Herx, Candidia, Lyme or something else? Help Navigating Symptoms

Hi. Sorry to be posting so many questions. I just keep running across new information that has me so confused. I went through the Start Here thread and followed a lot of the links. I've spent a lot of time on the tiredoflyme site as well. I have some symptoms that are extremely debilitating on certain days and at certain times of the day and I'm hoping to get some insight into what they are and how I can help them. I know I'm not getting medical advice. I am just assuming that maybe some of you have some experience and can tell me what you've done.

1. Dizziness/Light-headedness (different days. Today is really bad. In heat it is horrible.) - Is it lyme induced low blood pressure or hypoglycemia,Candidia or Herx from changing diet? This one scares me because I've darn near fainted a couple of times.

2. Extreme Fatigue - Some days are better than others. It's always bad from 3pm - 5pm.

3. No appetite and weight loss - I've cleaned up the diet significantly and since then I have 0 appetite. I'm still eating, but it's forced. I've lost 11 pounds in about 3 weeks and I'm now below the recommended BMI for my size. It seems to have plateaued a bit. I get that eating better can make you lose weight, but the no appetite thing is weird.

4. Sudden back, knee and shoulder pain. (Some days there's pain, other days there is no pain)

These seem to be the most concerning for me and I'm just confused as I've read that they can be all sorts of things causing them. So I'm not really sure where to start. My appointment with the LLMD is in November...

So just to be clear, have you had any testing at all (e.g. viruses, Lyme, co-infections, c4a)? Is there anyway you could get another doctor to at least get the ball rolling with some preliminary testing before you see your LLMD?

Very hard to diagnose on symptoms alone. Especially since most of us here dont have clinical experience with thousands of patients to be able to identify common patterns and you don't have any symptoms that are dead giveaways. The symptoms of multiple infections overlap a lot. For example, Pirouette said fungus for number one but my first thought was either POTS or anemia from lyme/babesia. Mind if i ask why you scheduled your app so late? I would try and get some coinfections tests done as soon as possible if you want a better understanding what's going on inside of you. Otherwise it's very difficult to know what to do.

Hi Psilociraptor,

That was the earliest appointment that i could get. I don't have anemia. I'm tested for that like 8 times a year for some reason. I don't know what POTS is. I guess the reason I'm asking about Lyme and Candidia is because I know I have those two and I'm trying to start doing something since I have to wait until November to see the LLMD.

Jingels1234 said...
Thanks, Pirouette.

1. I have had a random yeast infection so I know that I have that going on. I implemented Apple Cider Vinegar yesterday and am insanely dizzy and off-balance today so I'm thinking you might be spot-on with that.

2. I wish I could associate the extreme fatigue with something. The only correlation I've seen is when I eat crummy gluten/dairy filled foods the day before or earlier in the day.

3. If yeast is causing a loss of appetite, would Apple Cider Vinegar and probiotics help, do you think?

4. The pain in my back is a dull ache, the knees are like my hands which are arthritic, the shoulder pain is stabbing. I pulled the tendon in my shoulder about 10 years ago when I slipped on some stairs and since then the pain comes back really randomly. It's been super intense since I changed my diet.

I did start doing some detox. I'm planning on adding a new thing in every few days based on the info I found here.

that was very helpful! Thanks so much!

If you suspect or know you have an existing yeast/fungal overgrowth, ACV and probiotics won't touch it. Please read the y/f overgrowth post in the "New to Lyme?" thread for more info and suggestions for treatment.
www.healingwell.com/community/default.aspx?f=30&m=1606610&g=3644275#m3644275

It's a very good idea to nip the y/f overgrowth in the bud before getting too deep into lyme & co for a few reasons explained in that post - the symptoms overlap w/ lyme & co so having both conditions makes it difficult to know what is causing what and what is helping what. Also, y/f overgrowth, left untreated, can really do damage to the GI, which is where 70% of the immune system is and we need support from our immune system in order to heal properly. Also, most of our protocol is taken orally and damage to the mucosal gut lining can also cause problems with malabsorption of nutrients and meds/supplements, which can render our treatment useless.

So treat y/f first, heal the gut and support the immune system and then treat lyme & co.

Hope this helps!

-p

Jingles - POTS stands for Postural Tachycardia Syndrome


When you stand up you can get the following symptoms:
"symptoms include headaches, fatigue, palpitations, sweating, nausea, fainting and dizziness and are associated with an increase in heart rate from the lying to upright position of greater than 30 beats per minute, or a heart rate of greater than 120 beats per minute within 10 minutes of standing"

"Many POTS patients also experience fatigue, headaches, lightheadedness, heart palpitations, exercise intolerance, nausea, diminished concentration, tremulousness (shaking), syncope (fainting), coldness or pain in the extremeties, chest pain and shortness of breath."


I have mild POTS due to lyme and co's causing Autonomic nervous system dysregulation.

When I stand up from sitting or laying - my heart rate goes up to 100 bpm. This usually lasts about 10 minutes...sometimes longer. Sometimes I get light-headed.

I also get symptoms when I bend over - it's difficult for me to do things where I am bending over several times...for instance if I vacuum...and am bending over to pick up things off the floor...I feel quite fatigued after about 5 minutes of doing this.
But, I can exercise for 20 minutes (with no bending over) and feel fine after.

Pirouette said...
If you suspect or know you have an existing yeast/fungal overgrowth, ACV and probiotics won't touch it. Please read the y/f overgrowth post in the "New to Lyme?" thread for more info and suggestions for treatment.
www.healingwell.com/community/default.aspx?f=30&m=1606610&g=3644275#m3644275

Thanks! This is very helpful. I had read this link yesterday and I thought it said that probiotics were a must and to use ACV. Maybe I'm confused. I probably am. I'll have to re-read it.

Krimpet said...
Jingels1234 there are a number of tests that you can get trough labcorp/quest that are often picked up, such as the HHV's (1-6) which includes the infamous Epstein Barr which is typically reactivated with Lyme; cytomegalovirus, mycoplasma pneumonia, etc. also testing your c4a and cd57 levels.

Are you interested in herbs?

Yes, I am interested in herbs. I had Epstein Barr about 20 years ago. Won't that always show up positive now? I'm not sure what the others are, but I'll look them up and ask my doctor.

Krimpet said...
You may also want to consider a 24-hour saliva test. Your adrenals may be compromised due to what your body is dealing with. Many on this forum have to support their adrenals and/or thyroid due to these infections.

I have uncontrolled Hashimoto's (they have to up my dose of Armor every 4 to 6 weeks) and I just got my adrenal function lab work back from my endocrinologist and it was wonky so I definitely have thryroid/adrenal issues. I'll have to look for threads concerning this.

Girlie and Psilociraptor - How do you get tested for POTS? I think they tested me for this - where they take your blood pressure and heart-rate in both the sitting and standing positions? I don't have the rapid heart rate thing, but I have chronically low blood pressure that keeps getting lower.

Ok. So herbals... You can do Buhner, Cowden, Jernigan....Most here do Buhner, but you can choose which speaks to you. The Cowden protocol is already put together (herbs, schedule, etc.)

For Buhner, I would recommend purchasing his books. They are on Amazon. It's based on your symptoms, type of infection/bacteria/virus. You can begin however with a basic protocol using the below. However the most up to date info is in his books, but you can use this in the interim. I still find the website very useful.


buhnerhealinglyme.com/

I don't know too much about Jernigan, but someone may be able to help with that. You can also go to the Hansa Center website.

Thanks, Girlie, Krimpet and Pirouette! This would be so much easier to understand if I didn't feel like I was walking through sludge! The baby is up and I'll have to read through these more thoroughly a bit later. I'm starting to see that all my issues are interconnected with one glaring factor... Lyme!