Lyme/Tick Borne Illness and Pancreatic Insufficiency?

HeatherLynnJ said...
Thank you!

You might want to dilute the apple cider vinegar with water. I believe I did 50/50.

I should warn you that the vinegar will sting at first, but it gives relief afterwards. I had the outbreak on my hip and groin. I mixed the ACV and water in a glass and took it in the bathroom. I took a shower and dried off and then poured the mixture onto the area while standing in the shower. I also tried pouring it on washcloth and laying the washcloth over it, but I could hardly stand anything touching it.

Avoid heat. Heat will make it horribly worse. Take cool showers and stay in air conditioning. Don’t spend time in the sun or work up a sweat until it’s healed up. Can take a few weeks.

Thank you all for the information and for telling me about your experiences! Luckily my rash, which may or may not have been due to shingles, has resolved on its own.

I have read that SIBO can cause low fecal elastase, which is how my pancreatic insufficiency was diagnosed. Does anyone happen to know if discontinuing an SSRI, and/or if Bartonella and other tick-borne infections, can cause SIBO? I'm hoping and praying that rather than actual pancreatic insufficiency caused by pancreatic cancer or something else terminal, my issues be due to something more treatable such as bacterial overgrowth. I'm just trying to put the pieces together and understand why my weight loss and muscle wasting began after I stopped taking Lexapro.

some of the posts in this thread are interesting to me - as i am having a prolonged flare of gut symptoms for the last 2 months or more since having a bout of COVID/ some other respiratory virus.

i have a thread on that here https://www.healingwell.com/community/default.aspx?f=30&m=4296735

basically :

-lots of gut reactivity, gas, rumbling and churning after meals,
-increased fatigue and aching in my body
-weight loss ( only around 1/2 a stone - but i didn't have a great deal of surplus to begin with and had been working on getting my weight and strength back up.

more recently i have noticed bouts of pale stools ( something i do get occasionally - and believe is linked to Bart infecting the liver - and impairing its function / reducing bile flow)

often associated with this i get a kind of trapped wind, stitch like stomach ache around 1hrs after eating
this would coincide with when the valve at the bottom of the stomach would be opening to let the chime through into the small intestine - and this is when the bile should normally be released from the gall bladder - assuming it had been made in the liver and stored there as it is supposed to be.

i do also get periodic pain around the liver - generally mild and noticeable mostly 1st thing on waking - again driven by bartonella i believe - as it is known for causing infected necrotising granulomatous lesions in the liver.
these could well be expected to interfere with the livers function - specifically with bile production.
the paper here talks about these lesions as one of teh common signs in bartonella infections - and gives more detail.

https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/pmc3287964/

i also have periodic bouts of raised liver enzymes on routine blood tests - indicating higher than normal rates of liver cell turnover - again consistent with infection and liver involvement.

putting all that together i think perhaps the stomach ache / trapped wind type feelings are driven by a sudden lack of bile from the liver - meaning i cannot properly digest the meal i have eaten - and instead it is fermenting by microbes in the small intestine - rather than being absorbed as it is supposed to - as one of bile's functions is to suppress most microbes in the small intestine to prevent fermentation. thus a lack of bile could explain a sudden flare of sibo symptoms - and i think Astro may be onto something with his Ox bile treatment.
the fact that the gas is occurring right in the middle of the digestive track and is difficult to get to either end is also consistent with this being the case.

although why a virus might in my case have triggered a persistent bout of sibo like symptoms - i am not sure

i have done a bit of hunting around and found this bile supplement

https://www.dolphinfitness.co.uk/en/jarrow-formulas-bile-acid-factors-90-capsules/216339

-it seems to have about the highest dose of bile out there
-is in a conjugated form which is supposed to be more potent
-has good reviews - avg 4.7
-is reasonably priced
-is from a recognised brand ( all be it - one of the cheaper ones )

going to give it a go

seems to fit together but only trial and error will tell - so will report back

Hi Heather,

I have had mirror, experience. Hope you found healing. Did you get any resolve. Any advise??

as an update on the above in my case

further reading found that blooms of unhelpful gut bacteria are common after respiratory viruses -

bile salts may have helped me a little - as did sticking to an even stricter ketogenic diet than usual for a while ( less carbs = less for for gut bugs and less overgrowth) - and then mainly it was just a case of keeping up with everything that has helped me so far - exercise, sleep, fermented foods in moderation etc - and it gradually settled down again

its not perfect - but its about how it was before

i do think bart and lyme tend to turn our internal organs into inflamed spongy inferior versions of their previous robust state and we tend to get this kind of thing as a result

Thanks Garzie

I was tested positive for Bart and lyme, with varying migrating symptoms. The most puzzling being the digestive issues.

I can't take alcohol at all, and have to watch diet closely. Bile salts help. Its so Bizzar!

I did about 3 weeks of the antibiotics and felt great with minor herx , them my liver enzymes started creeping up, so I had to back off.

That's really interesting Emma, thank you for sharing.

I also have MCAS and SIBO. Rifaximin and the right probiotics seem to settle the SIBO and I'm seeing a specialist, next month for the the MCAS. It's funny you mentioned hemochromatosis , I have the less likely gene and the hemotologist, says I don't have it. I repeatedly have high ferritin levels and really low nk cells . Non of the regular doctors can explain.

Once I got on a low histamine diet and off laytex food allergy related foods, things have improved.

Very much interested in what your scan tells you. Thanks for sharing.

Wellnessguy45 said...

I did about 3 weeks of the antibiotics and felt great with minor herx , them my liver enzymes started creeping up, so I had to back off.

this happened to me also

i backed off as i was a bit scared - my liver enzymes had gone well over normal range and were around 2x upper limit - but i have since learned that this is very common in bart treatment and usually resolves - the "bart Guru" Dr M says he often sees this - and uses 4x normal upper limit as the "safe" limit - sees it as a sign bart treatment is progressing - continues abx - and it usually resolves

i didnt know that at the time and wonder if i would have got my life back 5 years ago if i had continued

i was super cautious about antibiotics at that stage -

Hi Emma,

I have two copies of the HFE gene, its possible but unlikely to cause Hemochromatosis. In the absence of hemochromatosis elevated ferritin and low NK cells indicates chronic inflammation likely from infection . I've been told to go give blood and see if I feel better.