*** I have many questions on all these things!
I hope to help get this thread off to a little more of the orginal beginning.... Because, it seems in all my searching that all these things: low thyroid, CFS, fibro, lyme, co-infections, MS, EBV, HHV6, (parvovirus B19), depression, anxiety -- ALL of these things seems to be so intertwined. It seems that those of us who know we have lyme, believe that lyme is the culprit in all of our cases.
We know that lyme frequently attacks the thyroid. We know that lyme compromises our immune system. So in many, not ALL cases, it seems that lyme has caused all of the other infections/diseases/syndromes.
However, at this stage of my knowledge so far, I must also post this question: Is it possible that one or more or several of the above has left us more vulnerable to Lyme? That maybe, just maybe, lyme is often resolved by our immune system, unless it is already compromised -- say, by heavy metals, chronic viruses, or such?
For me, I realized a sudden downward spiral and diseased feelings since a certain tick bite. It was not until that bite that I had problems w/ my thyroid, the fibro type pain, chronic fatigue, worsening of depression, and an anxiety unlike any other I've ever experience.
It is believed by many that certain viruses or infections precipitate CFS, MS, fibro, etc. Here, that seems to make a whole lot of sense. But they haven't quite figured out how these (MS, Fibro, CFS, etc) are actually triggered.
I don't know yet if it's as unanswerable (is that a word?) as it seems to be.
I do have questions for Traveler, Lady w/ Lyme, and others of you who have jumped in on this one:
What is CNS?
How high are your EBV numbers?? I determined that mine indicate chronic mono, not acute.
How high are your babesia numbers? Mine were defined 'high enough to indicate acute babesosis', but could also possibly indicate a past infection.
At this point, I do not consider fibromyalgia to be a trash diagnosis or whatever some of you have been calling it. I believe that it is clear that people are, in fact, suffering from a disease, illness, ailment, whatever, that is defined as fibromyalgia. Same for chronic fatigue and MS. I believe these can possibly be triggered by many different things, including lyme, a virus, certain stress factors, etc. and not always lyme. There is too much unknown in these diseases!
Because lyme seems to be a culprit in these frequently enough, I believe that those w/ diagnosed lyme tend to want to blame all of these cases on lyme, which would not necessarily be correct.
Definitely, immune system issues are all intertwined w/ ALL of these, including lyme.
Sometimes, I even wonder if this is the reason many Drs do not want to believe in chronic lyme. Because maybe MOST people ARE cured w/ 4-6 weeks of abx. And maybe most people do not go on to suffer from chronic lyme. There may be TONS of people who have been infected w/ lyme (and/or co's) whose bodies eventually resolve the infections. And we would never be hearing from these people, neither would the DRs.
Could this possibly be part of the reason for many MD's denial of chronic lyme?
Sorry, this is so long. And sorry, but I've been experiencing increased cognitive issues this week (the infection or the cure??) I just wanna state that we have to approach ALL of these health issues w/ open minds or we will never get to the bottom of them!
Trav and Lady w/ lyme: Please do not forget to tell me your EBV and Babesia lab numbers, OK? Cause I spent an entire weekend researching these, went over these results w/ my LLMD (if you can call it that), and I believe I understand, but am not certain. Hopefully my next Dr will be able to interpret these better than my LLMD did.