Question
Hi Nell,
other infections often accompany the Epstein Barr virus .
Not only can EBV knock the he_l out of you for months,
you can also have a hidden infection that is not so obvious when you are slowly recovering.
I hope this clarifies sufficiently..
Ron... covering all the bases if I can
[This message has been edited by moderator1 (edited 06-21-2003).]

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Hi all! Thanks so much for all of your concern. I have got a very complex, detailed medical, history. Nobody can seem to put the pieces together to find a link between anything, or a cause for my various illnesses. I'll give you a rundown of my history, maybe you guys can come up with something!
Ever since I was a child, I have been sick. I had very bad yeast problems, resulting in chronic yeast infections. I also had chronic bladder infections. It turns out that I was allergic to a lot of foods (more about my allergies later!). My allergist thought that there were other reasons for my being sick, so he ran all sorts of blood tests, including thyroid tests, as recently as last year. As a child, my immune system was very weak and I had to get Gammo-Globulin shots to boost my immunity.
Now, as an adult, I still have several medical problems. I have acid reflux disease, and I had gallbladder problems until it was removed almost 1 month ago. When they did an ultrasound of my GB, they found that I also have an enlarged liver, probably because of the GB problems. I was hospitalized because of high liver function tests due to my GB not functioning properly. My dr just did a follow-up blood test, and we're waiting for the results.
I have sinus problems, and had a polyp removed from my sinuses when I was 12.
I have had my thyroid function tested several times, all came back normal. I was kinda wishing that it would come back with some sort of abnormal findings so that I could get on some medicine. My doctor even tried me on a low dose of a thyroid medication a few years ago to see if it would make a difference, but it didn't.
I also have irritable bowel syndrome. I was also very recently diagnosed with high blood pressure.
I also did the carb free diet for a while too. My allergist put me on it because his reasoning was that I may have possibly been allergic to some of the foods that I was eating. So for about 1 1/2-2 months I ate no carbs other than rice. I ate a lot of protein. I had absolutely no sugar, artificial sweetners, etc... I still had all of my symptoms while I was on this diet. What concerns me is that I was on the high protein diet until december 2002. January 1, 2003 I was in the ER with my first ever gallbladder attack. The gallbladder problems seemed to coincide with the fact that I was eating so much more meat and protein. I didn't feel well at all when I was on the diet. Not GB problems, but just general stomach problems. Could a high protein diet cause gallbladder problems? It occured very shortly after the diet. (granted, I was also eating a lot of fatty meats, and the fat also contributed to it.)
As far as diabetes, I was given a 5 hour glucose tolerance test about 6 years ago. We discovered that I am slightly hypoglycemic. I have low blood sugar. But since discovering that, I just make sure to always have a snack with me. I do check my blood sugar from time to time if I ever don't feel well, and if anything it is usually on the low side. So I'm not diabetic.
As a young teenager, they suspected that I may have had Epstein-Barr or Chronic Fatigue Syndrome, although I never had mono. But this was when these diseases were first being discovered and there was still a lot of controversy surrounding them (a lot of people, doctors included, thought that they are just made up diseases for people who are tired and lazy.) I never got a definite diagnosis, and I haven't been tested in years. Do you think I should get tested again?
Now the theory is that I have got Sjogren's Syndrome. That's an auto-immune disorder which attacks the moisture producing glands. I have very severely dry eyes, to the point that my ophthalmologist had to cauterize (permanently close) all 4 of my tear drainage ducts. I get very very cold hands and feet. My hands sometimes turn purple. They think I have Reynauds Phenomena, which is also rheumatologic and can be linked to Sjogren's.
I have also got very bad allergies. I was born with several food and environmental allergies. I outgrew the food allergies when I became a teenager. I have been retested since then. However, my environmental allergies are still very bad.
We think that the allergies, combined with the possibility that I have got Sjogren's syndrome, is what is causing my severe eye problems. I will be seeing a doctor who specializes in allergy/immunology/rheumatology, but I have to wait until the end of August. He is a "super-specialist". He's the head of the department of allergy and immunology at one of the major hospitals. He'll be the one to tell me if I have definitely got some sort of rheumatological disorder. A few months ago my PCP ran some blood tests and it came back with an elevated LDH. So he sent me to a local rheumatologist. This dr said that there could be a hundred reasons for that, and he wasn't going to test me for every single possible cause, and he left it at that. Now I have got to wait until I see the new dr in August, because my PCP syas it is really a case for a rhematologist, and he was annoyed that the other guy wouldn't do anything for me.
We know that I do have some sort of hormone problems as well. I have got some hair on my face (not very noticeable) and a little bit on my chest as well, which is not normal for a woman. I also get very very heavy, irregular periods and I am on Birth Control Pills to regulate it.
Nobody had ever found a clear link between any of these problems. My OB-GYN thinks that there is some sort of link somewhere, since I have been sick ever since childhood. But none of the blood tests come back positive for something or show any sort of abnormalities. The Sjogrens test (the first one that I had) showed borderline results. It is possible that I could have it. Since Sjogren's anti-bodies can sometimes change, I had the test repeated. This time it came back normal. But the rheumatologist said that the only way to really tell is to have a lip biopsy to analyze my saliva, and even if that comes back negative, I could still have it anyway. The tests aren't conclusive.
We are thinking that the sjogrens syndrome may have something to do with hormones, since there is such a thing as "androgen deficient sjogrens". Nobody has tested my androgen levels yet. But they will.
That's about all I can think of for now.... It's enough, isn't it?
So if anybody has any clue as to something that might be linking all of these medical problems, or what might be causing this, I am ready and willing to listen! It seems that every few years I develop a new medical problem!
Oh, and yes, I have been checked for Polycystic ovaries. That was the first thing my OB-GYN thought of when I told her I was having bad periods, and when I told her about all my other medical problems. I had an ultrasound for that. It was perfectly normal.
Thanks again for all the concern.
Elyse

[This message has been edited by purple2067 (edited 06-13-2003).]

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hereubb/smile.gif

So if anybody has any clue as to something that might be linking all of these medical problems, or what might be causing this, I am ready and willing to listen! It seems that every few years I develop a new medical problem!
Oh, and yes, I have been checked for Polycystic ovaries. That was the first thing my OB-GYN thought of when I told her I was having bad periods, and when I told her about all my other medical problems. I had an ultrasound for that. It was perfectly normal.
Thanks again for all the concern.
So if anybody has any clue as to something that might be linking all of these medical problems, or what might be causing this, I am ready and willing to listen! It seems that every few years I develop a new medical problem!
Oh, and yes, I have been checked for Polycystic ovaries. That was the first thing my OB-GYN thought of when I told her I was having bad periods, and when I told her about all my other medical problems. I had an ultrasound for that. It was perfectly normal.
Thanks again for all the concern.
Elyse

[This message has been edited by purple2067 (edited 06-13-2003).]

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hereubb/smile.gif

Elyse

Elyse

[This message has been edited by purple2067 (edited 06-13-2003).]

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hereubb/heart.gif
[This message has been edited by purple2067 (edited 06-13-2003).]

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The article about the Epstein-Barr Virus and the tonsils interested me. I still have my tonsils. I don't generally get a lot of throat infections such as tonsillitis or strep. I had strep for the first time ever in my life, this year. However, what I do get is this: I get several sinus infections and upper respiratory infections per year. I also get small white spots on my tonsils. This is not really a bacterial infection because they generally go away on their own. But when I have them, my throat is pretty sore. They usually last 2 or 3 days, and I get them a few times a year. If they ever last for more than that, I go to the dr. Occasionally they give me anti-biotics if they don't go away on their own. Does this sound like it could be related to Epstein-Barr? For years I have been trying to figure out what is causing these spots. (I've also got upper respiratory allergies, for which I receive allergy shots.)

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It sounds like your thyroid, you have many of the symptoms. I would get your lab report on the thyroid test and the ranges. The ranges have changed since Mar 03. They are now .03-3.0. Many labs still use the old ranges. See where you fell. You want to post the results as you may get more input but that is up to you. Also look on the thyroid board and look at all of the symptoms. Were you feed soy baby formula? I would also suggest you eliminate all soy from your diet.

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Wow, that's a lot of information to absorb.
First, let me respond to girlygirly by saying that as a child, I was allergic to soy, among many other things. I was also allergic to milk. (what on earth did my parents feed me as a baby?)
Ron, as for the gallbladder, for a few weeks prior to my first attack, I had been awakening in the mornings with some gas. That was it. Nothing abnormal. Ever since I was diagnosed with gallbladder problems, I really watched my fat intake. I ate nothing fried, nothing greasy, no fatty meats, etc... I did eat cheese and ice cream though. But again, I really tried to limit it. So far I do not have the bile salts diahrrea. My primary care doc is also a GI specialist, so he has been keeping a close eye on me.
The diet that I was on was MUCH more restrictive than the Atkins diet. I was not allowed any cheese, and only very few meats, and zero carbs. I was completely, 100% miserable. I will NEVER do it again. I felt much sicked while I was on it. My blood sugar used to drop down to the low fifties, no matter how much protein I ate. Sure, I lost weight on it, but that wasn't even the reason I was doing it. We were trying to see if eliminating carbs would make me feel better physically. It made me feel much worse, and my eye problems never got any better like we had hoped the would on this diet.
I don't know exactly what my last cholesterol level was, but my dr does test it every year when he does a physical on me. It was completely within the normal range. I don't think he ever did the A1C, but I will ask him about it. Like I said, I have had my thyroid functions tested several times throughout my life, and they were always well within normal range. But I'll inquire about it again, now that the norms have changed. I also neglected to mention that when we tested my temperature (for 10 minutes under the arm immediately upon awakening in the morning), it was usually low (maybe around 97.0 or a little higher, but never close to normal.) That was the reason that we had tried thyroid meds, but they never helped anything and only made me feel sicker. I think I was on Armor (sp?).
I am probably going to print out all of the information that you gave me to bring it with me to my next drs appointment. My ophthalmologist is much more open to suggestions than my other doctors, and he is willing to listen to anything that I have to say. So I think I am going to run all of this by him first and see what he thinks about it possibly being thyroid problems causing my dry eyes. Now I also have to mention that we are not even sure that it is Sjogrens. The bloodwork never came back positive. Also, I have got enough tears in my eyes, but the reason my eyes are dry is because the quality is very poor. I am lacking the essential oil that is needed to make the tears stay on the eyeball. I am taking flaxseed oil and the nutritional supplement "TheraTears Nutrition" to help with that.