mononucleosis

Mononucleosis, the Epstein Barr Virus, and Thiamine

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Mononucleosis, also known as “kissing disease”, is an infectious disease that most commonly occurs between 15 and 24 years of age. The Epstein-Barr virus (EBV) appears to be responsible but EBV infections are often asymptomatic while some individuals present with the disease. It should be suspected in patients presenting with a sore throat, fever, tonsillar enlargement, fatigue lymphadenopathy (swollen glands in the neck), pharyngeal inflammation, and palatal petechiae (tiny spots of bleeding on the palate). An antibody test is the best initial test for diagnosis with 71 to 80% accuracy. But it has a 25% false-negative rate in the first week of the illness. The illness is unlikely if the lymphocyte count (white cells) is less than 4000 mm3. The presence of antibodies confirms infection but the test is more costly and results take longer. Symptomatic relief is the mainstay of treatment because there is no specific medication that is effective. Rupture of the spleen is an uncommon complication and children are at the highest risk of airway obstruction which is the most common cause of hospitalization from this disease.

To determine the appropriate management of the active individual with infectious mononucleosis, including the problem of diagnosis, determination of an enlarged spleen, and the relationship of chronic fatigue syndrome, creates a risk of exercise at various points in the disease process. Clinical diagnosis of this disease is unreliable and estimates of spleen enlargement are fallible. As mentioned above, the main risks to the athlete are spontaneous rupture of the spleen, signaled by acute abdominal pain, and progression of chronic fatigue. A full recovery of athletic performance is usual within 2 to 3 months of conservative management. Long-term risks to the health of athletes are few.

A total of 200 adolescents, 12-20 years old with acute EBV infection were assessed for possible baseline predictors of long-term chronic fatigue and followed prospectively. Six months after the infection, fatigue was significantly marked by the following associated symptoms; sensory sensitivity, pain severity, functional impairment, negative emotions (anxiety), and verbal memory (correct word recognition). Data are presented on 14 patients with chronic symptoms of disabling fatigue with serologic evidence of active EBV infection.

Personal Experience Treating Mononucleosis

I have posted this experience previously but it bears repeating. My granddaughter came home from school and left with some friends to go white water rafting. She fell in the water and when she got home her fatigue was so great that she went to bed and reportedly “could barely raise her head from the pillow”. Her mother, a nurse, took her to the University hospital where a diagnosis of mononucleosis was made. I do not know what clinical or laboratory markers were used to make the diagnosis. However, I persuaded her parents to bring her to my office where I gave her nutrients intravenously. She quickly returned to school with no fatigue or other symptoms. I cannot claim that the diagnosis was or was not accurate but the fatigue, a salient symptom offered by my granddaughter, had disappeared. I will try to give an explanation below. Surely, if the symptom of fatigue was caused by the effect of the EBV virus, there had to be another factor that assisted the virulence of the virus.

It has become evident to me that naming various diseases is much like mixing apples and oranges. For example, chronic fatigue syndrome (CFS), postural orthostatic tachycardia syndrome (POTS), and mononucleosis all have the same symptoms. They are frequently reported in the medical literature as two or even three diseases, occurring in combination in one individual. The causative agent in mononucleosis is regarded as the Epstein-Barr virus. However, it has been found that this virus can be completely asymptomatic and is found in approximately 90% of the public at various times in life.

A Possible Connection With COVID

It certainly reminds us of a similar situation with Covid-19. We know that this can be asymptomatic or lethal and the only way that this can be explained is by invoking the natural immune defenses of each individual infected. It most sincerely reminds us of the work of Hans Selye who concluded that human diseases were each an example of what he called “the diseases of adaptation”. What he meant by that was that an individual who was attacked by a microorganism was required to muster a significant amount of cellular energy in the organization of defense (immunity).

Fatigue: A Key Indicator of Thiamine Deficiency

I came across an old edition of National Geographic and was intrigued by some text in a section under the heading of “A World of Pain”. In it, “a gentleman by the name of Norris leads a meeting of a support group that he helped found a few years ago through the American Chronic Pain Association” with a goal for informal group therapy by discussion. The group consisted of 10 individuals. One member suffered from severe abdominal pain “that doctors haven’t been able to diagnose” and a woman said that “she suffered from fibromyalgia and complex regional pain syndrome among other issues”. My interest lies in the fact that abdominal pain is a well-known symptom in the vitamin B1 deficiency disease beriberi, by no means pathognomonic but an interesting symptom in view of a comprehensive concept of energy metabolism. Patients with fibromyalgia had higher lactate levels compared to migraine and a control group without recognizing a connection with thiamine deficiency, in spite of the fact that magnesium was found to be analgesic and is a cofactor with thiamine in all its reactions.

From a philosophical point of view, repetition may or may not influence a reader positively. It might well engender a concept that the writer, because of his essential repetitiveness, is overly influenced by his subject, engendering in some readers a sense of disbelief. Without any positive association, I must remind readers that Einstein was completely absorbed by his mathematical equations in dealing with a completely new idea in science. In my view, the idea of energy deficiency in a person’s ability to adapt to a serious form of stress such as an infection creates a logical sense of reality in explaining the variability and similarity of disease expression. If we regard the illness as evidence of a defensive war, the obvious next step is to try to find ways and means of helping this defense. There seems to be only one way of doing this and that is by using the art and science of nutritional elements. Because thiamine and magnesium stand at the very head of energy production, they both become essential ingredients of treatment for any disease. Perhaps that is why I found that an infusion of intravenous vitamins successfully treated virtually any patient that consulted me, regardless of the diagnosis

My research with tetrahydrofurfuryl disulfide (TTFD) has suggested that Mother Nature may well have supplied a curative agent for virtually any illness afflicting mankind, including mononucleosis. TTFD is the synthetic counterpart of allithiamine found in garlic and other members of the allium species. If lack of energy is indeed the cause of any disease as suggested by Selye, then TTFD would be a logical treatment since we have evidence that it is capable of stimulating energy metabolism.

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This article was published originally on November 3, 2020. 

More Thoughts on Thiamine Deficiency

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Thiamine Dependency and Intermittent Ataxia

Readers of this blog will recognize that there are many posts concerned with thiamine deficiency and that is associated with a huge number of symptoms. I want to use this post to illustrate the difficulties experienced by a boy whose thiamine deficiency was proved. His case was written up in the medical literature because it was the first example of thiamine “dependency“. That meant that he was required to take massive doses of the vitamin in order to prevent intermittent recurrences of the brain disease known as cerebellar ataxia. Curiously, each episode was self-limiting, but as they recurred, each one left him with a little bit more brain effect. It was this case that forced me to devote myself to library study and change in medical practice throughout the remaining years before my retirement.

Although this boy’s problem was an example of a condition, thought to be extremely rare, it illustrated the kind of medical problems that occur as a result of dietary deficiency. In fact, I have come to the conclusion that prolonged dietary deficiency of this vitamin will make it difficult to restore health by its administration as a supplement. The enzymes in the body that require it seem to degenerate over time if the deficiency persists. Huge doses are required and it is not a simple vitamin replacement. We are using the vitamin as a drug in an attempt to coerce the enzymes back into a healthy state. We know from the history of beriberi, the traditional vitamin B1 deficiency disease, that large doses of the vitamin were required to restore health.

This case was reported in 1969 and the last time that I saw him was in the 70s. He had grown into a handsome boy with a marvelous personality. For example, he cut the grass for the neighbors without charging them and his customers were delighted with him on his paper route. This escape from a potentially lethal disease by the use of what might be called a megadose of vitamin B1 was incredibly impressive to me, making me wonder whether a healthy dose would benefit everyone. Is the modern diet so artificial that vitamin deficiency is common, in spite of their enrichment by the food industry?

I recorded the fact that the family had visited Florida. While they were in a store that was cooler than the outside temperature, it was without air conditioning and John became suddenly unconscious and was taken to an emergency room where his examination proved to be quite normal. On the following day, he went from a 95° temperature into a store with an estimated air-conditioned temperature of 60 to 65°. He immediately experienced difficulty in breathing and produced a kind of strident asthma that was self-limiting. He was again taken to the emergency room where his examination once again proved to be quite normal. The diagnosis given at the time was that it was due to “nerves”. A similar episode occurred on the way home when the air-conditioning was put on in the car. Note that an environmental temperature difference was enough for him to lose consciousness on one occasion and produce asthmatic breathing in another similar situation. He had never been known to experience asthmatic breathing previously. One can readily see that he would be a complete mystery to the doctors in the emergency rooms to which he was taken.

My interpretation would be as follows: as repeatedly pointed out in various posts on this website, his brain had an energy problem from the poor association of thiamine with its energy enabling enzymes and the stress of a sudden change in temperature, requiring an energy surge to adapt, could not be met. The energy deficiency affected the functions of the brain, causing syncope in one example and asthma in another. The diversity of this response illustrates the fact that different parts of the brain can be affected by the overall deficiency, perhaps even on a day to day basis. It is not surprising that such episodes are a diagnostic problem for ER physicians or any physician for that matter.

Syncope and Sudden Death

A very common incident occurring in dietary deficient people is a sudden fainting attack, known as a syncope. They invariably wind up in the ER where it is usually written off as being due to “nerves”. It is impossible to understand this without knowing the chemistry involved. It reminds me of two siblings, a boy and a girl, both of whom had been surviving on a junk-filled diet. The girl was a champion swimmer and was practicing one day by swimming laps. She swam the last lap, touched the pool wall and remained still. When she didn’t start to climb out of the pool, someone investigated and found that she had evidently died as she touched the pool wall. Her brother had been climbing ropes in a gymnasium. After he came down from a climb, he passed out and was taken to a hospital where he received intravenous fluids. It was recorded that he had 11 bloodstained bowel movements and expired. Although there was no proof that thiamine deficiency was the cause of death, I would be willing to bet that the fluid given intravenously to the boy was glucose saline and we know that an excess of sugar will seriously precipitate marginal thiamine to a deficiency state that would produce symptoms. It strongly suggests that the death was from thiamine deficiency.

Febrile Lymphadenopathy

In another post, I recorded the history of two boys with recurrent acute febrile lymphadenopathy (fever, swollen neck glands and high-temperature), both of whom responded completely to thiamine supplementation. The story bears repeating. This kind of illness is inevitably thought of as throat infection and treated with an antibiotic. Both boys had a marked increase of folate and vitamin B 12 in their blood that returned to normal levels after thiamine administration. I won’t go into the mechanism but it is interesting to speculate on how often children with a very common condition like this would have a similar underlying cause that would never, under any circumstances in the climate of modern medicine, be considered. The two cases were published in a medical journal but I have never seen a reference to it, probably because it is totally unbelievable.

I kept a diary at the time and want to make a few comments about one of these boys. When the supplemental thiamine was removed to see what would happen, he relapsed about three weeks later. The relapse began with recurrent abdominal pain, irritability, and a return of the fatigue, causing him to nap during the day as he did when he had his recurrent episodes. There were some abnormalities in his blood pressure, which are too technical to describe here. When I stroked the skin of his leg gently, it provoked a white streak that gradually faded, a phenomenon that is associated with abnormal activity of the autonomic nervous system, a system that is inevitably damaged with thiamine deficiency. He had large lymph nodes in his neck and there was an elevation of folate and vitamin B12 measured in his blood. All of this resolved when the thiamine was restored. It is interesting that he had a first cousin who suffered from Hodgkin’s disease, a malignant form of lymphadenopathy. I wondered whether this recurrent swelling of glands was potentially precancerous. From my reading of the vitamin B1 deficiency disease beriberi, I found that swelling of the glands in the neck could be seen in infants dying from the infantile form of the disease and fever was almost always present.

Mononucleosis: A Mistaken diagnosis?

On May 14, 1976, I made a note that we had a new patient admitted under the care of another physician. He had massively swollen lymph glands in his neck and the diagnosis was mononucleosis. The history recorded that his brother had also “died from mononucleosis” the previous April. A biopsy of one of his glands was reported that it was definitely not malignant. His case was discussed among my pediatric colleagues and I asked the responsible physician what he would do if the lymphocytes in the gland were reported as healthy and mature. The answer surprised me because it was obvious that the diagnosis of mononucleosis had been rejected. He stated that the boy would be treated for cancer “but we would soft-pedal it” I found his answer extremely confounding. We were confronted by a familial situation with an unknown diagnosis and yet he was to be treated as though it was known.

This reminded me of a situation that affected one of my granddaughters. She came home from school and went white water rafting with her friends. Evidently she fell in the water and when she got home she was so fatigued that she went to bed. Her mother, who was a university nurse took her to her workplace where a diagnosis of mononucleosis was made. I persuaded my son to bring her to my office where I gave her several infusions of intravenous vitamins. Her response was so good that she was able to return to school well. The obvious question that I asked myself was whether the diagnosis of mononucleosis was valid or whether it was an inappropriate mistake. The reader may or may not know that a diagnosis of mononucleosis, also known as “kissing disease” is associated with extreme fatigue and can prevent the unfortunate adolescent from returning to school sometimes for months. Once again I am confronted with the question, is our present medical model even close to being accurate?

I am reporting actual cases of thiamine deficiency that are a sampling of literally hundreds of similar cases that I encountered over the years. It should not surprise anybody when I question the current medical model for its accuracy and the use of potentially toxic compounds that often make things worse or do little or nothing toward relieving the disease. It is high time for sick people to seek the services provided by Alternative Medicine physicians whose medical societies are known as the American College for the Advancement of Medicine (ACAM) and the International College of Integrated  Medicine (ICIM).

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More people than ever are reading Hormones Matter, a testament to the need for independent voices in health and medicine. We are not funded and accept limited advertising. Unlike many health sites, we don’t force you to purchase a subscription. We believe health information should be open to all. If you read Hormones Matter, like it, please help support it. Contribute now.

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This article was published originally on September 17, 2020. 

A Long and Complicated History Topped by Levaquin: Please Help

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Here is my story from the beginning. Well, not my beginning, but the beginning of what seems to be a downward spiral health wise. Please help us figure this out.

Two Pregnancies and Cervical Cancer

In 1998 at the age of 22, I became pregnant with my first born son. A normal pregnancy and natural delivery. Upon my six week check up after delivery, they found abnormalities in my pap smear. With further investigation, I was diagnosed with cervical cancer. The doctor said it was as if the wallpaper was cancer but the sheet rock and wood was not affected. I had a LEEP procedure that removed the damaged area with a good portion of my cervix. I was advised that if I wanted more children, I should do so within the next two years, because any further complications would mean a hysterectomy.

In 2000, I became pregnant and delivered my second child, a daughter. The pregnancy was a little more complicated. They feared my cervix would not hold well enough to get her to full term. During the pregnancy, I was diagnosed with hypothyroidism, likely due to autoimmune dysfunction. As a child, I developed vitiligo, an autoimmune disorder of the skin.

The birth of my daughter was natural, although she came four weeks early. The doctors were still investigating my thyroid condition and eventually determined that I had a big goiter and thyroid nodules. The endocrinologist said that the nodules were too small to biopsy, and though he could not say positively that they were benign, he thought that they were. I was instructed to just continue with my thyroid replacement hormones.

Endometriosis and Partial Oophorectomy

In 2004, I experienced terrible pain in my pelvic area. All testing came back normal and the doctors originally dismissed my pain. It got so bad that I could not even sit down without terrible pain. The doctor took me in on a emergency basis and an internal ultrasound showed a mass in my pelvic region. My local doctors believed it to be cancer, as it showed all of the characteristics of malignancy. I was sent five hours away to a cancer specialist. They performed an open surgery to explore the area and remove the mass. Pathology showed it to be benign, so they removed my left ovary and tube. I was diagnosed with endometriosis.

Autoimmune Disease

In 2005, I became very ill. It started with what they believed to be an infection. Later, I was diagnosed with mononucleosis. I was told that my Epstein Barr numbers were through the roof. I literally could not get out of bed. My body hurt so bad that moving, other than to get to the bathroom, pretty much did me in for the day. I was placed on a medical leave at work. Blood testing revealed high levels of antinuclear antibody (ANA) in my blood. My local doctor thought that I may have Lupus. I was referred to a rheumatologist who diagnosed me with Fibromyalgia and Chronic Fatigue Syndrome. After six months, I returned to work.

Hysterectomy and Complications

In 2006, after years of suffering with terrible periods and a few more abnormalities on my pap smear, my OB decided it was time for a complete hysterectomy. My first night in the hospital seemed to be smooth, but in the morning things took a change. I was on a morphine pump for pain, and though I had no pain from my pelvic region, I was having pain in my chest and my left arm. The nurse said my oxygen level was extremely low. The next thing I remember was doctors running in everywhere. I was rushed to CT and then to ICU where I spent the next few days. To this day, I do not know what happened. I got the doctor’s reports. They concluded that it was either a pulmonary embolism or a coronary event. Although, at discharge the doctor told me he thought it was anxiety.

Thyroidectomy, Lung Mass and Fatty Liver

During this time and through following the thyroid diagnosis I always felt awful. No energy, extreme fatigue and weight gain of in total 70 pounds.

In 2007, I developed an illness in my stomach and bowels. The first diagnosis was gallstones. I had surgery to remove the stones. They kept me in the hospital overnight because of the incident the last time I had surgery. I had an endoscopy a few days prior to surgery, and they found I had ulcers and tested positive for H pylori. I got C diff from the hospital and had to deal with that on top of everything else. A colonoscopy revealed that I had ulcerative colitis.

In 2010, my goiter was growing to the point that swallowing and sometimes speaking became an issue. My endocrinologist felt that those symptoms, coupled with the nodules, meant it was time to remove the thyroid. I had a thyroidectomy that year with no complications other than severe fatigue and a struggle to get my levels right.

In 2011, a minor fall left me with a torn meniscus and knee surgery, really not important, I know.

In 2012, I was diagnosed with mono again and the symptoms of pain in my abdomen called for a CT. In receiving the results, I was told I had a 7mm nodule in my right lung and a fatty liver. My liver levels had been high for a few years. I was sent to a pulmonary doctor at the Lahey clinic in Massachusetts. He said that because of my young age and the fact that I had never smoked it was likely not cancer, but that we needed to recheck in six months. My six month checkup revealed another nodule and I returned to Lahey clinic for another consultation. He again said that it did not have some of the characteristics of malignancy and because it was small our best bet was to rescan in another six months.

The Current Nightmare – Enter Levaquin

So this brings me to my current nightmare, one that has continued for seven months. It began on Easter Sunday. I had been sick with what I believed to be pneumonia as my husband had just had it, and I seem to get whatever is going around. We visited the local Emergency rooms and I was diagnosed with pneumonia. They gave me a pill to take while in the ER room. I asked what it was, as my husband was given a Z pack. She told me Levaquin and I took it without question, as it meant nothing to me at the time. We waited for the discharge paperwork and left with a few different pills and and a prescription to continue Levaquin for 10 days.

By the time we reached our house, 20 minutes away, I was itching all over. Hives began to form and my face and ears were starting to swell. I went to a different ER that was 5 minutes away. The rushed me in and administered IV prednisone and Benadryl. I was put on oxygen. After about an hour, symptoms started to slow and I was released. As the reaction was going on, I felt like I was crazy. I think, or at least thought at the time, that it was from the itching. By the time we left the hospital, all I could think about was breathing.

I felt that if I did not concentrate on my breathing I would forget to breathe.

My discharge instructions were to continue with oral prednisone for 3 days and take Benadryl every 4 hours for the next 24 hours. Monday, I slept all day. That evening, I decided I could not take anymore Benadryl. When I came out of what felt like a drug induced coma, I was scared, very frightened actually.

I could barely speak and I did not want my husband to leave me.

I am a very independent person and me feeling like I needed him was not usual. I was very different and it alarmed my husband. He felt it was the prednisone and would not let me take anymore. I finally begged that he let me take another Benadryl to sleep, as I was scared and hating the way I was feeling and functioning. My head hurt so bad that I felt like it may explode.

Tuesday this continued and I could not get off the couch or speak clearly.

Wednesday we returned to the ER. I underwent a CT scan which came out normal and the ER doc felt it was migraines. He dismissed the fact that it could be the Levaquin, as it was only one pill. I was treated with migraine medicine and released.

At first I felt a little better, but some of the symptoms would not go away. I had a limp with pain and weakness on the right side of my body. My neck and shoulders hurt so bad that I could not lay down. The headache seemed unending. I laid around feeling not myself for days.

I recognized my kids but could not come up with their names. I started calling objects by different names, wrappers for socks, and looper for bra, talker for phone.

By Monday my husband brought me to the walk-in clinic, as my doctor was away and the ER had proved to not be of much help. We shared all of the pain and symptoms.

The doctor concluded that it was anxiety and gave me Tramadol for the pain.

The next day my husband brought me to my primary care physician and she was mortified by my condition. She sent us straight to the ER and said she would call them to let them know I was coming and my condition. I was still in terrible pain my head mainly and my right side. I was sent for an MRI that came back normal and underwent a lumbar puncture. It took the radiologist four tries to get the spinal tap and then she forgot to get the pressure.

I was admitted to the hospital for further testing. I had a magnetic resonance angiogram (MRA) and numerous blood tests. I had debilitating pain that left me feeling like I literally may die. I could not stand the light, the nurses had to hang blankets from the windows. The littlest noise hurt me horribly. My husband stayed by my side, as I was still nervous to have him leave me.

I was released a few days later with a slew of different migraine medicines and an appointment to see the neurologist.

The neurologist and her staff were not my favorite from the get go. The nurse asked if something was wrong with me, as I could barely speak and continued to grunt in pain. She changed my medicines and sent me for an EEG that same day. She called a few days later.

I was having seizures in my left temporal lobe.

She prescribed Keppra and left it at that with no follow up appointment or anything. She did mail me a paper about epilepsy. The Keppra did not work well for me. I became very nasty and most of my words were very colorful.

After two weeks, we went back to that neurologist and she was gradually going to reduce the Keppra and start me on Lamictal. The next week I went to see another neurologist that was four hours away.

She said that I had status epilepticus and sent me right to the ER for an infusion of Dilantin.

The next day I returned to be almost myself. I was talking better and acting more like myself.

This sickness has also changed my personality. I say silly things and giggle after everything I say, most of which is inappropriate. I act very childlike or like someone who has mental retardation.

After two days, I slipped back into my previous state. This continued for months the medicine was too low, requiring me to take more than twice the recommended amount, then too high. After two more EEGs both showing slowed brain waves on my left temporal lobe, I was sent to a big hospital to have a long term EEG. There they found the same slowing/episodes that happened 8 to 15 times a day.

I was taken off the Dilantin and started to become myself again. I lost over 20 pounds in month without trying. I was getting around and helping around the house. I was regaining interest in some of my previous hobbies and wanting to rejoin society. This continued for a little over a month. Then, I started feeling bad again.

My cognition remained improved, but my body and my head felt as they did in the beginning of this nightmare. One evening, at my nieces birthday party, I started having pains in my head.

My hearing became very acute. Everything was magnified in sound and my vision again became very blurred.

We left immediately, and by the time we were home, I could barely speak.

My jaw hurt and felt like it could hardly move. My head was aching so bad and my fear had returned.

I have regressed into my previous state and that has continued for two weeks now. I was referred to the neuro-ophthalmologist who said I have pappiledema severe in my right eye and mild to moderate in my left. My neuro thought that I may have a tumor somewhere in my body and my immune system, as a result, was attacking my brain. This is because the testing for paraneoplastic syndrome came back showing positive striational antibodies.

This week I had a PET/CT scan and an third spinal tap. The PET scan showed no abnormalities, although I was given the disc and there is a clear hot spot, at least to my untrained eye, but I guess I need to trust the experts. The spinal fluid was being sent to the Mayo Clinic for testing. For the past weeks, I have had terrible pain in the left half of my face, including my ear, my jaw and near my temple. I know it is not a sinus infection, as I get them regularly and can spot them in an instant. I am not sure if its an infection, but I am inclined to think it is another chapter in this book. I will list some of my symptoms, diagnosis and current medications.

Current Symptoms

  1. Headache, daily
  2. Blurred vision
  3. Magnified hearing
  4. Increased anxiety and fear nothing like before
  5. Right sided weakness
  6. Numbness in tingling in my extremities
  7. Memory impairment
  8. Cognitive deficits
  9. Fatigue
  10. Body Pain
  11. Weight Loss 20 pounds (yay)
  12. Eye pain
  13. Poor judgment
  14. Child like behavior
  15. Clumsiness
  16. Lack of coordination
  17. Lack of focus and inattention
  18. Restlessness
  19. Insomnia

Current Diagnoses

  1. Encephalitis
  2. Temporal Lobe seizures
  3. Status epilepticus
  4. Encephalopathy
  5. Papilledema
  6. Paraneoplastic Syndrome
  7. High Blood Pressure
  8. Acid Reflux
  9. Fibromyalgia
  10. Chronic Fatigue Syndrome / Mono

Current Medications

  1. Synthroid 200 mg
  2. Lamictal 125 mg 2 times daily
  3. Fluoxetine 40 mg
  4. Prtonix 40 mg
  5. Linsopril 10 mg
  6. Vivelle patch (estrogen 100 change twice weekly)

The blood pressure medications and estrogen are new in the last two months.

Please Help

I apologize for the length of this documentation. I want to sincerely thank you for any time and consideration you put into this. I certainly know that it is not your responsibility or obligation. I have two beautiful children and this has taken a severe toll on them. I have gone from a mom who was involved in every aspect of their lives, to a mom who is constantly afraid of causing them shame. In this, I have lost my job and an income, which means paying an incredible price for cobra insurance. I feel like we are up against a wall and running out of possibilities. This is no way for anyone to have to live. I am willing to entertain or try pretty much anything at this point. Thank you again, this means the world to me, just to gain some insight.

With Gratitude and Appreciation.

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