Hi Kid-Well -
Very interesting symptom history.
One thought that came to mind is that sometimes, the psychological symptoms are really loud red flags that there are physiological problems going on... primarily gut health (science finally found the scientific link between gut and brain - blood vessels that connect the two). And the average American does not have a healthy diet, therefore doesn't have a healthy gut.
So you could have been masking some Lyme & Co or other problems for a long time with psychotropic meds - many of us have done the same with other body system issues that popped up over time. They were "treated" but the underlying problem never was.
VIRAL LOAD
Some of your sx are very clearly related to the viral load and you certainly have HSV-1 and EBV, but it's also likely that you have others. As Traveler suggested - antiviral Rx and Lysine are very effective - not sure why your MD hasn't already but you on something??
I have high viral loads - both before and with a tick infection - I have had to cycle through a couple of different antiviral Rx before I found one that helped. I now add Lysine - the Lysine wasn't enough on its own. None of the other single or compounded natural antivirals helped much for me. With any antiviral Rx, please also help your liver/kidneys metabolize the meds by supporting with milk thistle seed and/or burdock root herbs.
One more thing about
viruses - MDs live-and-die by the tests that suggest what is a latent or new infection. I've read enough to learn that these associations don't always tell you what they think they do. And - it really doesn't matter if EBV is latent or new - if you're expressing symptoms, you need to suppress the viral growth with antivirals (antivirals can't kill viruses--but they suppress their expression and growth).
A high viral load, left untreated, can really overwhelm the immune function and next thing you know you're susceptible to other infections, etc.
So that's the first thing I'd do - get your viral load down, minimize your sx load (also making you feel a little more comfortable in the interim). Then that help lessen the noise and you can troubleshoot the remaining symptoms. GUT HEALTH
The next thing I'd do is consider any other issues related to gut health - it seems like you have a healthier diet now, but I bet you have a little gut dysbiosis, which can lead to the appetite changes, cravings, weight loss, itchy skin/scalp, AND the neurotransmitter imbalances that show up in depression, anxiety, etc.
- one key impact on gut health is yeast/fungal overgrowth, which can cause nearly all of the sx you listed but particularly the ones in the previous paragraph. Take a moment and look through this post on yeast/fungus - it's long but might help clue you in on any issue in this department and what to do about
it.
www.healingwell.com/community/default.aspx?f=30&m=1606610&g=3644275#m3644275 - we can also have bacterial imbalances in our gut - either from tick infections or from other infections, imbalance from yeast/fungal overgrowth, food poisoning, or from mechanical problems that prevent the GI from keeping itself in balance. There is a lot of info online abut general gut health so I won't post it here but feel free to ask questions.
70% of our immune system IS our gut so it's a critical part of healing - from anything.
ENDOCRINE
And anything can cause the extreme exhaustion - which could be adrenal fatigue or just from the immune system fighting so hard from viral overload - possibly also with infection overload. I'd seek a Naturopath (ND) to investivate any thyroid or adrenal issues... most MDs have no clue what to test for or what results mean. Your endocrine system helps drive your sympathetic and parasympathetic nervous systems, also coordinate with Neurotransmitters that control mood, and everything has to sync well w/ GI and immune system so HPA (hypothalmus, pituitary--creates stuff thryoid needs, and adrenal) axis likely also needs support.
TBD INFECTIONS
Then when all of that hopefully gets adjusted and symptoms reduced... it's easier to understand what other tick-related infections you might want to treat (not that you have to wait to get started but those other issues are a bit easier and more straight forward to tackle).
I agree w/ Traveler and Girlie - with your history you have exposure to ticks, the next thing a specialist will ask you is if you live or have visited an endemic area. I'd consider not only where you lived when getting these bites but wherever else you've lived/traveled since - even if you had no history of pulling ticks off. MDs like to rule out geographical exposure, as if people, animals and other tick carriers respect hard state boundaries. Reading about
this makes my hair fall out.
So it's helpful to present a comprehensive picture for exposure. Also, the historical data promoted by the CDC is designed for surveillance purposes of disease trends and are NOT intended to be diagnostic. So if anyone tells you "there is no Lyme in X area" - tell them that is irrelevant and that you need a clinical diagnosis.
In addition to your exposure, finding a tick on your body - for at least 24 hours(? - hint...), and living/visiting an endemic area, developing Lyme 7 Co-related sx should invite a good LLMD to investigate further, possibly even test you, and help you with some treatment.
Also, bartonella, another tick-born infection that is common w/ Lyme (most of these ticks carry multiple pathogens they ingest from their hosts, which are sometimes deer but most often wild, white-footed mice...) can create very viral-like symptoms AND the head/neck/swollen gland/sore throat and sore soles of the feet, joint and muscle cramping, scenario of symptoms. It's nasty. ;) So this is why it's good to get the viral load down successfully so that you can better determine what else might be going on by considering the remaining sx.
Hope this helps - if not, please keep asking questions!
-p
Post Edited (Pirouette) : 6/1/2017 6:55:00 PM (GMT-6)