Gastro Symptoms With Chronic Lyme?

Coming up on 2 years anniversary with chronic lyme. No bullseye, Likely got it clearing some brush for an elderly neighbor and certain I knocked a tick off it off with brush because there was blood on my knee. Over the next 4-6 months typical lyme symptoms appeared. Head fog. Achy joints. Odd feeling of not quite instability in hip joints. Started Doxy ahead of Dr visit, it was the holidays and getting appointments can take weeks, didn't want to wait. In-laws all have had lyme so took for 30 days. Felt better, no symptoms. After 30 days symptoms come back so finally go to doctor. Tests all negative. P.A. says stop the doxy, I politely say go pound sand, keep taking. Eventually upping dose to 3 doxy per day, herx comes on after 60 days, fades after 100 days. Stop the doxy, after about 30 days symptoms return. Doxy x2 per day keeps stable, no symptoms. Every 6 months I stop the doxy to check for symptoms. Hope is eternal.

Now here's the question. The last 2 times I paused the doxy it might have set off gastritis/inflamation like symptoms.

Is this unusual or is it already in the set of mystery "lyme symptoms" and I just didn't find it mentioned online?

Thanks in advance.

Tuffy

Thanks for the reply. Already have a list of LLMD in my area. For the past 18mos "life" in general made it easier to just take the doxcy and deal with the lime later, but later is now, especially if the 2 counts of gastro issues are lyme related.

I had dismissed most co-infections until I stumbled upon some info that points to my hip issue being to babesia related. This made perfect sense given in the beginning there was no hip pain, just an uneasy feeling/sensation which if you said "parasite" at the time I would have instantly agreed because it felt "wrong," not diseased or damaged.

5 year colonoscopy and endo coming later this month so once issues like ulcer and cancer ruled out starting on LLMD to push for deeper testing and treatment.

Thanks! TR

Doxycycline is a powerful anti inflammatory just taking it regardless of whether its killing a bacteria can have dramatic effects depending upon your condition.

I always take and I think everyone should take antibiotics with yogurt.

1 Doxy a day with or without probiotics my bowels are semi-stable.

2 Doxy a day with just probiotics and the results are fountainous.

Can't do any amoxicillin without Yogurt either.

Anyone with AB related diarrhea would be much better with 4 ounces of yogurt eaten with AB.

TR

Have to have colono/endo tests no matter what. (Family history of colon cancer so this will be 7th or 8th colonoscopy.) After that we'll dig deeper into the other stuff. Would have done it 4-5 months ago if not for CV19 and the fear mongering. Have a list of tests for my family doc to run. Blown the deductible for the year so far so most it of it will be no co-pay.

At around the same time in Dec GERD went crazy with excess acid so might be entirely unrelated to lyme and just had natural Gastritis or an ulcer develope. Again CV19 delays screwing with the investigation. No other issues except extreme inflammation, ulcer type pain and increaseds heartburn, but plumbing works fine.

Was almost 100% on gastro recovery until went off doxy, so that's the only reason I was suspicious that might be related.

In-laws vary. 1 Sick after 21 days and got super sick flu-like symptoms cured with AB treatment, another had it twice, once got sick, AB cured, second time they saw the bullseye and got treated the same day so AB Cured. I'd bet cash money 2 of them had it with no symptom or issues and 1 is suspect of mild by Chronic but lets not even go there since Lyme would be the least of their problems. Their house borders 500 acre state park in the northeast so lots of wild potential around.

Making a new Herx post/question so feel free to chime in there.

Brandiwine - I used Genova's GI Effects because it's what my first LLMD recommended, and I was too sick at the time to add stool testing lab research to my list of things to research. I was pleased with the parameters and the report, though. The LLMDs that I have seen since all recommend these tests, too, for what that's worth. I like the number of things tested for in the more comprehensive versions - candida, blood, fatty acids, parasites, potential pathogens, probiotics, inflammatory markers, etc. I remember liking that the Genova test shows you which inflammatory markers are common in various conditions (CFS, Crohn's, etc.). If you have high levels of potentially pathogenic bacteria, then it tests your strains against a variety of antibiotics (pharma AND herbal) so you will know which ones are most likely to be effective. I have read that there's no great test for parasites, as so much evidence of parasites breaks down quickly before being expelled, so I'm not sure if any test is great for that; if you suspect parasites, then it's probably best to treat for them and see if it helps, unfortunately.

I found this test very useful in practice because it steered me toward addressing high levels of pathogenic bacteria and nonexistent levels of beneficial bacteria in my gut. I had been taking probiotics and having no significant (comparatively) GI symptoms, so I would not have known that the balance was so off. I took a combination of berberine, artemisinin, olive leaf, black walnut, and wormwood, and within a month lost 25 pounds. (I gained all of that in four months on an SSRI that was for "migraines," which was what I called the three-day episodes of Lyme that I had before I knew I had Lyme, and the weight stuck around even a year after stopping the SSRI; I had no idea how much an SSRI could mess with gut bacteria.)

I was grateful to have some indication (maybe not perfect, but something) that my intestines were doing okay, and that common issues like Candida likely were not major issues for me.

I don't know anything about other stool tests.

I was off of the SSRI for a long time, eating 1000 calories per day or fewer, and didn't lose an ounce of the weight I gained on the SSRI. (It was really bizarre, sometimes eating 300 calories per day or fewer for weeks because of gastroparesis, but not losing any weight!) I took the gut dysboisis herbs and poof! 25 pounds gone in a month. SSRIs are known to affect the gut microbiome significantly, and various doctors (psych, PCP, LLMD, etc.) agreed that's why it happened. It's not commonly known that this can happen, so I thought it was worth mentioning in case it's part of someone's history.

TuffyR, I had some GI inflammation issues because of intense muscle contractions in my abdomen actually bruising my internal organs. (It's a variation of the idiotically-named "MS hug" which can happen in folks with Lyme and other diseases that affect the nerves.) It was incredibly painful, but as you said, everything technically worked and looked okay on testing. Just another idea to explore. What are your symptoms, and when do they occur? Any patterns? Hope you get some answers soon!

Sorry that so many relatives have been dealing with tick-borne illness as well. It can be so complicated.

TuffyR said...
I always take and I think everyone should take antibiotics with yogurt.

1 Doxy a day with or without probiotics my bowels are semi-stable.

2 Doxy a day with just probiotics and the results are fountainous.

Can't do any amoxicillin without Yogurt either.

Anyone with AB related diarrhea would be much better with 4 ounces of yogurt eaten with AB.

TR

just an FYI - and for anyone reading with similar symptoms

There is a known issue with calcium, magnesium, selenium, and probably other minerals in dietary intake interfering with the absorption of doxycycline by around 50% or more and thereby reducing its effectiveness.

I don't have the papers to hand but its quite well documented that the calcium content in milk and dairy is was found to be enough to block the doxy absorption to a significant degree as I recall.

Typically 4hrs separation in intake is suggested.