Lyrica and unprocessed foods seem to help!

Hi – This is my first post. My mom was diagnosed with GBS in mid-April. She is 62 and thankfully doing much better now (but still has a long long way to go). She never had to go on a vent, but has certainly had lots of tingling, leg cramps, sleepless nights, and still needs a walker to get around. We normally eat pretty well – mostly organic, unprocessed foods (See the book Ultrametabolism for more info) and her GI track is getting much better. Also, last week, her doctor switched her off of Amitryptoline (spelling?) which was making her depressed and also didn’t help her with sleep or pain. She is now on 75mg of Lyrica twice a day and its been amazing. She now sleeps 11 hours a day (better than 1-2 hours!), has virtually no pain, less tingling and is much happier. Every time she wakes up she feels more and more like her old self. Has anyone else had experience with this?

Regards,
Elisheva

[QUOTE=mazo997]At the advice of another member, I’m posting this in Adult GBS rather than General Questions….

I have to admit, I’m a little embarrased to ask about this… Has anyone else experienced any GI complications (i.e., chronic diarrhea) or weight issues since recovering from GBS or IVIG treatments?

I was hospitalized last November for a week with GBS and had a “good” recovery after one week of IVIG treatments. Although I still struggle with fatigue I’ve made some major life changes to accomodate my recovery (no longer working, pulled kids out of daycare – we were constantly getting sick). However, I’ve gone through just about every battery of test to diagnose the problems behind my chronic diarrhea (now going on 7 months) and my inability to lose weight (weird huh?)…

I’ve gone to GI specialists and gone through just about every test you can imagine. We’ve found nothing and the GI doc has pretty much given up on finding something. I control those symptoms with immodium.

I can’t lose weight either. I just keep putting it on. I exercise w/heavy-cardio six times a week/one hour at a time to make sure I don’t put on any more weight (already 15 over where I was). I follow a good diet with low calories. It’s so frustrating! This seems to be the only thing I can do to maintain the extra 15 and not put any more on.

My docs don’t know enough about GBS to seem to help. Most of what I hear is something along the lines of IVIG (or heavy doses of antibiotics) killing off some of the “good” bacteria in my gut, blah, blah and nothing definitive to counteract.

I would LOVE to know if anyone out there has gone through anything similar. It’s sooo frustrating!!

Thanks and take care![/QUOTE]