So I'm into year 25+ of Lyme and co-infections but the start of year 2 of treatment. I have struggled something fierce with detoxing. I feel that not having a gallbladder has made things harder for detoxing since your bile carries your toxins to your bowels and out and without a gallbladder you no longer have a means to regulate your bile so that you can produce more or less bile. It has been quite the struggle for me. I keep on reading past posts from 2009 - 2011 and find that many of the people I relate to both had a bad case of bartonella and struggled to detox without a gallbladder. Most if not all are long gone from this forum (hope that means great things!).
If you are reading this post you likely don't have a gallbladder. I'd like to hear about
your struggles with this battle given that you are sans gallbladder. Any struggles you have had? Maybe you haven't had struggles and then if that's the case, what are you doing so I can try it? What have you learned from your docs about
how things may be different for you with treatment? Have any of them talked about
your challenges without a gallbladder?
-----------------------------------------
Here's my info:
I can't do detox baths as I herx for days after a 10 minute bath. I used to love warm baths but not any more!
- I can't do detox foot baths as the herbs and epsome salts really irritate my ankles and make everything very itchy and I break out in red bumps.
- I can't be in my sauna for too long. Only for about 10 - 15 minutes of which I don't sweat but often over night while sleeping that night I sleep really well (the sauna knocks me out) and I sweat.
- I can't take abx more then 3 times a week. I take a combo of herbs, homeopathics and abx. The abx make me herx something fierce, all of my muscles constrict and I get horrible pain on my right side right under my ribs. But my liver appears to be fine. ??
- Too much detoxing (like liver cleanses, benonite clay, chlorella, cholestyramine and citrus pectin) all cause herxing and eventually over time lead to the right upper quadrant pain.
- Opti Cleanse seems to do nothing for me. With it twice daily along with chlorella and citrus pectin I only have one bowel movement a day.
- My anxiety goes through the roof when herxing but when I actually get things moving in my bowels my anxiety completely disappears.
- The more lemon water I drink it seems that my upper right quadrant hurts more. But I used to only drink lemon water before starting treatment.
- The GSE I take if I take too much it also effects my upper right quadrant.
- If I exercise too much (jog the length of my 10 house street with my 4 year old at her pace), I am wiped out for 2+ days
- If I do yoga 2 days in a row (20 minutes in the am), I end up being wiped out and I get painful lumps appearing everywhere.
- When things are at their worst with these flares/herxes, I get such pain in my right deltoid muscle and painful lumps that come and go in my abdomen and previously in my breast tissue. The ones in my abdomen I'm wondering if it is swollen scar tissue from removing my gallbladder. Things pop up right next to my bellybutton (one point of insertion for the surgery), and below my rib cage (other two points are there for the surgery). I also had a torn rotator cuff in my right arm from a swimming injury. No surgery but that is a place where I get lots of pain during the herxes.
- accupuncture helps at times but isn't consistent. The accupunturists always tell me that it seems like I have something thick and sticky. When I told them my LLMD now suspects that I have thick bile the accupunturists said 'yes, that could be what I have been feeling for the past year'. They help with the pain, inflammation and help clearing some of my pain. They always tell me that some of where I point to with pain appears to be my gallbladder #24 or #25 point. So at least I'm consistent!
- Lymphatic drainage causes more herxing the two days after.
- Vitamin C and B-12 IVs help but I herx the day after before feeling better.
- Heating pads rarely help though when it's really bad I do find pain relief (though herxing the next day) with a warm herbal bath for sore muscles.
I think that's enough! I am not a complainer but this illness has turned me into such a complainer. And I analyze everything with a fine tooth comb. I know it's not good for me. I just want answers. I don't want to sit back and do nothing I want to find something that might be able to help, a stone I haven't turned over. I don't take pain meds or anti-inflammatory meds. I have been on a gluten free, sugar free, yeast free, dairy free, nightshade free diet. I have strayed from the diet for a few days at a time and I pay the price for weeks. I have always drank tons of water, maybe too much. I still drink a lot.
I deal with a lot of pain from this stuff. I know that some pain is expected but it becomes difficult and I'm a year into treatment. I was expecting more good days then bad and I haven't hit that point yet. I went through 37 hours of induced labor with contractions every 45 seconds for the last 17 hours and I never took a single pain med or anything. I just breathed through it and it was for my first child, my son who was stillborn. I know I can do this after going through all of that but I with that, I at least knew that the painful contractions would some day end though my heart might be broken for a while. I just need to know that this pain will too end! I am strong, just some weeks I feel like I'm anything but.