@justy , still waiting for my own lab work to return, and the wait is next door to painful!

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You and I sound like we have nearly the exact same 'flavor' of ME, down to the lower right quadrant pain and the reactions to SSRI-like substances (
and De Meirlier's belief that it's Lyme). The only difference is that my body LOVES B-12 and if I could simply get a shunt in my arm that delivered a constant stream of it, my health would probably improve drastically.
I took 5-HTP at one point, and my reasoning was the same as De Meirlier's: if you take 5-HTP, your body can 'choose' the rate at which it wants to make serotonin, which seems less likely to lead to a build-up or negative reaction.
Unfortunately, that turned out to be incorrect. I took two 100-mg pills 24hrs apart and, at the second dose, had the same reaction as I'd had to serotinergic compounds in the past. This was not a high dose, but the dose that was sitting on the shelf of my local natural foods store. My reaction is quite similar to the way you described yours.
Two thoughts:
- Start VERY LOW with the 5-HTP (divide the pill into 1/8ths, or even 1/16ths)
- Use tryptophan instead, only 10% of which should become serotonin.
After my reaction, I was too scared to try, but those were the thoughts I had.
Also,
here's a list of what I take. With such similar patient profiles, maybe some of these could help you? It's clearly marked what contains B-vitamins.
I do hope you feel better!
-J