Disabilites... got any?

[katepoet]

DianaB asked me what is wrong - the list is toooo long. What was triggered by Lyme and what was exacerbated by it is impossible to say. Add in the I have been in "hit-from-behind" accidents years ago and it's confusing to me, much less the health care providers who try to help.

I have migraines almost daily - that's a vast improvement from daily. Most I can manage within a couple of hours, some take a couple of days.

Peripheral neuropathy - nerves don't work to my hands, feet, arms, legs, and most of the rest of me. Fingers, hands and feet swell.

Visceral pain syndrome. All the muscles in my abdomen and most of the rest of me are in spasm. My gut doesn't work properly because of it so I have a very very very very limited diet.

Myofascial pain syndrome. Fibromyalgia. Several blown discs, two fusions with lots of titanium. Forminal stenosis - narrowing of the spinal column. Memory problems due to permanent brain damage which get worse under stress. TMJ - temporo-mandibular joint syndrome with damaged ligaments to the jaw. Piriformis syndrome - the muscles to my hip and rump are in spasm esp. on the right and it pulls my right leg up an inch or more shorter than the other and makes my knee not work. I'm really good at falling!

Allergies as a symptom of immune system stress. Chronic UTIs due to the muscles being screwed up. Had kidney surgery last year to remove some grapefruit sized benign cysts which were trapping nerves and blood vessels but the flow hasn't come back yet.

Thoracic outlet syndrome - nerve and blood vessel entrapments in the shoulders and at the top of of the rib cage. I'm good at dropping things.

Depression, panic attacks, phobias, a bit of OCD all due to nutritional deficits due to Lyme and the visceral pain syndrome but most are in abeyance with the use of amino acids, the building blocks of the dopamine cycle.

There are more - can't think of them right now. Worst is I need to rescue us financially and I can't work fulltime or onsite. And my son is in pain and fatigue. And my husband has his own disabilities, too. Special Forces Nam vet and getting older.

If anyone is coping with anything physical or mental, there's a chance I know something that can help. So - just ask.

[gja1000]

You do have a long list of ailments - yet, I can "hear" your spirit and I admire it/you.

Fortunately, I do not have any disabilities - but my sweet hubby has heart failure, diabetes, asthma, and undiagnosed GI problems. He is hearing impaired and wears bilateral hearing aids. He is insulin dependent and wears an insulin pump. He too, is an old Vietnam vet, and many of his problems are due to agent orange exposure.

He is 100% disabled and unable to work. Sometimes its all he can do to get from the bed to the chair. But other days, he is able to go to the fishing hole, sit quietly and catch those little buggers!

I do my best to take care of him and we are trying to live each day to the fullest and enjoy life the best we can. We know that his life will be shortened with all these ailments, so we have to pack in as much as we can during the time we have left. I guess though, that could apply to all of us!

[katepoet]

My husband has hearing loss, PTSD, diabetes, arthritis, etc. all service related. After almost 40 years he is finally going to have an agent orange tox screen.

Who did your husband serve with?

Please tell him we said "Welcome Home!" and "Thank you."

[AngieDoogles]

I am lucky enough to have no disabilities. My husband however was born with a clubbed foot and spinabifida. The clubbed foot was taken care of through surgeries and physical therapy. His mom says it was awful having to see him with a huge cast on his leg while he was so young. He doesn't really have any symptoms of this now that he's older, only a scar and different sized feet. His left foot is a show size and a half smaller than his right.

His spinabifida wasn't treated because there's nothing really to do for it. It's a whole in the spinal cord where the spine didn't grow together completely during prenatal development--this is why folic acid is so important for women to take even if there is only a slight possibility of becoming pregnant, because when you know you're pregnant it's too late for the folic acid to help. The spinabifida doesn't cause any major problems but he does get awful headaches, neck pain, and back pain because his muscles have to tense so much to make up for the gap. It's especially painful when the temperature drops...and I just hate not being able to do anything significant to ease his pain. But then I remember that some people with spinabifida can't even walk, so really we have a lot to be thankful for.

[katepoet]

Our niece had spina bifida when the surgeries were experimental. She had many, MDs predicted she'd live to age 4 - it was very severe. She made it to 24! Amazing!

Have you tried acupuncture or chiropractic for releasing the muscles? Both work for me at different times and in different ways.

[Janet]

We've been very blessed physically and for the most part mentally..lol

My husband has Rhuematoid Arthriits and just had back surgery the 9th of Aug. He's doing good and when he goes to the Dr. the 31st, we're pretty sure he'll be released to go back to work....YEAH!!!

Me, I take thyroid and blood pressure medicine so I'm doing good...I'm just plain fat! I need to get that under control before it starts causing me problems as I age.

[gja1000]

Originally Posted by katepoet

My husband has hearing loss, PTSD, diabetes, arthritis, etc. all service related. After almost 40 years he is finally going to have an agent orange tox screen.

Who did your husband serve with?

Please tell him we said "Welcome Home!" and "Thank you."

If your husband was in Vietnam, then it is assumed that he was exposed to agent orange and is entitiled to disability from the VA for the diabetes (you probably already know that). Anyway, my husband didn't have to take the tox screen, we just had to fill out all the paperwork to get him qualified for disability. Thankfully, he escaped the PTSD.

I don't know who he served in Vietnam with - but he was at a rest and recuperation station on the south china sea, near Na Trang I believe, where he served as a personnel clerk - he processed people in and out as they took their leave.

He acquired rheumatic fever while he was in basic training, so when they sent him to Vietnam, thankfully, he had a desk job, rather than being out in the jungle.

[Tink]

I have coronary artery disease; have 2 stents and had one heart attack.
I have type 2diabetes. Hypothyroid, hypertension, hypercholesterol, many different allergies, arthritis, and my right knee cap is floating loose in my leg. I still carry the effects of bells palsy from several years ago.

I take my meds, try to just ignore it all and get on with life. I can't do what I used to do, but then I'm not as young as I used to be either. LOL

[judy]

I've been so blessed, Thank God. The only time I was ever hospitalized was to have a baby, and I'm 60 years old.

I do have cluster headaches, which tried to destroy about 20 years of my life, but
after I hit my 50's, the pain really subsided. They also came out with a new med, Imitrex injections, which made it liveable, about 15 years ago. They were known to cause the highest level of pain known to medicine at one point, and were known as "suicide" headaches because some patients were known to commit suicide rather than live with them.

They're really strange, the cause is unknown, are a male dominated disease, and are thought to be somehow neurological. I began to get them about a month ago, but have learned to start with lowering my blood pressure before they really kick in - well, it worked, and now I'm beginning to cut back on the blood pressure meds.
I bypassed the doctor because she would have put me on all kinds of meds.

I also have scoliosis which is just now causing neck pain. I have the greatest chiropractor, and, because of her, have very little discomfort.

My daughter, on the other hand, as most you know, has MS. I understand that she has been doing really well for the past couple of years. She and I are estranged, which is the only really bad thing in my life at this point..

The rest, health included, is really really good.

[katepoet]

Sounds like we are all coping and doing pretty darn well! Congratulations to all of us!

Rheumatoid arthritis is definitely a very common symptom of Lyme disease when it is transmitted by tick bite. The current tests most MDs use for Lyme have ahigh rate of false negatives so get the new test. Your MD can request the directions - and yes, it is covered by insurance.

Weight gain and a struggle to lose it can also be caused by Lyme disease. I've lost 90 pounds over the years and part of that came from treatment of allergies and treatment for Lyme.

Cluster headaches - I'd look at Lyme, as strange as that sounds.

Anyone dealing with any systemic health issue should get the new Lyme test. The most conservative estimate is that 15% of us have it but since it triggers ADHD, bi-polar, fibromyalgia, Lupus... I tend to think it is much higher. It is contagious so you didn't have to get a tick bite. In over 95% of the cases, when one person in a household has Lyme, so does everyone else in the household.

For rheumatic fever recovery, I would try the same tincture we use to help us fight the Lyme bacteria and to help our immune systems get back on track - a special form of cat's claw that is called non-TOA. It's called Prima Una de Gato. This desert plant is a natural quinalone and has two alkloids, one promotes the immune system and the other does the opposite. Non-TOA cat's claw is without the alkaloid that undoes the good work of the first alkaloid.

I have an article about this if anyone wants the pdf pm your email address to me and I will send it to you. It's too big to post here.

I have to do some more writing and some tutoring so I'll post more later.