Candida or Lyme

I am really at a road block.

I literally don't know if I am battling issues with Lyme or Candida. I have had issues with Candida in the past, but this time it is really confusing me. Is there any approach any of you would take to try to help me figure it out? I pretty much cannot tell if the majority of my reactions are Herx reactions or if they are an increase in Candida symptoms.

I have calcification of my shoulder. That is a problem regardless, now whether the lyme or candida is making it worse or if it is throwing off my immune system resulting in lyme/candida symptoms is my concern. I basically will not know the answer until I clear out the calcification that is there. If I have it surgically removed (which I am trying to avoid), then maybe the lyme/candida issues will subside. My belief is that so as long as the calcification is there, it is throwing off my shoulder positioning and causing inflammation and nothing will get resolved until I take care of it.

My question to you is - how can I tell if its lyme or candida? I figured a trial of treatment would help me figure it out, but it is leaving me even more confused. A few weeks ago I decided to take doxycycline (have not taken it since 2014). I figured, well, if its lyme, something will happen, right? Nothing. I took it for about 10 days. No reaction whatsoever. I am being reserved about how long I took the doxy, bc if it is Candida, all I am doing is making it worse!

Now, after the doxy course, I decided to take a week of diflucan, incase it was candida, at least I would help prevent it from getting worse. Well i herxed terribly (and I am sure it was a herx). The only reason why I am still not completely convinced it is Candida is bc I read that diflucan also acts as a cyst buster for lyme. So I am in this never ending circle.

As far as my symptoms go, they are all so similar to when I was sick with lyme. However, I am fully aware that Candida can cause many of the same symptoms. They include tingling in my arms, GI probs (I have had that for years - basically atypical reflux), coldness on my cheeks on occasion, tons of muscle twitches and sharp nerve pains here and there, my shoulder and my upper neck muscles are all inflammed and they constantly feel like they were pulled, I am pulling my calf muscles alot (especially if I forget to take CoQ 10), headaches, and issues with my tongue (my papillae get inflamed in the same spot all of the time - at the tip), and I do get sores inside my mouth now and again. candida I know causes thrush (which I have), but not so much this other stuff like on my tongue.

Some other observations, whenever I take diflucan, my headaches go away. Whenever I take any other antibiotic or herb, I get headaches if I remain on them for too long. (most especially augmentin). During the entire 8 months I treated lyme and Bart back in 2014, i never once had a headache. I just recently decided to try Augmentin to see what would happen, bc when I took it in the spring for an upper respiratory infection, my shoulder actually improved. And lastly, my eyesight has worsened. While on augmentin, I have been herxing mildly, my ears have been getting clogged (all of a sudden I can't hear well - I have a hearing impairment to begin with - and when that happens, I take my hearing aids out and my ears are all damp inside, its so weird), and I am getting tremendous headaches.

So I got the steroid shot just bc my shoulder pain was unbearable. It helped a little, but not much. The only pain medicine that helps me is Excedrin. Also, when I had the MRI of my shoulder done this past friday, to rule out any possible tears, I herxed during the MRI, my shoulder hurt terribly during it, and afterwards my tooh with a crown was killing me. Totally weird!

All of my problems and pain are on my right side, so I suspected Bart, but honestly, I don't know anymore.......

I reached out to Pirouette, who seems to be the expert, but she hasn't returned my 2 emails I have written over the past few months.

If any of you have any insight to share, I would sincerely appreciate it, thanks! I thought I had a handle on this, but my head is spinning in all directions....

Thanks again,
Kathleen

Post Edited (Chapelle) : 10/7/2019 8:43:48 PM (GMT-6)

A lot of your symptoms sound like bartonella to me. Tooth pain after the MRI - maybe EMF sensitivities???

You said: “I read that diflucan also acts as a cyst buster for lyme.” I didn’t know that. I just took Fluconazole for 9 weeks straight.

For candida, you could take Candicid Forte. It helped me a lot. Didn’t cause any noticeable reaction until I had been on it a little over a month. Then I had a major breakthrough with my gut. I would go through 2 bottles of it and see what happens.

Chapelle said...
I
My question to you is - how can I tell if its lyme or candida?
Kathleen

Answer, take Disulfuram. If it's candida, it will put you down. You would have to start with a really low dose, like 1/4 of a 250mg b.i.d.

walking - did you have any side effects? how long did you take it for?

P.S. - You mentioned hearing impairment and hearing aids. Same here. Mine has been since early childhood. Had tubes in my ears a lot from 18 mths to 8 years old. I suspect bartonella had something to do with it. My current audiologist told me my hearing loss was mostly nerve related and usually hereditary. No one else in my family has it. Bartonella and Lyme affect nerves.

I have had things since infancy and early childhood that I suspect are bartonella related - trouble falling and staying asleep; slow bowel motility; sensitivities to light, sound, smells, and touch; purple streaks on my abdomen since elementary school; inexplicable stretch marks on my thighs since age 11; headaches since 4th grade; hard PMS symptoms; tender feet; aching in my legs especially at night.

Girlie said...
WalkingbyFaith - you didn’t take Disulfiram - you’re talking about diflucan right?

Ha!!! Good catch, Girlie! Thank you. I deleted my confused post.

Hi Chapelle,

I think my story/situation may be similar to yours in many respects; I was treated for Lyme (I believe successfully) about 1.5 years ago but have been struggling with symptoms since that I now attribute to Candida (or possibly some other type of fungal infection).

I actually had stumbled across your posts about treating Candida after Lyme a little while back and found them very helpful, I am sorry to hear things are not going as well now.

In regards to your question of how to differentiate Candida and Lyme, I would make the following comparison based on my experience:

What I considered to be distinguishing symptoms of untreated Lyme, that I do not have with Candida alone:
- Underlying feeling of being run-down/exhausted all the time, nagging feeling that "something is wrong" 24/7
- Brain fog/feeling loss of "life force" resulting depressed state and personality changes; inability to appreciate music, humor, etc.
- General feeling of heaviness (limbs, etc.)
- Steady downward course, i.e., if even if I had fluctuations during each day, on average each day was worse than the day before

Once these Lyme symptoms were out the picture, I found that (what I believe to be) Candida was different in that:
- Permanent underlying feeling of exhaustion gone
- Fatigue/brain fog still present at times, but much less severe (more "surface level" if that makes any sense?) and at times I could feel completely normal
- Strong correlation of fatigue/brain fog to either eating too many carbs or anti-fungal treatment (herxing)
- Lots of ups and downs, but no overall downward course in symptoms
- Pain/burning sensations/etc. seem to be concentrated in specific places rather than spreading around (I feel like I can almost picture where the "fungal pathways" are within my body if that doesn't sound too crazy, haha)

I don't know if this helps you at all based on your situation/symptoms but just thought I'd put in 2 cents based on my experience.