Re: New here/hypothyroidism

[Guest guest]

Hi ,

My Lyme journey began with hypothyroid diagnosis. The Synthroid and later

Armour never relieved my symptoms and my blood work (TSH, T4, T3) always came

back within normal limits while on the medication. It took 5 1/2 years before

an MD finally tested me for Lyme after I started having severe mood swings,

crying jags, extreme fatigue with exertion with shortness of breath. After 6

months of various combos of oral antibiotics I'm beginning to feel some

improvement.

It can be a long journey full of twists and turns, but you will begin to feel

better with the help of a good LLMD and strict diet & exercise regime.

Take care of yourself, rest when you need to. Don't feel embarrassed to ask for

help when you need it. It takes some educating to help friends and family

understand the nature of your illness and that there's no quick cure. Nourish

your body, mind & spirit and know that you are not alone.

Kim

Re: [ ] New here

Please know that even if your lyme tests come back negative, you may still

have lyme. I had 3 different tests come back negative - never got a

postive. BUT... an LLMD put me on a 4 month trial antibiotics and at month

3, I finally started improving slightly. He said that 50% of his patients

with lyme never get a postive test result, And his suspicion that I had

lyme was that everything else had been ruled out and he said anytime he see

a series of neurological symptoms doesn't point to any specific neurological

diagnosis, he suspect lyme disease. At this point, I have been on

treatment for about 9 months and while not yet out of the woods, have

improved greatly!

As to symptoms - they vary widely from person to person. I've had all you

mentioned as well as others. Lyme, is often called the 'great imitator'

because it can mimic many other diseases. I never noticed a tic bite or

bulls-eye rash - my first symptom was vertigo and bad headaches. Over time,

I developed joint & muscle pain and then muscle weakness to the point where

I could practically no longer walk. My balance & coordination was very much

off and I experience mental fogginess & confusion. Numbness & tingling

sensations and strange pains that came & went without cause - my skin &

muscles felt as if I had a very bad bruise, but there was no bruising, nor

had I bumped into anything - it just came on its on. Lots of other symptoms

too - in fact, started off thinking it was fibromyalgia - then thought

spinal stenosis - was tested for lots of others as well. If I hadn't had

the LLMD suggest treatment, I'd probably still be getting tested and

probably would have been dx'd with MS - as it gets dx'd when everything else

has been ruled out. I'm not familiar with hashimoto, but you might see if

you can get on a 4 month trial. I take flagyl & doxy and it's done well for

me - other than the inconveniences of feeling sick to my stomach almost

constantly and not being able to go out in the sun. But... small price to

get rid of all the other symptoms that were crippling me.

On Sun, Jan 17, 2010 at 7:02 AM, adnil1988 <lindamax@...> wrote:

>

>

> Hi my name is , I am diagnosed with hashimoto, but my symptoms of

> muscle and joint pain persist. I have ringing in my ears, no energy at all.

> I gained weight because I am on the sofa all day long. I have coordination

> problems, mild. My eyes are blurry. Actually, all the symptoms are the same

> as with hypothyroidism, but since they do not go away, my doc. was testing

> me for lyme disease. I will get the blood result next week, but would like

> to know what I could do in the meantime.

> The general symptom of fatigue can lead into different directions.

> Maybe one of you can tell me more about symptoms and treatment.

> I was thinking about a cleansing / but do not know what kind and how to do

> it. I have trouble swallowing pills, so it will be difficult for me to do a

> cleansing.

> I can not go on like this, hurting all over. I gained so much weight, my

> pants hardly fit anymore. I never weight so much in my life. I eat healthy

> all the time. I do not eat refined products at all.

>

>

>

>

[Guest guest]

Hi Kim,

that's the problem / help. My husband is retired and sits at home all day, doing

nothing. I hardly can do anything and so I asked him to cook a meal (he didn't

think about it). He told me he doesn't like to cook, so he doesn't. He opens a

cane of soup or beans and thinks I should eat this salty, stuff. Yesterday, I

asked again (2nd time since beginning of Dec) and he said, for all I care you

can drop dead right here, since I offered you some soup and it wasn't good

enough for you.

In Jan. last year he had a heart bypass operation and I had to take care of him

for 3 weeks nonstop (like a baby).

I could starve to death and he wouldn't care. He doesn't care what kind of

disease I have, he thinks when I get medication that's it, nothing else

required.

Yesterday he told me, he had it with me being sick and as soon as I would be

healthy again, he would move out. So, I don't know what to do. Well, today, I

ate healthy and got some multivitamin and mineral supplements. That's all I can

master today.

From: KTOvrutsky@...

Date: Tue, 19 Jan 2010 10:05:56 -0500

Subject: Re: [ ] New here/hypothyroidism

Hi ,

My Lyme journey began with hypothyroid diagnosis. The Synthroid and later

Armour never relieved my symptoms and my blood work (TSH, T4, T3) always came

back within normal limits while on the medication. It took 5 1/2 years before

an MD finally tested me for Lyme after I started having severe mood swings,

crying jags, extreme fatigue with exertion with shortness of breath. After 6

months of various combos of oral antibiotics I'm beginning to feel some

improvement.

It can be a long journey full of twists and turns, but you will begin to feel

better with the help of a good LLMD and strict diet & exercise regime.

Take care of yourself, rest when you need to. Don't feel embarrassed to ask for

help when you need it. It takes some educating to help friends and family

understand the nature of your illness and that there's no quick cure. Nourish

your body, mind & spirit and know that you are not alone.

Kim

Re: [ ] New here

Please know that even if your lyme tests come back negative, you may still

have lyme. I had 3 different tests come back negative - never got a

postive. BUT... an LLMD put me on a 4 month trial antibiotics and at month

3, I finally started improving slightly. He said that 50% of his patients

with lyme never get a postive test result, And his suspicion that I had

lyme was that everything else had been ruled out and he said anytime he see

a series of neurological symptoms doesn't point to any specific neurological

diagnosis, he suspect lyme disease. At this point, I have been on

treatment for about 9 months and while not yet out of the woods, have

improved greatly!

As to symptoms - they vary widely from person to person. I've had all you

mentioned as well as others. Lyme, is often called the 'great imitator'

because it can mimic many other diseases. I never noticed a tic bite or

bulls-eye rash - my first symptom was vertigo and bad headaches. Over time,

I developed joint & muscle pain and then muscle weakness to the point where

I could practically no longer walk. My balance & coordination was very much

off and I experience mental fogginess & confusion. Numbness & tingling

sensations and strange pains that came & went without cause - my skin &

muscles felt as if I had a very bad bruise, but there was no bruising, nor

had I bumped into anything - it just came on its on. Lots of other symptoms

too - in fact, started off thinking it was fibromyalgia - then thought

spinal stenosis - was tested for lots of others as well. If I hadn't had

the LLMD suggest treatment, I'd probably still be getting tested and

probably would have been dx'd with MS - as it gets dx'd when everything else

has been ruled out. I'm not familiar with hashimoto, but you might see if

you can get on a 4 month trial. I take flagyl & doxy and it's done well for

me - other than the inconveniences of feeling sick to my stomach almost

constantly and not being able to go out in the sun. But... small price to

get rid of all the other symptoms that were crippling me.

On Sun, Jan 17, 2010 at 7:02 AM, adnil1988 <lindamax@...> wrote:

>

>

> Hi my name is , I am diagnosed with hashimoto, but my symptoms of

> muscle and joint pain persist. I have ringing in my ears, no energy at all.

> I gained weight because I am on the sofa all day long. I have coordination

> problems, mild. My eyes are blurry. Actually, all the symptoms are the same

> as with hypothyroidism, but since they do not go away, my doc. was testing

> me for lyme disease. I will get the blood result next week, but would like

> to know what I could do in the meantime.

> The general symptom of fatigue can lead into different directions.

> Maybe one of you can tell me more about symptoms and treatment.

> I was thinking about a cleansing / but do not know what kind and how to do

> it. I have trouble swallowing pills, so it will be difficult for me to do a

> cleansing.

> I can not go on like this, hurting all over. I gained so much weight, my

> pants hardly fit anymore. I never weight so much in my life. I eat healthy

> all the time. I do not eat refined products at all.

>

>

>

>

[Guest guest]

,

I'm sorry to hear your husband is so unhelpful. Do you have other family or

friends or members of the community (church etc) that can lend you support? I

live alone (divorced) and moved to western Mass. from NY about 2 1/2 yrs ago so

I don't have many friends locally and my grown daughters down live near me. But

I am a member of a religious community (Buddhist) and if I need help I can count

on them. Almost had to because of terrible 6 weeks herx reaction last summer

from initial round of oral antibiotics--I was almost incapacitated. Every 4

days I had a few hours of strength to go get some healthy food. My older

daughter (24) understands how serious this disease is, but she's living

2000miles away in Denver. My younger daughter (22) senior at a college 3 hours

away thinks I " obsess " too much about my illness. We have a good relationship,

I think she's really concerned about me, but feels helpless. I told her just

give me love and hugs, call me, send emails---stay in touch. But she's so busy

I only hear from her once a week.

I know if I were still married to my ex-husband (married for 24 years) he'd be

an emotional wreck dealing with me.

Hope you can find the support you need and deserve.

Kim

Re: [ ] New here

Please know that even if your lyme tests come back negative, you may still

have lyme. I had 3 different tests come back negative - never got a

postive. BUT... an LLMD put me on a 4 month trial antibiotics and at month

3, I finally started improving slightly. He said that 50% of his patients

with lyme never get a postive test result, And his suspicion that I had

lyme was that everything else had been ruled out and he said anytime he see

a series of neurological symptoms doesn't point to any specific neurological

diagnosis, he suspect lyme disease. At this point, I have been on

treatment for about 9 months and while not yet out of the woods, have

improved greatly!

As to symptoms - they vary widely from person to person. I've had all you

mentioned as well as others. Lyme, is often called the 'great imitator'

because it can mimic many other diseases. I never noticed a tic bite or

bulls-eye rash - my first symptom was vertigo and bad headaches. Over time,

I developed joint & muscle pain and then muscle weakness to the point where

I could practically no longer walk. My balance & coordination was very much

off and I experience mental fogginess & confusion. Numbness & tingling

sensations and strange pains that came & went without cause - my skin &

muscles felt as if I had a very bad bruise, but there was no bruising, nor

had I bumped into anything - it just came on its on. Lots of other symptoms

too - in fact, started off thinking it was fibromyalgia - then thought

spinal stenosis - was tested for lots of others as well. If I hadn't had

the LLMD suggest treatment, I'd probably still be getting tested and

probably would have been dx'd with MS - as it gets dx'd when everything else

has been ruled out. I'm not familiar with hashimoto, but you might see if

you can get on a 4 month trial. I take flagyl & doxy and it's done well for

me - other than the inconveniences of feeling sick to my stomach almost

constantly and not being able to go out in the sun. But... small price to

get rid of all the other symptoms that were crippling me.

On Sun, Jan 17, 2010 at 7:02 AM, adnil1988 <lindamax@...> wrote:

>

>

> Hi my name is , I am diagnosed with hashimoto, but my symptoms of

> muscle and joint pain persist. I have ringing in my ears, no energy at all.

> I gained weight because I am on the sofa all day long. I have coordination

> problems, mild. My eyes are blurry. Actually, all the symptoms are the same

> as with hypothyroidism, but since they do not go away, my doc. was testing

> me for lyme disease. I will get the blood result next week, but would like

> to know what I could do in the meantime.

> The general symptom of fatigue can lead into different directions.

> Maybe one of you can tell me more about symptoms and treatment.

> I was thinking about a cleansing / but do not know what kind and how to do

> it. I have trouble swallowing pills, so it will be difficult for me to do a

> cleansing.

> I can not go on like this, hurting all over. I gained so much weight, my

> pants hardly fit anymore. I never weight so much in my life. I eat healthy

> all the time. I do not eat refined products at all.

>

>

>

>

[Guest guest]

Hi Kim,

I am from Europe and all my family members live there. I do not have any

friends anymore since I am sick all the time. I have 2 sons who are very busy,

school and work, and hardly ever home.

I am depressed because I don't know what to do / besides eating right, taking

supplements, getting enough rest and information.

From: KTOvrutsky@...

Date: Tue, 19 Jan 2010 18:30:39 -0500

Subject: Re: [ ] New here/hypothyroidism

,

I'm sorry to hear your husband is so unhelpful. Do you have other family or

friends or members of the community (church etc) that can lend you support? I

live alone (divorced) and moved to western Mass. from NY about 2 1/2 yrs ago so

I don't have many friends locally and my grown daughters down live near me. But

I am a member of a religious community (Buddhist) and if I need help I can count

on them. Almost had to because of terrible 6 weeks herx reaction last summer

from initial round of oral antibiotics--I was almost incapacitated. Every 4

days I had a few hours of strength to go get some healthy food. My older

daughter (24) understands how serious this disease is, but she's living

2000miles away in Denver. My younger daughter (22) senior at a college 3 hours

away thinks I " obsess " too much about my illness. We have a good relationship,

I think she's really concerned about me, but feels helpless. I told her just

give me love and hugs, call me, send emails---stay in touch. But she's so busy

I only hear from her once a week.

I know if I were still married to my ex-husband (married for 24 years) he'd be

an emotional wreck dealing with me.

Hope you can find the support you need and deserve.

Kim

Re: [ ] New here

Please know that even if your lyme tests come back negative, you may still

have lyme. I had 3 different tests come back negative - never got a

postive. BUT... an LLMD put me on a 4 month trial antibiotics and at month

3, I finally started improving slightly. He said that 50% of his patients

with lyme never get a postive test result, And his suspicion that I had

lyme was that everything else had been ruled out and he said anytime he see

a series of neurological symptoms doesn't point to any specific neurological

diagnosis, he suspect lyme disease. At this point, I have been on

treatment for about 9 months and while not yet out of the woods, have

improved greatly!

As to symptoms - they vary widely from person to person. I've had all you

mentioned as well as others. Lyme, is often called the 'great imitator'

because it can mimic many other diseases. I never noticed a tic bite or

bulls-eye rash - my first symptom was vertigo and bad headaches. Over time,

I developed joint & muscle pain and then muscle weakness to the point where

I could practically no longer walk. My balance & coordination was very much

off and I experience mental fogginess & confusion. Numbness & tingling

sensations and strange pains that came & went without cause - my skin &

muscles felt as if I had a very bad bruise, but there was no bruising, nor

had I bumped into anything - it just came on its on. Lots of other symptoms

too - in fact, started off thinking it was fibromyalgia - then thought

spinal stenosis - was tested for lots of others as well. If I hadn't had

the LLMD suggest treatment, I'd probably still be getting tested and

probably would have been dx'd with MS - as it gets dx'd when everything else

has been ruled out. I'm not familiar with hashimoto, but you might see if

you can get on a 4 month trial. I take flagyl & doxy and it's done well for

me - other than the inconveniences of feeling sick to my stomach almost

constantly and not being able to go out in the sun. But... small price to

get rid of all the other symptoms that were crippling me.

On Sun, Jan 17, 2010 at 7:02 AM, adnil1988 <lindamax@...> wrote:

>

>

> Hi my name is , I am diagnosed with hashimoto, but my symptoms of

> muscle and joint pain persist. I have ringing in my ears, no energy at all.

> I gained weight because I am on the sofa all day long. I have coordination

> problems, mild. My eyes are blurry. Actually, all the symptoms are the same

> as with hypothyroidism, but since they do not go away, my doc. was testing

> me for lyme disease. I will get the blood result next week, but would like

> to know what I could do in the meantime.

> The general symptom of fatigue can lead into different directions.

> Maybe one of you can tell me more about symptoms and treatment.

> I was thinking about a cleansing / but do not know what kind and how to do

> it. I have trouble swallowing pills, so it will be difficult for me to do a

> cleansing.

> I can not go on like this, hurting all over. I gained so much weight, my

> pants hardly fit anymore. I never weight so much in my life. I eat healthy

> all the time. I do not eat refined products at all.

>

>

>

>

[Guest guest]

Dear

I can relate to what you are saying. After my father died my mothers and 2

sisters all said they don't care what happens to me. In fact, my older

sister hopes that I die so that she will get a larger inheritance.

It is really disappointing and hurtful to hear them talk like that (and also

refuse to lift a finger to do anything to help me. I only manage to eat

something every 2-3 days. The easiest thing for me is to fry 3 eggs or boil

some eggs. At least it's protein.

You mentioned your husband is retired - are you still working?

Maybe a crockpot would help - making homemade chicken soup is a start...

That's what I'm thinking about doing to have something hot to eat.

Best wishes to you...

Kendra

(Near Chicago, IL)

On Tue, Jan 19, 2010 at 12:17 PM, Wilbert <lindamax@...>wrote:

>

> Hi Kim,

> that's the problem / help. My husband is retired and sits at home all day,

> doing nothing. I hardly can do anything and so I asked him to cook a meal

> (he didn't think about it). He told me he doesn't like to cook, so he

> doesn't. He opens a cane of soup or beans and thinks I should eat this

> salty, stuff. Yesterday, I asked again (2nd time since beginning of Dec) and

> he said, for all I care you can drop dead right here, since I offered you

> some soup and it wasn't good enough for you.

> In Jan. last year he had a heart bypass operation and I had to take care of

> him for 3 weeks nonstop (like a baby).

> I could starve to death and he wouldn't care. He doesn't care what kind of

> disease I have, he thinks when I get medication that's it, nothing else

> required.

> Yesterday he told me, he had it with me being sick and as soon as I would

> be healthy again, he would move out. So, I don't know what to do. Well,

> today, I ate healthy and got some multivitamin and mineral supplements.

> That's all I can master today.

>

>

[Guest guest]

,

How old are your sons? Still in high school? Are they open to understanding

Lyme disease? You could rent Under Our Skin a documentary that is short-listed

for the s. Don't watch it alone! Try to convince your husband & sons to

watch it with you. After I watched it with my younger daughter, also very busy

with college, work & social life (3 hrs away), she really understood what I was

facing. She's coming down to spend the weekend with me to celebrate my 60th

birthday--hope she brings some friends. We joked that I couldn't eat any cake

or drink any alcohol.

There's a tremendous sense of isolation for many people living with serious

chronic illness. We live in a culture that wants to push away anything

unpleasant--especially mysterious, creepy diseases like tick-borne ones. We've

gotten a false sense of security about infectious diseases--as if they're all

quite easily cured by antibiotics. My primary MD doesn't believe in chronic

Lyme, insists that after 6 months of oral abxs (which she doesn't approve of)

all the spirochetes have been killed off. I lent her my copy of Under Our Skin

and a long paper by a respected neuro-psychiatrist in NYC which I got online..

She promised to look the material over. I sure hope she does because we live in

an endemic area for Lyme & Co (Mass.) and I'm sure I'm not the only patient she

has who's got undiagnosed chronic Lyme.

How is your relationship with your primary MD? Does s/he have experience with

Lyme? Which tests were ordered? The ELISA is not very accurate--though mine

came back positive. Most labs won't do Western Blots (more accurate, but far

from perfect) without a positive ELISA. My LLMD ordered both and I had to go

out of network to Quest because Lab corp wouldn't do both at the same time.

Kim

Re: [ ] New here

Please know that even if your lyme tests come back negative, you may still

have lyme. I had 3 different tests come back negative - never got a

postive. BUT... an LLMD put me on a 4 month trial antibiotics and at month

3, I finally started improving slightly. He said that 50% of his patients

with lyme never get a postive test result, And his suspicion that I had

lyme was that everything else had been ruled out and he said anytime he see

a series of neurological symptoms doesn't point to any specific neurological

diagnosis, he suspect lyme disease. At this point, I have been on

treatment for about 9 months and while not yet out of the woods, have

improved greatly!

As to symptoms - they vary widely from person to person. I've had all you

mentioned as well as others. Lyme, is often called the 'great imitator'

because it can mimic many other diseases. I never noticed a tic bite or

bulls-eye rash - my first symptom was vertigo and bad headaches. Over time,

I developed joint & muscle pain and then muscle weakness to the point where

I could practically no longer walk. My balance & coordination was very much

off and I experience mental fogginess & confusion. Numbness & tingling

sensations and strange pains that came & went without cause - my skin &

muscles felt as if I had a very bad bruise, but there was no bruising, nor

had I bumped into anything - it just came on its on. Lots of other symptoms

too - in fact, started off thinking it was fibromyalgia - then thought

spinal stenosis - was tested for lots of others as well. If I hadn't had

the LLMD suggest treatment, I'd probably still be getting tested and

probably would have been dx'd with MS - as it gets dx'd when everything else

has been ruled out. I'm not familiar with hashimoto, but you might see if

you can get on a 4 month trial. I take flagyl & doxy and it's done well for

me - other than the inconveniences of feeling sick to my stomach almost

constantly and not being able to go out in the sun. But... small price to

get rid of all the other symptoms that were crippling me.

On Sun, Jan 17, 2010 at 7:02 AM, adnil1988 <lindamax@...> wrote:

>

>

> Hi my name is , I am diagnosed with hashimoto, but my symptoms of

> muscle and joint pain persist. I have ringing in my ears, no energy at all.

> I gained weight because I am on the sofa all day long. I have coordination

> problems, mild. My eyes are blurry. Actually, all the symptoms are the same

> as with hypothyroidism, but since they do not go away, my doc. was testing

> me for lyme disease. I will get the blood result next week, but would like

> to know what I could do in the meantime.

> The general symptom of fatigue can lead into different directions.

> Maybe one of you can tell me more about symptoms and treatment.

> I was thinking about a cleansing / but do not know what kind and how to do

> it. I have trouble swallowing pills, so it will be difficult for me to do a

> cleansing.

> I can not go on like this, hurting all over. I gained so much weight, my

> pants hardly fit anymore. I never weight so much in my life. I eat healthy

> all the time. I do not eat refined products at all.

>

>

>

>