bumping up for members who haven't voted yet !
I have the post exertional fatigue but it's not just fatigue. It's significant pain and weakness in the muscles and joints too that lasts for days.
Maybe we should post this as a poll on Monday?
I had too much urine and too much thirst with lyme, and I was tested numerous times for diabetes. I was told that the deeper regulatory nerves of the brain were being affected by the disease.
Well this isn't easy (3 years answers and 3 no answers) ! I would guess that the only real difference then between CFS and lyme is the fatigue. CFS patients have postexertional malaise lasting more than 24 hours (exhaustion and increased symptoms) following physical or mental exercise. But there are lyme patients who also have these symptoms. Like Jackie said, we could have more than one infection.
I've never been a thirsty person, but one of my severe symptoms when I got hit hard by Lyme was big thirst: I was parched.
I believe it was because the Lyme bugs were messing with my electrolytes (magnesium) and throwing my body chemicals out of whack, and in a desperate attempt to sort itself out, my body said "DRINK!" Two trips to the ER with heart irregularities were each 'cured' by a IV drip of water with electrolytes, and I felt fine. I was the one who figured out much later that my electrolytes were still out of whack, when I realized I felt better after drinking this stuff called vitamin water [now made by coca cola] that lots of people trash as being like koolaid, but read the labels, it does have electrolytes, and that's what I realized was making me feel better. I like the 'rescue' flavor best. Yes it has sugar in it. So shoot me. I also now take magnesium and potassium supplements.
My not so nice doctor, who is really smart but not so good with people, decided that the reason for my two trips to the ER was all in my head and told me I was simply drinking too much water and to slow it down, that I was bringing this on myself. The technical term is 'psychogenic polydipsia' and is a mental disorder, but of course he wouldn't tell me the name of what he thought. He doubled my HRT and told me to stop drinking so much water.
==>> Turns out I had Lyme and babesiosis.
He is of course now my FORMER doctor. (Oh, and he told me to drink less water and try Gatorade, but beware of Gatorade, because its electrolytes don't match what the body needs. Read the labels.)
SO MY POINT IS: you may be thirsty if your magnesium levels are low? blood tests for magnesium levels are not helpful, because your body will use up its hidden supplies of magnesium to keep your blood levels normal, and although there are tests for intracellular [inside the cells, not in the bloodstream] magnesium, most doctors won't use them. So any blood test you get that says your magnesium levels are okay is not necessarily the last word. Try supplementing and seeing if you feel less thirsty.
And on that note, I tried magnesium oxide pills, and they worked fine. I read that magnesium citrate was more 'bio-available', meaning easier for the body to absorb, so I tried that next. The Mg Citrate is much harsher on my stomach and gives me heart burn, so I'm going back to the Mg Oxide as soon as I use up the Mg Citrate. Just a few ideas ....
I USED to be thirsty before I got treated.
Now I'm a camel like always.
Excessive thirst is a symptom of diabetes.
I'm rarely thirsty and have to force the water down.
I'm like Wonko, my higher-than-average thirst started very long time ago.
I also found that drinking water too often creates a reaction in one's body in which it is hard to satiate your thirst no matter how much water you drink.
I didn't vote, because while I am always thirsty, I've always been that way. (That is, I don't associate my thirst/water consumption with my illness.)
I take a water bottle with me everywhere, even on very short trips, and have for all of my adult life. I have bottles for all occasions in different sizes and shapes, some on carabiners. I go through Brita filters at a fantastic rate. :-)
I drink 6-8 bottles of water a day and like you have to have at least 1 or 2 bottles in the car and 1 or more in my purse!