Posted by bleauberry on April 7, 2009, at 17:48:49
This is a tough one. I doubt even a Neurologist could figure this out. It would probably take accumulated knowledge of psychiatry, neurology, physiology, and immunology, to make sense of it. I'm not expecting any breakthroughs here, but ya know, it has happened before, so I'm not ruling anything out. My friends, tell me what you think.
The major hurdle I face with any treatment that has me feeling better mentally is....debilitating calf muscle pain to where I can barely walk.
What does it feel like? Imagine someone beating the backside of your lower legs with a baseball bat hard enough to almost break bones, for a good while, and then imagine what those legs would feel like when you stand up out of bed the next day.
What has worked for my mood improvement?
DMSA (lead/mercury chelator): Reliably, day 2 through 4 at just 12.5mg/4 hours is near total remission. Then the calf tightness, hardness, pain, kicks in.Parnate: Believe it or not, a mere 2.5mg daily, or just 5mg once every 3 days, is about a 60% improvement quite pronounced by day 3. Then the calf troubles hit hard, real hard.
SAMe: At 200mg to 400mg per day, rapid improvement, with rapidly progressing calf disability.
B Vitamin Complex: Same thing as SAMe.
What seems to be beneficial for the legs, but not for mood?
St Johns Wort
Wellbutrin
CymbaltaBut, when those are stopped due to severely deteriorated psychiatric condition, the leg pains kick in to almost incapacitating, and slowly subside over about a week.
These pains do not exist at baseline.
With the exception of the B vitamins, what do all the others have in common?
Sulfur.
When this first happened, I though maybe it was a form of neuroleptic malignant syndrome, even though no neuroleptic in the mix. But the big question, why just the calves?
Lots of meds have "muscle rigidity" listed as a side effect. But, why just the calf muscles and nothing else?
I have wondered maybe if it was too much epinephrine or norepinephrine constricting muscles...but if so, again, why just the calf muscles?
Very perplexing. Ya know, I could be well on my way to a new life with Parnate. But it aint much good if one can't walk?
What is this? Does my suspicion to sulfur ring a bell with anyone? Is this a dopamine thing?
Of course, with Lyme disease, who knows what neurological stuff is going on. Quite unique from person to person.
And with confirmed hypoadrenalism, maybe low cortisol is somehow behind all the bizarre stuff.
Your thoughts?
poster:bleauberry
thread:889280
URL: http://www.dr-bob.org/babble/20090330/msgs/889280.html