Now my fiance' is sick with same symptoms

[jess100]

Hi everyone,

Sorry this is long-I will break it up in the best way I can.

My fiance' lives in Mexico and was a very, very healthy person (organic whole foods, non smoker/drinker, marathon runner, no junk food, physical labor, etc) I have been sick for about 3 1/2 yrs and for the past 2 yrs he has been saying he's tired often-way more often than previously. His fatigue and other symptoms have been on and off, so we don't have an exact start date for his fatigue.

Today he told me a few times when he has finished breakfast (after outdoor work) he is so tired that he falls asleep with his head on the table. Several times in the past year he has had to go back to bed after a meal, and slept a few hours. He also told me he's super tired after just doing light work outdoors, and has almost a drunk or dizzy feeling with that. This is intermittent-sometimes he can work without problems. All of these symptoms are new for him. For the past 2 days he just wants to sleep.

These are my exact symptoms starting appox approx Feb of 2012 although I feel a lot better lately. I know he is fighting it-trying not to be sick, so he is likely down playing some of his symptoms, and not sleeping as much as he should

I have been diagnosed (so far) with EBV ("extremely high" values) and CMV viruses, SIBO, and Babesia (Bartonella test pending) as well as B12/folate issues, low Vit D, and some odd thyroid issues. I also have herpes in my eye (for many years) and have been on an antiviral for a few years for that. I have not yet started any antibiotics.

My mono tests were positive as early March of 2013-although I had already been tired for almost a year, and I'm not sure it was a good test (I think it was mono-spot) but I'm convinced it is what I had at that time.

My question is -what could I have given to him? I don't think I'd be able to catch a new case of mono at age 5 5 (3 yrs ago) Seems more likely to be a reactivation from teenage years. If so, is a reactivation contagious? Could I have given him CMV? Most people have been exposed to this as well-so mine would likely be a reactivation-can he get it from me? Of course it's possible they are not re activations......
Are tick borne diseases contagious? I was told that one of them was-but it isn't what I have.

Anyone have any experience with my illnesses being contagious?

 

[Daffodil]

@jess100 many people have had similar experiences and there are actually entire families with this disease.

I would look into the possibility of Lyme and order the LTT ELISPOT for Borrelia from Armin Labs in Germany. My doc believes EBV/CMV etc are reactivations of old infections, due to immune system being compromised from chronic, intracellular bacterial infections.

 

[Martial]

Even if you didn't give him a tick borne illness via. sexual transmission, due to his lifestyle he could have easily gotten bit sometime outdoors. A friend of mine had a brother in Mexico who had gotten Lyme disease while working with horses. He was a similar age and the same thing happened. Healthy as a horse and suddenly had random fevers, extreme lethargy, tiredness, and other issues come and go randomly.

 

[Esther12]

It could just be a coincidence. It's probably impossible to know if there's any connection without knowing the cause of symptoms. It must be emotionally confusing having that uncertainty to deal with. Best wishes to you both.

 

[barbc56]

Has he had a sleep study? Various sleep disorders can cause severe fatigue.

Maybe a physical is in order.

Hopefully, he doesn’t have me/cfs.

Barb

 

[Hip]

The virus that triggered my ME/CFS, which was very likely an enterovirus, spread to many friends and family (30+ people), and every single person who caught the virus quickly developed permanent symptoms of increased fatigue. Nobody went on to get full ME/CFS like me, but many people would for example start falling asleep in front of TV in the early evening, after coming back from a day's work. Prior to catching the virus, such manifestations of fatigue were never observed in these people.

After catching my enterovirus and developing ME/CFS, I had reactivations of cytomegalovirus and herpes simplex virus 1.

 

[taniaaust1]

Today he told me a few times when he has finished breakfast (after outdoor work) he is so tired that he falls asleep with his head on the table. Several times in the past year he has had to go back to bed after a meal, and slept a few hours. He also told me he's super tired after just doing light work outdoors, and has almost a drunk or dizzy feeling with that. This is intermittent-sometimes he can work without problems.

feeling tired after eatting , feeling drunk and dizzy and tired after being on feet (I assume he's working on his feet if working outdoors)... could be a dysautonomia issue eg POTS (postural orthostatic tachycardia syndrome) which often has low blood volume involved that can cause the tiredness after eating in that issue. (people can get POTS from viruses so if he caught a reactivating virus from you.. its a possiblity).

Has he been to the doctors and had some blood tests.. blood sugar issues or hyperinsulinemia issues may also be an issue with those symptoms (in which cause blood sugar can go up after eating causing the insulin to spike too high which then can result in in low blood sugar). Maybe a 2hr glucose tolerance test with the insulin level included would be a good idea.

He needs to see a doctor and have tests done if he hasn't done so already.

Those of us with ME/CFS can be having issues with reactiving viruses and can at such times pass things to others. One of my boyfriends in the past, we had to have a no kissing relationship after we realised me kissing him sending him to bed with flu like symptoms for several days up to a week

I'd kiss him and within 18- 24hrs he had fever, headache, muscle aches and a sore throat and be feeling extremely fatigued This happened on 3 different occasions when I went to see him.

From that it seems whatever I carry mutates as it seemed to be the same thing coming from me which affected him and time again.. Interestingly his health wouldn't have been as good (as he was extremely obese) then my other past boyfriends who didn't get sick from kissing me, so maybe that made him more susceptible to whatever I carry with the ME/CFS.

My sister got ME/CFS (she's still undiagnosed but she could get a diagnoses) after she accidently drank out of my cup before I could stop her.

and yes, it has been said tick borne things can be contagious as they are carried in body fluids.

 

[unto]

Hi everyone,

Sorry this is long-I will break it up in the best way I can.

My fiance' lives in Mexico and was a very, very healthy person (organic whole foods, non smoker/drinker, marathon runner, no junk food, physical labor, etc) I have been sick for about 3 1/2 yrs and for the past 2 yrs he has been saying he's tired often-way more often than previously. His fatigue and other symptoms have been on and off, so we don't have an exact start date for his fatigue.

Today he told me a few times when he has finished breakfast (after outdoor work) he is so tired that he falls asleep with his head on the table. Several times in the past year he has had to go back to bed after a meal, and slept a few hours. He also told me he's super tired after just doing light work outdoors, and has almost a drunk or dizzy feeling with that. This is intermittent-sometimes he can work without problems. All of these symptoms are new for him. For the past 2 days he just wants to sleep.

These are my exact symptoms starting appox approx Feb of 2012 although I feel a lot better lately. I know he is fighting it-trying not to be sick, so he is likely down playing some of his symptoms, and not sleeping as much as he should

I have been diagnosed (so far) with EBV ("extremely high" values) and CMV viruses, SIBO, and Babesia (Bartonella test pending) as well as B12/folate issues, low Vit D, and some odd thyroid issues. I also have herpes in my eye (for many years) and have been on an antiviral for a few years for that. I have not yet started any antibiotics.

My mono tests were positive as early March of 2013-although I had already been tired for almost a year, and I'm not sure it was a good test (I think it was mono-spot) but I'm convinced it is what I had at that time.

My question is -what could I have given to him? I don't think I'd be able to catch a new case of mono at age 5 5 (3 yrs ago) Seems more likely to be a reactivation from teenage years. If so, is a reactivation contagious? Could I have given him CMV? Most people have been exposed to this as well-so mine would likely be a reactivation-can he get it from me? Of course it's possible they are not re activations......
Are tick borne diseases contagious? I was told that one of them was-but it isn't what I have.

Anyone have any experience with my illnesses being contagious?

hello Jess, I will not be sad, but I must say what I think about ME.
I am convinced that EBV and CMV are unrelated to ME,
ME is probably the origin of an unknown virus (not testable, maybe a slow-virus), unfortunately, it remains active in the body of the patient and transmissible as long as the patient lives.
my life has been marked by the experience and history of ME ......... leads to this conclusion ... even though patients are doing everything to not see ....
good night

 

[Hip]

I am convinced that EBV and CMV are unrelated to ME,

How would you then explain the fact that with mononucleosis (glandular fever), which is mostly caused by EBV, and more rarely by CMV, ME/CFS follows on afterwards in 9% of cases? Ref: 1

 

[Valentijn]

I am convinced that EBV and CMV are unrelated to ME,

Well, a lot of research disagrees with you. And it's the better evidence base Even the psychobabblers concede that these viruses are triggers, with EBV being specifically well-recognized.

 

[Hip]

@unto could be right in one sense that currently untestable viruses may cause ME/CFS: some new research on the link between EBV and multiple sclerosis showed that a particular subtype of EBV was strongly linked to MS. Could a similar thing apply to ME/CFS? Could ME/CFS be caused by certain strains of common viruses?

As far as I am aware, there has not been much research on whether specific subtypes of common viruses like EBV or enterovirus are linked to ME/CFS. The only research of this nature I have seen is this study which found the more nasty variant A of HHV-6 to be more common in ME/CFS.

 

[unto]

Hip and Valentijn hello, I do not think there are many causes that lead to ME,
I think to a cause, a specific virus or family of viruses unknown.
All known viruses have been excluded from being the cause of ME.

 

[Hip]

All known viruses have been excluded from being the cause of ME.

Where did you read that? Because it is simply not true.


In fact, parvovirus B19 can be considered one of the known viral causes of ME/CFS. And the bacteria Chlamydia pneumoniae and Coxiella burnetii can be considered known bacterial causes of ME/CFS.

The connection between EBV or enterovirus and ME/CFS is not as solid, and these viruses have not yet been conclusively proven to cause ME/CFS. But this does not mean they have been excluded from this possibility.

 

[unto]

I think that in the last 50 of 1900 has been verified if
those known viruses could be the cause of ME / CFS,
for some patients, these viruses, may have been the trigger for ME
But (if you really have ME) or ME had slightly before the infection
that blew it up, or have contracted ME along with one of those viruses.
Research / studies you mentioned (Hip) I fear that they may be like those made
gastritis / ulcer, then scientists thought to cause gastritis
could be more causes (stress, fatty foods, smoke etc.) but had found only aggravating the disease, while the HP is that in 95% the causes and with 15 days of antibiotics heals