Cheryl's Response to Health Problems

[GeoBQn]

Cheryl's daughter Haley has been having worsening health problems. She's had rapid heartbeat, joint pain, and muscle weakness. Cheryl's response was to decide that it was Lyme disease and put her on supplements.

stopandsmelltheroseshere.blogspot.com/2013/12/where-my-life-is-part-1.html

That didn't help, and Haley's symptoms have been worsening to the point where she has had two fainting spells that resulted in ER trips. They don't know what is wrong, but it is not Lyme disease.

stopandsmelltheroseshere.blogspot.com/2013/12/where-my-life-is-part-2.html

I hope that Haley gets better, and that Cheryl stops trying to diagnose her and treat her with snake oil. (This came after I read about how Chronic Lyme disease does not exist, according to mainstream medicine.)

[PennySycamore]

Yeah, mainstream medicine is pretty skeptical of Chronic Lyme disease. The CDC says that what these small number of patients have is more properly called Post-Lyme disease syndrome.

If Cheryl's daughter did have Lyme disease, then she'd need to be on a course of a good strong no-nonsense expensive antibiotic, doxycycline. There are a few other antibiotics that can be used, but doxycycline is the preferred antibiotic.

[DarkAnts]

Why is lyme disease a fad disease? I remember when everyone supposedly had intestinal worms, now its lyme disease. WTF?!!

[browngrl]

I am not at all certain because the only medical information I have is from the blog of what sounds like a very young girl. So take this with a grain of salt...but my spidey sense is tickling. Her story of vague symptoms that have been assessed by 3 (two ER docs and a family doctor) doctors with no hard findings other than a low vit D level makes me wonder if there is a psychosocial component to her illness. Her symptoms just make me think "what else is going on in her life". If she were my patient I would of course do a through medical exam but then I would sit back and ask her what else was going on in her life/ask about depression/stress etc. Fundies always think they can pray any psychological issues away or they refuse to even consider psychiatric illness to be a real and valid diagnosis so I am concerned for this girl. I hope she gets the care she needs.

[salex]

Why is lyme disease a fad disease? I remember when everyone supposedly had intestinal worms, now its lyme disease. WTF?!!

Any disease that may have an assortment of symptoms and may be hard to diagnose can become the disease du jour for people who are self diagnosing. I would not wish real lyme disease on anyone, as a business associate, who works in health care, was deathly sick with it for some time. But he didnt rely on burning sage, prayer andessential oils for his treatments.

[GeoBQn]

Can psychosomatic problems produce fainting? I have anxiety problems and tend to be a hypochondriac, but the 4 times in my life I fainted it had a physical source. I was sick each time, and I had either just taken a really hot shower or I had just had diarrhea after not eating much all day. With the family's love of juice fasts, I wouldn't be surprised if some of her problems were related to that.

[mockingbird]

Can psychosomatic problems produce fainting? I have anxiety problems and tend to be a hypochondriac, but the 4 times in my life I fainted it had a physical source. I was sick each time, and I had either just taken a really hot shower or I had just had diarrhea after not eating much all day. With the family's love of juice fasts, I wouldn't be surprised if some of her problems were related to that.

It could probably happen with conversion disorder. That's the one you see on TV where people are suddenly in a coma or paralyzed but they can't find any physical cause. It can also cause things like seizures. The juice fasts would probably fit fainting too, though.

[GeoBQn]

Updating because Haley had extensive blood tests. She doesn't say where she got the tests done, but her list of issues found in the tests raise a lot of pseudoscience red flags, including "hidden heavy metals in my body" and "the beginnings of Leaky Gut Syndrome."

stopandsmelltheroseshere.blogspot.com/2014/04/off-couch.html

[louisa05]

Never mind the whole health thing...

A covenant ceremony exchanging vows with daddy???? WTF????

I assume I missed previous discussion of this????

That is so many kinds of messed up emotional incest, enmeshment, codependency, and complete dysfunction...I just can't.

[GiGi_41]

It cracks me up when human medicine says doxycycline is expensive...we use it in vet med cause it's cheap!

[SunnyAndrsn]

Updating because Haley had extensive blood tests. She doesn't say where she got the tests done, but her list of issues found in the tests raise a lot of pseudoscience red flags, including "hidden heavy metals in my body" and "the beginnings of Leaky Gut Syndrome."

stopandsmelltheroseshere.blogspot.com/2014/04/off-couch.html

Could be a functional medicine and a naturpath type clinic.

[SunnyAndrsn]

It cracks me up when human medicine says doxycycline is expensive...we use it in vet med cause it's cheap!

It's cheap in human medicine too. It's on the $4 list at Wal Mart.

When my dog caught giardia, he was put on flagyl. The vet apologized for the cost--it was about $18 for the course. It's also on the $4 list at Wal Mart.

[Coconut Flan]

Some of the pharmacists at Wal Mart will give you the $4 for pet prescriptions.

[halfheartedheroine]

It's cheap in human medicine too. It's on the $4 list at Wal Mart.

When my dog caught giardia, he was put on flagyl. The vet apologized for the cost--it was about $18 for the course. It's also on the $4 list at Wal Mart.

For a little while in 2013 in the US, something happened with the availability of doxycycline, and while it was originally on the $4 list at Walmart, I think a 30-pill supply shot up to about $100 for a while, if I recall the angry yelling customer phone calls correctly. The CDC's website says it's been resolved with a 'limited supply' in October 2013 and it looks like its back on the list at Walmart again (I thought maybe they'd be working their way down from $100+ but I guess not?). cdc.gov/std/treatment/doxycyclineShortage.htm

[Megan]

My vet writes out prescriptions for the $4 WalMart prescriptions if asked. Worth considering if you have a pet on any meds also used for people. It is hilarious to get pill bottles written for "Fluffy/Fido/stereotypical-pet-name [lastname]".

[AnnieC 305]

You know, at one point I had all of her symptoms, and many of her diagnoses as well. These days I'm relatively healthy.

How did I fix it?

1 - Stop eating processed crap

2- Started eating healthy, whole, mostly organic foods.

3- Cut out the gluten (YMMV there, but it helped me)

4- Cut out the shellfish (I love it, it hates me)

5- Made sure I was eating enough calories (chronic dieting= hypoglycemia for me= fainting spells. Hello) but not too many

6- Started slowly easing in to an exercise program

7- Started on actual medication (not supplements) to correct hormone imbalances due to a damaged pituitary gland caused by a car accident many years ago.

8- Got all the stressful toxic people out of my life.

9- Got therapy

Now for the kicker

9- Became an Atheist

No, really. When I stopped waiting for God to magically solve all my problems and took control of my own life everything else started falling in line.

Didn't happen overnight but after a few years of it now I feel fantastic. I hope she sorts it out soon.

[Clementine]

I am not at all certain because the only medical information I have is from the blog of what sounds like a very young girl. So take this with a grain of salt...but my spidey sense is tickling. Her story of vague symptoms that have been assessed by 3 (two ER docs and a family doctor) doctors with no hard findings other than a low vit D level makes me wonder if there is a psychosocial component to her illness. Her symptoms just make me think "what else is going on in her life". If she were my patient I would of course do a through medical exam but then I would sit back and ask her what else was going on in her life/ask about depression/stress etc. Fundies always think they can pray any psychological issues away or they refuse to even consider psychiatric illness to be a real and valid diagnosis so I am concerned for this girl. I hope she gets the care she needs.

+1. Her symptoms made me think about a burn out depression, possibly with a combination of panic attacks.

How old is she? This sounds like a rather daunting task for a teenager:

My life was running good for a couple of months. I settled into being a piano teacher to sixteen students.

This too makes me wonder if she suffers from burn out depression or exthaustion:

I got weak easily, and required a ton of sleep. Again, not normal for me. I love seeing how little sleep I can get by on.

[Sumeri]

Haley's symptoms sound like anxiety and panic to me. The shaking and shortness of breath and "feeling weird" that are helped by getting out of that meeting room? Yes.

Sounds to me like she might need to address those problems, and then they can look at what *might* be going on physically. I wish her well. I've been there and panic attacks are awful.

[SunnyAndrsn]

Some of the pharmacists at Wal Mart will give you the $4 for pet prescriptions.

Yes, I thought about going there, but I had a very sick dog who I'd been up with all night in the car, and going to Wal-Mart involved another stop, in another town. He had giardia, and explosive diarrhea is very unpredictable. I just wanted to get him home before he crapped in the car. My house smelled like a dirty animal shelter, and I had carpets, walls, and furniture to finish cleaning. It had been a very, very long night.

[SunnyAndrsn]

For a little while in 2013 in the US, something happened with the availability of doxycycline, and while it was originally on the $4 list at Walmart, I think a 30-pill supply shot up to about $100 for a while, if I recall the angry yelling customer phone calls correctly. The CDC's website says it's been resolved with a 'limited supply' in October 2013 and it looks like its back on the list at Walmart again (I thought maybe they'd be working their way down from $100+ but I guess not?). cdc.gov/std/treatment/doxycyclineShortage.htm

Holy crap! Then again, if I was sick with Lyme Disease, I wouldn't hesitate to spend that for myself or my loved ones. Heck, DH and I just got into it because he thinks $90 for his crestor is ridiculous. I told him to take it or he'd be on the wrong side of a hissy fit. He's a diabetic and has genetics working against him with cholesterol management. I'd rather spend the $90/month then have him die of a heart attack.