Covid Again - and other pesky viruses .....

I thought I would update you all on my recent run-ins with various viruses – as I think it may be something many of you will battle with as you start to recover.

In terms of lyme – I think I am at around 70-75% recovered now - and able to do quite a bit in my days - mornings still being the slowest - but I functional almost normally once up and going – and mainly have to avoid stress or overdoing it too much on any one day.

I am doing everything I can in terms of a healthy lifestyle – eat well – sleep 8 hrs -exercise - keep stress to a minimum - in terms of exercise – what I am able to do has increased considerably over the last year - at the moment this means typically doing a 45minute weights workout around lunchtime and a 3mile walk after that - and then a short mini workout / stretches in the evening - just so I don’t have long patches of uninterrupted sitting.
in the last 12 months I have been pulsing antibiotics – 2 weeks on 1 week off – alongside all the herbs and stuff I was doing before – and progress has been pretty good - pretty steadily upwards

The main fly in the ointment has been picking up general viruses that are going around – which can have somewhat unpredictable results on my disrupted immune system.

This means I can be knocked off my upward trajectory for up to 2 months at a time after wards
In June I caught Parvovirus from my nephew - this caused me outrageous aching all over, sleep issues, gut issues, fatigue etc for an extended period of time - over 8 weeks in total - it gradually faded but I wasn’t quite over it when I caught COVID at a social gathering in September

So while my upward trajectory would otherwise be fairly constant - instead I am in a 2 steps forward one step back type scenario – making it quite hard to know how much longer treatment will likely take – or plan ahead
Its frustrating – but other than all the usual things like washing hands – trying to avoid touching your face when out socially etc - there is only so much that you can do.

After initially not getting any respiratory viruses for the first 6 years of my illness – I seem to be in a phase now where I get anything going.

My nephew sneezed once in the car - an I came down with parvo 3 days later

So that part is a little curious – perhaps I now have suppressed immune function – or perhaps in the later semi recovered stage of lyme things have returned to a more normal but not quite ideal immune status – which means you are just more susceptible to viruses.

What is slightly more encouraging is that the latest bout of COVID has been very normal in terms of a respiratory virus.

A day of not feeling quite normal – feeling like something might be up – then felt pretty bloody awful for a few days – much like flu – but then rapidly improved – and after 3 weeks I am getting somewhere close to where I was before – probably 90% recovered - so I think that’s a much more normal immune response – and an encouraging sign.

It did trigger some heart pain symptoms again - which is a bit worrying – although not as severe as the first time – so again more normalised – and some gut disturbance symptoms that are still hanging about – but overall its clearing up pretty normally

onwards and upwards!

Hi Garzie,

thanks for sharing your present condition and your experience with virus exposures. I think we all have somehow weakend IS due to chronic, persistent lyme and co and long term abxs. I wish you complete remission and recovery! Best wishes, B

I’m sorry for the setbacks you are experiencing. Out of all the people on this forum, I trust that you are being the most consistent in your protocol. Do you think perhaps, that taking an extended break from abx might be beneficial? I’m probably sounding like an anti-abx nut…I’m not. I love abx for accute illness, I’m weary of long term abx for what it does to the IS in the long run. Just bouncing ideas off of you in case I find myself in the same situation. Thanks.

palermo said...
i would be also quite intrested how long are you taking abx ?

as i mentioned around 1 year now - but pulsing all of that time - and i started gradually as i tend to react strongly to antimicrobials

palermo said...
thanks for sharing! There is a protocol what is kind of working. I will upload it. here the link; https://ibb.co/fxBpfpq

thanks for the link - some useful reminders in there

i did look for providone iodine sprays but i didn't seem to find any in the UK - i tried making my own during the peak of COVID - but it attacked the bottle it was in and didn't keep well - so it wasn't there when i needed it this time

i did take elderberry, zinc, vit C etc and perhaps that all helped with recovery - hard to know.
i have had elderberry fight off a cold once or twice before if taken really early - like at the first signs

the problem with most of this stuff is - by the time you test positive - or even have definite symptoms - the virus is already multiplying rapidly and interventions only do some much at that point

also we don't really know if we have been exposed - so you would have to take them any time you socialised at all - and if you have to take for 1 week after - that would end up being pretty much all the time.

some kind of nasal spray and some hand washing i could live with - so i will do a bit more digging into options for that

there are loads on sale in the uk - they seem to span the whole gamut from prescription meds to total snake oil - but a quick look today showed most are full of lots of stuff i would rather not have in my body if i can help it - so i may make another simple iodine one - with saline and maybe some xylitol - and just use that every time i go out

I did take them when i first got diagnosed with lyme for a few months but i had to stop when my liver enzymes went high.

Garzie said...

Rampage said...
I’m sorry for the setbacks you are experiencing. Out of all the people on this forum, I trust that you are being the most consistent in your protocol. Do you think perhaps, that taking an extended break from abx might be beneficial? I’m probably sounding like an anti-abx nut…I’m not. I love abx for accute illness, I’m weary of long term abx for what it does to the IS in the long run. Just bouncing ideas off of you in case I find myself in the same situation. Thanks.

hi
there is some evidence that most antibiotics cause some immune suppression while you are taking them - things like neutrophils etc are often lower and some abx have direct anti-inflammatory effects ( tetracyclines and macrolides for instance ) - but these effects wear off again relatively quickly once you stop taking them.

but i don't think there is any evidence that long term antibiotics damages the immunes system in the long run - except perhaps for things like fluorinated antibiotics - but that is a separate phenomenon - and i am steering clear of those

of course there is some concern over depleting the microbiome - but we have studies now that show normal diversity is restored in most people in around a year after finishing even very strong broad spectrum antibiotics -
and this is in the context of the general population that typically do not do most of the things that one would ideally do to improve ones microbiome - eg sleep enough, eat enough varied vegetables in the diet, consume polyphenol rich foods, eat fermented foods - exercise, manage stress, sleep 8 hrs etc.

the overstating of the impact of antibiotics by functional medicine doctors was one on the things that caused me to persevere with herbs for so long - but ultimately that didn't work for me - and i have since found my gut issues have been if anything better after antibiotics rather than worse - so i think a lot of what's bandied about in alternative health circles is quite lightweight and unscientific - more a kind of ideology that gets extrapolated from what little science we have - and then repeated by many different voices until it becomes the accepted "truth"

of course - if i could treat without taking any potentially harmful substances i would prefer to do that - or if it were possible to treat and recover with only short course of antibiotics that would be great.

but the way i would frame it is - when you are suffering with a serious life altering infection ( not to mention potentially life threatening complications - such as heart issues - blood clots etc ) - the risk vs benefit equation gets shifted away from what makes sense for an otherwise healthy person.
not treating these infections adequately risks severe downsides - loss of big chunks of active life through being sick - as well as risk of the afore mentioned complications cropping over time ( it is NOT a steady state illness) - while the potential upside of a full recovery is huge.

so while a person might chose to avoid antibiotics for say a strep throat if they were otherwise well and likely to get over it by themselves.
lyme and co on the other hand are a serious disease that once chronic are very unlikely to go away by themselves or to resolve with short course of antibiotics - leaving the patient with only the choices that are likely to work

however - all of the treatments that work tend to have some degree of risk attached - so that's the size of it -
the choices seem to be either try and live with it and hope nothing worsens or no complications occur - or treat it.
and if treating - by all means start with minimally risky options - in case you are in the small percentage of people that respond easily - but if that doesn't work - then heavier hitting options are

i don't mean to present antibiotics as the only option - or a magic bullet

i actually think the hosts immune system is ultimately the key to recovery - and spend a great deal of time and effort doing all the things i can to help support its function
but we know Lyme and co also suppress immune function, so it may be that one has to do all of those things - lifestyle, diet, exercise, stress management, sleep etc - as well as lower the infectious load with antimicrobials / antibiotics - in order for the immune system to recover enough for a person to get into remission
that is certainly in line with what the top LLMD's propose.

i hope its of some help

Good post. I have thought that some said abx side effects could actually have come from a herx response. I've been on abx for several years now. I actually think for Mom and I that our organs (liver, kidneys) do better with treatment, that abx are actually improving those functions.

The Dude Abides said...
It's great to read this update, Garzie. Well done and wishing you continued success.

thanks for the moral support Dude. its appreciated

keeping the regime going is a full time job right now - but its encouraging that i am able to see steady progress - so that is enough motivation to just keep at it.

hope you are doing well also

all the best !
G

That’s great news. Stay well.