Surgery Recovery and Response to Clindamycin (First month)

It's four days after surgery and I'm on zero pain killers. My head hurts and my stomach is aching with sharp radiating pains, but it's not any worse than other pains and being on narcotics is bad for your stomach and causes additional problems so I'd rather tough it out from here. I had a rough nights sleep last night on no medicine but part of that was due to being stressed out because of a relationship upset. Yes, I'm a regular teenager with average relationship struggles that come and go and sometimes can't be overcome and can end a great thing at a not so great time. On the day of the surgery I came home before 3 pm and was on Tylenol Codine and ibuprofen and whatever else they gave me through IV. I got to lay in my comfy bed and be in great pain. The next day I rested and spent time with Mike. I was in so much pain that he had to do pretty much everything for me including sitting me up since my abs hurt so bad, and feeding me. I couldn't cough, standing up caused me to be in so much pain while my stomach adjusted that I couldn't breath, and my abdomen was full of carbon dioxide from the laparoscopic surgery. There is four incision and one big one along the bottom of my belly button which makes five (there are two in my belly button I believe). Today I am feeling much better, my head is killing me and my stomach hurts worse when I move but in general I am much better than the past few days and I am happy for that. I see my Lyme doctor on Wednesday to discuss how the clindamycin is working through IV. I believe it has reduced headaches and brain fog and maybe even generalized pain, but I need more time to figure it out. Hopefully he won't change it for another month. Next post, on the new car!
Surgery:

Sudden Onset of Abdominal Pain

Two weeks ago, and I may or may not have posted about this, I was stricken with sudden upper abdominal pain. It grew to the point where I couldn't breathe and stretched the width of my rib cage right beneath my ribs. I have felt a lot of pain in life, with the surgeries and ovarian cysts and all, but I thought that was the worst pain you could possibly feel. My PCP didn't take it seriously as it had passed after about 3 hours and said it could just be an upset stomach. With great frustration I got an ultrasound the next morning and was told that if there was anything on it, we would get a call within 24 hours. A week and half later I assumed it was clear and all was fine. Then I tried to go to bed last night, like any regular night, and it started again. After 35 minutes of it getting worse and worse to the point I could not breathe but a small gasp and I was dizzied with pain worse than the last 'episode'. I finally gathered my pride and woke my mother to beg her to haul me to the ER. We tried to avoid it at all costs but there was no way I could survive any longer, the whole car ride filled with constant moaning and wreathing in pain. I told her to just shoot me and get it over with. Basically the doctor said the ultrasound read that there were gall stones. After doing blood work and a urine test, they sent me home with pain medicine, anti nausea pills, and a puke bucket, and told us to contact my PCP again. This morning I was not able to sleep after getting home at 6 AM, and instead spent the two hours vomiting my brains out in a pink tub on the floor. We rushed to the doctors office to be sent home yet again in no rush. Obviously these doctors have not had gall bladder problems, if this is even gall bladder. I get another ultrasound tomorrow morning and meet with a surgeon on Friday. Hopefully we can get some answers and figure it all out before the end of next week. My birthday is tomorrow and I will be spending it getting up early and being in pain at the hospital getting an ultrasound for the morning. Oh joy, the life of a Lymie.

Hyperbaric Oxygen Treatment

As part of my drug holiday and to help me recover from lingering concussion symptoms, my Lyme doctor really urged us to try Hyperbaric Oxygen Therapy (HBOT). The office has a soft shelled chamber that basically pressurizes oxygen into your system while breathing 100% oxygen for different amounts of times. The thought is that the oxygen increase for the short amount of time increases circulation and oxygen levels to the point where people receiving the therapy notice improved energy levels and medicine effectiveness. Children receiving Chemotherapy spend time in the chamber directly after their treatments to increase the Chemo's effectiveness by pushing it into all the tissues. Concussion symptoms are noticeably improved by the oxygen increase to the brain and Lyme sufferers may notice more energy and less joint and muscle problems. This is an effective way of improving the benefits of treatment but it is out of pocket and fairly expensive. For one day, the next three weeks, I'm going to receive treatments to clear my concussion symptoms and help with whatever Lyme detoxing I'm doing on this drug holiday. Huge prayers that I can have the patience to lay in this loud machine for an hour and fifteen minutes every Tuesday morning and still be able to drive home afterward.

Drug Holiday

I went to my Lyme Specialist a week ago, which was thankfully only a thirty minute drive I had to embrace by myself. We spoke of the idea of a drug holiday since I'm feeling so terrible. When a Lyme sufferer makes such a drastic change to his/her medicines, there is a lot of danger involved with the reaction the body can have from the release of the bacteria and harmed immune system. When there is no medicine in the bloodstream the bacteria of Lyme of the coinfections that come with it can come out of hiding and run free in the body. In a months time this theoretically will let the Lyme come out, filter out side effects from prescriptions and herbals, and of course some further concussion symptoms so that we can reassess where my body is unmasked. This way we can see what is plaguing me the most right now, and what symptoms we need to concentrate on. Also the break from the medicine can give my stomach some time to heal. I take antacids, Carafate for ulcers, magnesium for detoxing, and Liver life to clean my liver and keep it working smoothly while I'm on this holiday. My main concentrations while off the antibiotics is to watch my blood counts, flush my IV regularly with saline to keep it working, detox the medicine out of my system as much as possible, keep my face clean of acne, journal how I'm feeling on here, and straighten out my stomach. We are going to limit my activity to just one event, like working towards the mini horse show on May 12th. Rest is a huge lesson I need to concentrate on right now. If I don't rest I'll stress and get worse than I already feel.

Probiotic Protection

It is really important as a Lyme person or anyone else have stomach changes or irregular pain to know that Probiotics make a big difference. Every brand, every type, every dose can be different. I took a Probiotic called PB8 that was 8 billion units and still I needed to take 3 or 4 every night at least an hour away from antibiotics. We switched that brand to another one of a higher unit from Puritan's Pride and they did not work for me.

I started having symptoms of Candida Overgrowth AKA Internal Yeast Infection. It was a mess. This was back in April. More recently I have been taking a refrigerated 85 billion unit one called Raw Probiotic. This has helped my stomach tremendously, especially since I have irregular bowel movements thanks to the IV antibiotics, which are tough on the stomach. My pain level in my stomach has minimized and I have reduced nausea most of the time.

I went for a week where I hadn't taken Probiotics because I was out of them and they needed to be ordered (expensive little boogers). My stomach got so mad and the pain was incredible. Lets just say the pain was unique and there was so much nausea and vomiting, even more burping.

I now have been told to take more then one type of Probiotic and switch it up to keep the body's resistance down and keep the stomach healthy. I take both RawProbiotics and PB8 back and forth and at the same time. Probiotics definitely protect and its important to invest in them and keep on top of them.  If you forget them, then forget your stomach ever being normal again.

Candida Overgrowth, Intestinal Yeast

Over the past few weeks I've suffered with severe stomach pain. The emergency room proved uneventful and we just found some small ovarian cysts but nothing to really explain my pain in full. Through talking with a friend and research I started looking into intestinal yeast overgrowth or infection. Its more likely to occur from too much good bacteria dying off due to antibiotics or birth control. I've been on antibiotics for 2 1/2 years and always have stomach issues. Candida can cause stomach pain, indigestion, nausea, acid reflux, headaches, fatigue, dandruff, thrush of the tongue, sore throats and nasal swelling, sleep issues, and ovarian cysts or dysfunctions. Wow, doesn't that cover a lot. :P I thought this made sense, so I looked into it further and my mother and I found a spit test that you do first thing in the AM, which was a great signifier for me, and even a symptoms point based test where I blew positive out of the park. Treatment is lots of magnesium calcium, which i tripled my herbal amounts and added garlic, and started magnesium drinks, also high amounts of pro biotics like yogurt, refrigerated pro biotic drinks, pills before bed, and on top of everything a diet restricting the amount of yeast and sugars, even natural fruity sugars, from diet. The diet is tough, no dairy, light amounts of nuts, reduced yeast, and very small amounts of fruit. Allowed: meat, and vegetables like salad and beans, small amounts of nuts, olive oil, and malto dextrins that are in sugar free flavorings. Whew, this is going to be a fun next few months trying to get my body back on track. google this if you think you may have a Candida issue, its dangerous and quite important to discover for yourself.