Could this be Lyme?

Hi I live in the UK am 54yrs old and am in need of some advice please, a couple of months ago I had a bad experience whilst out walking, I felt so so dizzy and had tingeling in my face and my lips felt numb I thought I was going to faint but managed to get home ok, I was worried so put my symtoms into my computer and a number of sites appeared, most of which mentioned "Lyme Disease", having never heard of it I checked it out, as I read on and on I realised I was reading about everything I was sufferering and had been suffering for over 2 years, I will explain in brief , May 2007 I moved into a house that was surrounded by woods and meadow land, my garden had no fences and it just rolled into the meadow area, Deer where a regular visitor particularly one Deer who even would venture into my garden I loved this, we also had lots of squirrels and other wild life, june came and and so did our devastating floods, we where lucky and was not affected at our home. just around this time I was bitten on the leg by what I assumed to be a Mosquito, I was suprised as they do not normaly bother me, the bite developed into a red ring type mark , exactly as the Bullseye Lyme symtom, this lasted a good few weeks, eventually I visited my Dr who gave me antibiotic cream, after a short while it began to disapear yet I still had a tiny scab in the centre thanks to me picking at it it came off, I was suprised again by how deep this little scab was, it left a very small clean hole in my leg, from then on I have suffered such pain in my hands particulally my thumb joints, my elbows, knees, aweful pain in my neck muscles, back muscles, and my arms seem to have muscle waste as they are not as shaped as they once where and always feel numb and tingley, I don't sleep well, the list is endless, I am so sure this is Lyme but am nervous about telling a Doctor for fear of being thought of as stupid, can you tell me what you think and do you know of any UK Dr who I could confidently approach. can you help me please I am worried.

Hi Cheezhead
thank you so much for your reply you have been really helpful, I will check these sites out and hopefully find a doctor I can contact, I did ring my own Doctors today and asked if I could book an appointment to see a Doctor I asked the receptionist if any of the Doctors on the practice where familiar or had experience in Lyme Disease, she was most unhelpful ans said that all the Doctors there where well informed on everything, I informed her again that this disease is not well recognised in the UK and could she not enquire for me who would be the best Dr ,no she could not just to take what ever Dr is available, I was so disapointed by her lack of interest that I did not make an appointment, however I will make further enquiries tomorrow as I really need to sort this worry out.
Thank you again
Kind Regards

thank you Cheezhead
I am willing to travel, I would rather that than get the wrong treatment, I have emailed Turnthecorner asking for help in locating a Dr here in the UK, so fingers crossed they can assist me, that will be thanks to your response to me I am most grateful and will update you when I have any further info.

Best wishes

I've been instructed by my wife to re-phrase the last part of my message. She said that "on the mend" sounds like I'm doing great, well sorry if I mis-led you as I'm not that well at all most of the time, but some days I feel a lot more human than when I first started this journey; and it's thanks to the ABX.

Cheers.

Hi and welcome to the club. Thanks for the words of encouragement, some days I really need it. I was bitten in southern Hungary in Sept 06, I had the EM rash three weeks later. I visited my GP and he gave me 3 months of Doxy 100mg twice a day for three months. The rash went and I didn't at all feel ill......then I forgot all about it. It resurfaced 5/6 months later with arthritis pains in my shoulders, neck and hands then from there it was all down hill, not only for my health and sanity but it became a battle between myself and the medics. I don't know where Dr Wright would send the blood but if it is a UK lab it will propably go to the facility in Southampton. I had 3 ELISA tests that came back neg from there, once there is a neg result, the guidelines followed by Dr's (in my case) in the UK automatically seem to put you in the cuckoo cupboard. The blood tests often come back neg and no medic I've had dealings with seems to want to except this. I was so desperate for a diagnosis I opted for a Westernblot that was sent over to the USA, I don't want to frighten you but to test for LD, babasia and Bart cost a few pounds short of £600.00. There is little understanding here regarding LD and all it's mysteries, you unfortunately are going to have to fight for yourself and pay up, the NHS was quite willing to allow me to suffer. If you approuch your GP he will send your blood for an ELISA, talk to him and tell him what you think it is, but do your homework and read up as much about LD as you can take in, so you can show him you're not stabbing in the dark, convince him you know what you're talking about.

I'm sorry but if you do have LD the £100 phone consultation is the tip of the iceburg, in 6 months it's cost my family the best part of £2000, also remember that although a private hospital will help with the treatment they are also a money making business, be careful. But sadly, if you think you have LD there is not much choice for you. I know how difficult it is to make decisions when you feel so bad, but these are my experences and just maybe your GP knows what he's doing regarding LD but I'm sorry to say that when it comes to treating LD, as it should be treated, you will have no choice but to go private.

I have only just recently started to post on this forum and you can read a summary of my story on page 2, it's entitled "Thanks to You All". It's my introduction and my feelings of total gratitude to the great knowledge of members here. When I first read the posts on here I could almost have been reading about myself, with this and reading every scrap of information on the internet I could absorb is what convinced me to fight for a diagnosis.

Good luck. Mik

Yeah, sorry Cheezhead I should have thought about the name situation, I've been reading this forum for long enough to have been more sensitive to the issue. Over this side of water the system obviously works slightly differently to yours as the few LLMD's there are openly advertise their skill and knowledge on the subject (and the price tag). But I fully understand your concerns and will refrain from repeating the error.

"Truly sad" is a statement I often use when I recieve the invoice for treatment. I sometime wonder if I could manage without the treatment in order to save the scanty income I have, but the answer is always no, I couldn't go though the bad times again.

Today I'm fine thanks I hope you are doing well.

Hi pidsea73, you need to see your GP and tell them your fears regarding LD. I'm sure he/she will send blood to be tested. If it comes back poss then there's your answer but please don't dismiss the result if it comes back negative. Your problem will then be that your GP will dismiss a LD diagnosis and you will be no futher forward (unless of course they find something different) please read up as much as possible because the GP will probably know very little and not take you seriously enough. I found a big problem before I had treatment was my mental state, this makes it very difficult to talk to and explain to people exactly how you are feeling and what the problem is. I found the best thing for me was to write a diary of my symptoms, how I was feeling and then I could look back to remind myself as over time - one sympton will pass, another will take it's place, and you will forget to mention it. So it might help you in the future to keep a diary. I also and record my daily temperature, you'll be surprised how much this will fluctuate, usually mine very low (34.5) when I'm having a rough day, but record it for future reference and cycles. I'm affraid (unless you are lucky) it will be you educating the medics.

Today I'm ok thanks and I hope your day is the same. Mik

Hi pidsea73, a good start........I hope he can help and guide you. Good luck.