No response to Cat's Claw?

[GraceUnderPressure]

DS19's visit to Missouri LLMD is Oct 11th. We are trying to hang on and just do what we can till then.

I am puzzled at this point.

 

DS was solidly positive for Lyme, but no co-infections with Igenex testing. I realize that's not definitive though.

 

We have had our most striking positives with the herb Lomatium.

Stomach got upset with Augmentin & then later doxycycline and with his issues, there was no way we could try to stay on it to see if his system would adjust.

Zithromax has helped some, and it is noticeable when he goes off of it, but maybe only about 5 to 10% improvement.

Dr. tried adding clindamycin - saw no effect one way or the other.

We tried Cat's Claw for a month - no effect.

Now we've been on Flagyl for 2 weeks - no effect.

 

In the midst of the Flagyl trial, we had ragweed season start and we've had the smoke particulates from the various wildfires around Houston in the air & we are seeing a repeat of his very bad symptoms that showed up at about this same time last year (though thanks God they are not quite as severe).

 

Clearly, his body is dealing with more than Lyme, but I am wondering if Lyme is just sort of like background noise for his system, and we still haven't hit upon the main culprit.

 

We are still trying to clean up our house from the mold that we found under the kitchen sink back in June so it is possible that the main culprit is mold allergy. I was making some headway, but with school having started, things are backsliding in the kitchen & bathrooms. Wish we could afford someone to come in & clean from top to bottom. Haven't pulled out the mold affected cabinet boards yet - afraid of making things worse by exposing what's behind them when we don't have the resources to do anything with it - but I keep spraying it down with bleach regularly (about every other day). I'm thinking of pouring enough bleach to soak the areas under & behind the cabinet, but I am worried about the fumes (we're still having 100+ degree days here - opening the windows long enough to air it out is not really an option) DH says we will have to wait till our tax return to afford anything professionally done.

 

I'm praying that we're not wasting our money going to the LLMD when we haven't tackled this yet, but if we use our money to clean up the mold, we won't have it for the LLMD visit - and vice versa.

 

Still, I would've thought we'd have seen more improvement than what we're seeing by reducing the number of things his immune system is having to deal with.

 

Opinions or advice about any part of this situation?

[Suzan]

Hi, sounds like the mold is an issue but I don't know too much about it. You did remind me of my dd8 who has not had much reaction to her tretament. I am treating her for KPU with the CORE treatment plan for zinc deficiency. This has showed us the most herxing from her that she has ever shown (which still is not a lot compared to others) but also improvement in her overall status. Not sure if it could be an issue at your house but worth mentioning. If you google kpu/hpu Klinghardt you will find his video and an article about it.

 

HUGS and good luck.

[JuliaFaith]

Mold was part of the issue for my ds13 as well. We did a top-to-bottom cleaning only because we had removed mold in the past and wanted to make sure there was no cross-contamination when removed originally. Dr. said even past exposure to mold could be either all or part of the mold issues problem. He attended school in a portable for 6 yrs. which could have had mold issues.

 

We have carefully removed a few small spots of mold (enclosed area etc.) as we have remodeled our upstairs. My dh has done most of the work and we are finally seeing the light at the end of the tunnel. Dr. said that she would enclose the mold instead of removing it but we did not like that idea. Is there some way to 'plastic off' the mold until you can get it out? There is a book on Amazon, I believe, on doing mold removal yourself. Mostly, plastic off area, wear a HEPA mask, and treat the item removed as toxic (enclose it in something before removing to outside). Afterwards, wipe down and vacuum (with HEPA vacuum) walls etc. This has not been an easy task by any means. We are so tired of doing this , but have a mold-free (as much as possible) and was able to get rid of lots of extra things. We are planning on the doing the ERMI test again in a few months to see if mold is down to a low level.

 

We also have added a HEPA air cleaner in son's room and a propolis diffuser in the family room. Also, Dr. said outside air would be the best thing beyond these.

 

Ds is also detoxing with chlorella/salmon oil. 20-chlorella/3-salmon oil 3 times a day before meals. He has been on a fungal prescription med. for at least 6 mos. too.

 

Sounds like you have been working on the getting rid of the mold. The big thing is getting rid/away from mold so healing can happen.

 

If you think something may be a problem, it probably is. Best wishes on working towards recovery and following your intuition on figuring out all the pieces of the puzzle.

[sptcmom]

DS19's visit to Missouri LLMD is Oct 11th. We are trying to hang on and just do what we can till then.

I am puzzled at this point.

 

DS was solidly positive for Lyme, but no co-infections with Igenex testing. I realize that's not definitive though.

 

We have had our most striking positives with the herb Lomatium.

Stomach got upset with Augmentin & then later doxycycline and with his issues, there was no way we could try to stay on it to see if his system would adjust.

Zithromax has helped some, and it is noticeable when he goes off of it, but maybe only about 5 to 10% improvement.

Dr. tried adding clindamycin - saw no effect one way or the other.

We tried Cat's Claw for a month - no effect.

Now we've been on Flagyl for 2 weeks - no effect.

 

In the midst of the Flagyl trial, we had ragweed season start and we've had the smoke particulates from the various wildfires around Houston in the air & we are seeing a repeat of his very bad symptoms that showed up at about this same time last year (though thanks God they are not quite as severe).

 

Clearly, his body is dealing with more than Lyme, but I am wondering if Lyme is just sort of like background noise for his system, and we still haven't hit upon the main culprit.

 

We are still trying to clean up our house from the mold that we found under the kitchen sink back in June so it is possible that the main culprit is mold allergy. I was making some headway, but with school having started, things are backsliding in the kitchen & bathrooms. Wish we could afford someone to come in & clean from top to bottom. Haven't pulled out the mold affected cabinet boards yet - afraid of making things worse by exposing what's behind them when we don't have the resources to do anything with it - but I keep spraying it down with bleach regularly (about every other day). I'm thinking of pouring enough bleach to soak the areas under & behind the cabinet, but I am worried about the fumes (we're still having 100+ degree days here - opening the windows long enough to air it out is not really an option) DH says we will have to wait till our tax return to afford anything professionally done.

 

I'm praying that we're not wasting our money going to the LLMD when we haven't tackled this yet, but if we use our money to clean up the mold, we won't have it for the LLMD visit - and vice versa.

 

Still, I would've thought we'd have seen more improvement than what we're seeing by reducing the number of things his immune system is having to deal with.

 

Opinions or advice about any part of this situation?

 

Hi

You mention cabinets. If these are wood cabinets, Please do keep in mind that bleach will NOT kill mold on some surfaces like wood, drywall etc. here is alink you can read

 

http://blackmold.awardspace.com/kill-remove-mold.html

 

What about home owner's insurance for mold remediation? In our area they will pay for the whole thing if documented correctly.

 

Now, the way I see it is the treatments are not reaching the microbes. There could be an issue with biofilm, yeast, mold, KPU and just the fact that most of your son's microbes are intracellular and the pathways are blocked with toxins so the meds cannot reach. Sometimes inadequate hydration will do the same.

So you have a few things to look at.

There are a lot of noce posts on mold and mold testing here on the forums. If you can search for those you will get a list of the Shoemaker panel of tests that maybe your LLMD can run so you know how much of a role mold is playing for your son.

[LNN]

The Shoemaker info can be found here:

http://www.survivingmold.com/diagnosis/the-biotoxin-pathway

 

and the same info presented here - but I found it easier to understand

 

http://www.publichealthalert.org/Articles/scottforsgren/biotoxin%20pathway.html

 

Here is a very long but comprehensive discussion on biofilms:

http://bacteriality.com/2008/05/26/biofilm/

It's a little overwhelming - maybe read the first few paragraphs then scroll down to "biofilms and disease" about 1/4 of the page down.