can mess with your neurotransmitters (most of which are made in the gut) as well as your gut flora, so this is an often-overlooked cause of IBS symptoms and even gut dysbiosis. Any chance he has taken an SSRI for these headaches?

Trigeminal nerve headaches are just awful. Has he tried acupuncture or craniosacral therapy? I have found guided visualization meditations for headaches helpful also. In terms of just treating pain, rather than prevention, has he tried cannabis? Is there a chance he's being exposed to mold or some other environmental irritant?

COVID (like many other infections, as we here know!) can have severe long-term symptoms, including disabling the immune system that has been keeping other latent infections latent. This is the cause to which some studies have attributed trigeminal nerve pain following COVID infection. Much like with Lyme, treating immune dysfunction and the body's hyper-reactive state can be helpful. Immune-modulating herbs, supplements, and/or pharmaceuticals could be helpful for him.

I'm sorry you are both suffering!
Posted 12/15/2023 4:06 PM (GMT 0)
Thank you guys for your help. I'll get him to do the Vibrant Wellness Panel to know what infections we are dealing with. I know he needs to treat it overall. He has been taking biocidin drops in water for some time now to help.

Diets are super hard for our family to stick with, but I'll suggest them to him and see if I can get him to stick to one. I also did much better when I did the Paleo diet in 2020 at the beginning of the year.

The CST sounds like a great idea. Our frequency therapist does CST and treats environmental toxins with her frequencies. She's tested our house and does not find mold. We also had our house mold tested before we moved in, and it was clean. We think he ate some bad potatoes - potatoes from the garden that had too much green on them - and that they spiraled his health again back into this state.

He has taken SSRIs before. He took Prozac for depression when his health first started being a struggle. Is this trigeminal nerve pain typical with Lyme? Like I said, this didn't start for him until he was sick with COVID in late 2021. I've never really had this pain myself. Mine has been chiefly lymph involvement, achy knees, numb cheek, and general fatigue and aches. His is more gut-related and headache-related.
Posted 12/15/2023 5:42 PM (GMT 0)
the thing with lyme is that there isn't really so much of a stereotypical symptom pattern - as it can manifest with almost any symptoms under the sun ( its been called "the Great Imitator" for this reason)

what there is is more of a kind of general flavour within patterns that overlap with other infections and conditions to a large degree

common symptoms reported in lyme are:
-headaches
-fatigue
-joint pain - and often swelling - especially in the early stages
-brain fog/cognitive/memory/ issues
-neuropathies ( numbness, burning, stinging, hypersensitivity to touch etc )
-and especially any migrating pain type symptoms ( pain that comes and goes or seems to move from one joint to another over time - not explained by other known conditions)
Posted 12/15/2023 6:34 PM (GMT 0)
Yeah he's had majority of those symptoms. I really am going to push to get him to get tested for Lyme and Co.
Posted 12/15/2023 10:51 PM (GMT 0)
the top 3 articles on this page may be of use to you

https://learn.invisible.international/resources/

they are a respected source run by a not for profit lyme advocacy and education group and are science based
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