Hi Dude,
It's so great to hear from you. No need to thank me 🙂, you deserve to have us looking out for you and as you can see, we are.
The Dude Abides said...
Hey, RainyCloud:
I'm truly grateful for this thread and humbled by your concern. Thanks so much.
Other than offering moral support and some occasional comic relief (though, the latter is debatable), I don't feel like much of a contributor. I try to stick to things which I know about or have experience. Mostly, that's diet, lifestyle, supplements, and letting people know that I care. That's about it. I can't give medical advice.
Well, I think you are a really great contributor. Moral support is just as important as treatment advice. I just know you've helped many people on here and also made us laugh 🙂.
The Dude Abides said...
Now, here's something strange...
In the several days prior to you posting this thread, I'd actually been considering posting here to seek some advice and ideas. I'm not really one to attribute such events to anything other than coincidence, but it did get my attention. In fact, I've thought about it quite a lot, since I saw this thread shortly after you posted it.
That's so great Dude. I actually have something similar to share. After I made this thread the other day, I started wondering if maybe you had been trying to make a thread like this for yourself. I'm swear I'm not making this up. I think it was the day after I made the thread.
Please know that you are being watched over and cared for. I'm sure you know my thoughts on this, as my signature should give it away, but I just wanted to say that. ❤️
The Dude Abides said...
Anyway, I've been on the fence about asking for help, for a couple of reasons. While I think about it further, here's my very first post under my current screen name:
Antibiotics: Why or Why Not?
It details some of my story, though things aren't exactly the same as four years ago.
I'm going through the thread right now. I understand things might be different now, although there are things that should still be the same. For example, I see that Girlie said you:
"You have Chlamydia Pneumoniae, Mycoplasma pneumonia, and lyme."
So given that you're still suffering, I would suspect you still have Lyme at a minimum.
I'm also reading what you wrote about
antibiotics. I can definitely understand that. You mentioned you were careful in how you brought that sentiment up but there's no need for that. Not all of us do antibiotics. I just recently started again but this comes after a long break and trying other things, like bee venom, herbs, disulfiram etc.
Garzie actually is getting really far without antibiotics! Which is really inspiring.
His approach is multi-pronged, which I think is key to most people's healing, including my own.
So that means for example, that one of those prongs is addressing the immune system.
On page 3 I noticed you wrote this:
>> "Despite all the aggravations I've been told I have -- Lyme, Chlamydia Pneumoniae, Mycoplasma Pneumoniae, Parvovirus B19, HHV-6, HSV-1, HSV-2, C. Diff., and whatever else may be lurking -- I've not had any antibiotics for about
17 months. I've never taken antivirals."
Which makes me want to show you this article which might put your mind at ease for at least some of those:
https://www.treatlyme.net/guide/mycoplasma-chlamydia-viruses-lymeGranted, that is not to say that other infections like Lyme aren't the huge problem here, just that for some of those others, many people are full of them.
So out of the antibiotics you mentioned, which appear to be these (up to 2015):
- Cefdinir 1x
- Azithromycin 1x
- Doxycycline 2x
- Doxycycline 1x
Did you tolerate them well? Not saying you should start again by the way, I'm just curious to learn more about
you.
Also I noticed on page one of part 2 that you said this:
"Over the past four years, I've seen at least 15 providers -- some in my insurance network and many that were not."
That's awful Dude, I'm so sorry to hear you've been going through this. I see why you feel like nothing has helped.
In regards to the fatigue, as I said this is my primary symptom too.
Which makes me wonder if you have Bartonella.
That is not to say Babesia and Lyme can't cause severe fatigue by the way (which makes these infections so frustrating, you never know which on is causing the most symptoms). It's just that through the help of forum members and reactions (and a lack of) to certain medications made me realize this is likely the culprit for me.
Fatigue is so difficult to deal with. I've tried practically every adaptogenic herb there is. I even took hydrocortisone to increase my cortisol. Yet, nothing helped. At my worst I slept 18 hours or more per day. Then I wake up and within maybe 30 minutes I'm exhausted again. This is not to say "poor me" but rather "I feel for you and I understand".
I did disulfiram which caused severe side effects and was not fun to deal with, but it did get me in remission for 3 weeks. Then the infection(s) came back.
Do you happen to ever have had pain on the bottom of your feet? Even if it was just at one point in your life and has stopped since? Do you have stretch marks? How is your skin in general?
Sorry that were too many questions haha.
The Dude Abides said...
Unfortunately, my sleep is out of whack again. I've been back to sleeping every other day. So, I'm going to sign off for now and try to get some sleep.
Again, thanks for caring. I appreciate you and the many other wonderful members who support each other.
Dude
Sleep well my friend, hope to hear from you soon, but only when you have the energy to write. I know these posts can get long and exhausting, so take your time. I still have a few posts I have to respond to myself that I haven't had the energy for.