Medication questions!

I'll try to keep this short and to the point...I tend to ramble :)

I won't see an LLMD until Feb 6, and in the meantime I'm seeing my Rheumatologist (who considers my western blot negative). He has Dx'd me with Fibromyalgia, Depression, Hypothyroidism and Vit D deficient.

He prescribed Zanaflex for muscle pain and spasms and tramadol for pain. The Tramadol was great for the first couple weeks. He originally said I could take (1) 50mg a day as needed, but I asked to take up to 2 and he agreed. For those few days at first I actually had some relief!

My question is this...I know pain meds lose their potency (for lack of a better word), over time, but can it happen this quickly? I just started taking in on Oct 25th.

I also know that Lyme pain is very difficult to treat/manage.

Does anyone know of anything that might be more effective?
I've also heard horror stories about tramadol being terribly addictive. I don't want to continue taking something that barely helps if that kind of risk is involed! However, I have an 18 month old son and I have to function.

Lately I've been so stiff that I fear I'll wake up soon and have lost all mobility. I took a nap with my son a few days ago and when I woke up my neck was literally stuck in the position I'd slept, with my head turned to the side. It was very painful and pretty darn scary!


Any advice, suggestions, or comments? :)

Tickledpink,

Thank you for your reply. I've heard a lot about Tumeric, I need to look into this. Is it a supplement?

May I ask what your foot pain is like? I have problems with my left foot, at the top of my foot. I've had x-rays and tests with no explanation for it. It has gotten so bad at times that I almost had to wear a boot. Luckily I haven't had issues with that lately.

Most if my pain is in my back, and also my neck. My hips hurt often as well.

I do take the detox baths on accession, but I haven't started abx yet. The detox baths do seem to worsen my symptoms so I only do them sporadically.

I am not at all satisfied with my diagnosis. However, thanks mostly to this forum, I was prepared for it. I only see my rheum. as means of "getting by" until my first appt with the LLMD.

I do agree that I have all of those issues (except I have more anxiety than depression IMO), but I am certain they are caused by the Lyme disease itself.

I will be sure to look in to the Boswellia, Tumeric and Magnesium oil. I've heard the magnesium is very helpful with muscle pain. May I ask how the Tumeric and Boswellia help? Is it joint pain, nerve pain, etc? Do these make you tired, nauseous, or any side effects?

I hope you are doing well. Thanks again for the advice!

Yes Summer is right Tumeric and Ginger are oriental spices which have been used for hundreds of years due to their anti-inflammatory effects ,you will have to take them for a longer period of time to really notice the benefits.

Boswellia is often used as a natural anti-inflammatory treatment for muscle complaints,I guess it works for Lyme because Lyme eats away at collagen which causes all sorts of muscle related problems.

All these remedies are considered side effect friendly,many studies have been done and no significant dangers have been found.

My foot pain was so bad that I wasn't able to stand ,let alone walk,this went on for many weeks.
At this point, I am back to walking my dogs and I am mobile for several hours at a time,so my treatment seems to be slowly working.( the pain was mostly ankles and heels)

Hope this helps

Tickled

Thanks for the advice :)

My appt with the LLMD isn't until Feb. 6th, but my husband and I just signed a lease on a new business. We own 2 taverns and now we're taking on a music venue. I HAVE to get back to work. I've been denied disabilty and I'm at my wits end with these health issues. The anxiety is getting unbearable. I just want my life back.

I have an 18 month old that needs me and a husband and business partner who needs me as well. I feel like I'm letting everyone down. I used to he a hard worker, active and social. Now I'm lucky if I can load the dishwasher and do a load of laundry, and that's a full day of being at home.
I feel humiliated, like a slacker. I have way too much pride for this!

Anyway, sorry for my rant. I just needed to vent :)

I use my heating lad often at night. It helps, but I've wondered about using it because I've heard the spirochetes hate heat. I've woken up with a rash on my back before after sleeping on the heating pad on a very low setting. I was concerned that this reaction was a type of herx-like reaction.

Mystery Illness,

I'm so glad the steam room helped! Where is your foot pain? Mine seems to mostly on the top of my foot. I've also had times when I literally couldn't bear weight on it.

I'm terrified of the permanent effects this disease will have on my body.

Does anyone know if an LLMD can tell (based on tests and/or clinical observations), how long a person has been infected with Lyme? I'm just curious. I don't recall a bullseye rash, but I'm currently 32 yrs old and I can recall several strange, unexplained illnesses and rashes dating back to when I was only 19. I lived in the Outer Banks, NC when I first noticed I was breaking out in hives rather often. At that time I had spent a lot of time visiting friends in northern VA, so I often wonder if that's when I got bit by a tick. We hiked a lot back in those days. I live in east TN now and no one seems to believe in lyme around here.

Well I've rambled long enough, thanks for listening. I hope everyone is having a great weekend! :)

Yes, Rori - no need to apologize for the rant - it wasn't even that long of one!! LOL!! You should see when I have a rant!!! LOL!!

For the most part the only way a doc can tell how long you have had any of these diseases, is based on your own ability of being able to recall events of your life accurately and when you started having symptoms. So it's nothing more than guess work. Blood tests are even accurate enough to catch the majority of Lyme cases, they can only tell us if it's a very recent infection or a long standing one, not how long standing it may be.

The severity of the illness with these infections can't even be used to tell how long a person has been ill, as some fall desperately ill suddenly and others (like me) it's like a long, slow deterioration.

I still use Tramadol from time to time. I've learned which pain killers to take for which kind of pain....and which kind of pain won't respond to any meds. Heat can be a good thing, but I wouldn't suggest actually sleeping on the heating pad - try using it before you lay down, or I use it when I go back to bed to shut myself off from the rest of the world to relax so I can sleep. 120 - 30 minutes on the heating pad can make a world of difference in my pain levels not only that night while trying to sleep, but the next day as well usually isn't as bad.

You can also try using Aspercream or other pain relieving, warming cream. It only helps a bit, but sometimes I'll use that during the day until I can get to where I'm going to be still long enough to use a heating pad.

Using full detox baths can be hard for some of us - I know it always set off a herx with a 3 day migraine when I first started using them!! - so start slowly with foot baths every 2 or 3 days. Use only warm water and be sure to only have your feet in the water for a total of about 20 minutes, or start with only 10 minutes.

What is likely happening is that the detoxing is releasing more toxins into your blood stream, which is what causes a herx. Some of us have bodies that have difficulty detoxing, so even though you are trying to help your body detox, it doesn't know what to do with those toxins once they get back into the bloodstream. So slow and steady is the way to approach it.

Be sure to do the other detoxing things as well - drinking at least 64 ounces of water, eating as healthy as you can find a way to - and be sure to munch on foods that will help you to detox like raw carrots.

It takes a well rounded approach to heal well from these infections. Leaving out some things that seem to be minor will only make it harder to heal actually.