Do I have Lyme - I live near San Francisco

Everyone is stumped.

I'm 46 female heading into menopause - general excellent health.

I've had a low grade fever 99-100 everyday since midsummer. There have been a few days of normal but not many. It never goes above 100. It started one night with a burning, sore throat (like I was about to get the flu) and the next day I felt like crap. I'm generally better now (in that many of the symptoms have lessened) but continue to have the 99-100 daily.

I spend the summers in my house in a very woodsy area and have pulled a tick off my body. The rest of the year I live just north of San Francisco. I've had two Lyme tests and both came back negative. A variety of both NY and CA doctors didn't think "I presented" like I had Lyme's. Nonetheless, I was treat about 2 months ago with 2 weeks on Amoxicillan, which did nothing (both negative Lyme tests were done AFTER the antibiotics). I don't have aches in all my joints but my mild tendonitus became severe during this illness. I've never had a rash or "bullseye" type thing.

Here are the collection of odd things going on with my body (I'll star the ones that definitely go along with this illness and add the other ones that may be coincidental (or may not be)

*chest/lung tightness + shortness of breath (getting much better)
*dry cough (comes from the top of my lungs - way better)
*no fever relief from Tylenol or Ibruprofen
*weeks of bed rest didn't help
*periods of moderate to extreme fatigue (getting better)
*tendonitus/elbows has gone from moderate to severe
*feeling of swollen glands (getting better)
*Tremors/quivers in right hand and leg (haven't had in a few weeks...then today I have it again)
*pale, tired-looking
*rare bouts of wheezing (only 1 doctor has heard this...and this is getting better)
*higher than usual resting pulse
vision rapidly getting worse/blurry and double vision (could be aging, could be whatever this is)
a few bouts of intense heartburn (could be meds reaction, could be this)
jumbled thinking--brain foggier than usual

I have been tested for everything. All of these tests were negative or textbook perfect. Forgive spelling. Endocarditus. (no). Blood cultures (fine). Chest x-ray (perfect). All routine bloodwork (textbook perfect). Lung function test (normal). CRP levels (none). Sed Rate (perfect). Thyroid (great). Mono (neg). Strep (neg). Hystoplasma-fungus (neg). Q fever. Anaplasma. Berliosis. Lyme (twice) neg. TB (neg). Glucose levels (perfect), weird rat disease (neg). 27 exotic diseases. Everything you could possibly think of.

The ONLY measurable, quantifiable symptom is this fever. 99-100

I'm seeing a pulminologist, who's stumped. A infectious disease doc. Stumped. I've been to the hospital twice. I'm at one doc or another a number of times each week.

I SEEM to be creeping slowly toward health BUT my fever is with me everyday.

Any clues?

Were you tested for lyme and co-infections(babesia, etc) using a igenex test? I tested negative several times using standard lab tests, the igenex test was positive for both lyme and babesia.

There are two LLMD up by SanFrancisco. The one I see does not take insurance and it is pricey. Might be s good idea to see one of them just to get a different opinion.

I only haven the information for Dr. H, but I am sure someone could give you the info for Dr. S....

Lyme is diagnosed not by labs alone, but with symptoms also.

Hope this helps.
Barb

Thanks everyone - this is immensely helpful. I ran a bit of a high fever today (for me) and was "shaky" so my doctor told me to rush to the lab and get a blood culture again...on the assumption that maybe there was a little more "something" in there to check.

I don't know - it's just frustrating - 27+ blood tests, the cardiologist, the pulminologist, the ER docs, my primary care doc, my eye doc, my acupuncturist, etc...and still no answers as to why I have a fever every day for 3 months. I'm grasping at straws. L.D.? I dunno. Hytoplasma? I dunno? Cancer? I dunno. No test has pointed to anything. Googling symptoms and posting on forums and feeling kind of helpless.

Thanks for sharing your knowledge and keeping me company.

I did 2 weeks (3x a day) of amoxicillin about 8 weeks ago (just IN CASE I had LD...sort of assuming it was a possibility) then went on 10 days of Zithromax about a month ago in case i actually had an pneumonia.

I then tested negative twice for LD. (First time with a basic test in the ER in Albany, NY, second time with a Western blot in California) I also tested neg for Babesia. Are you saying you think that i might need MORE antibiotics before i potentially test positive for these things? Was your son tested for Bebesia before the antibitics?

Also -- did many of his symptoms begin to get better? Right now my only issue is this daily low-grade fever, which causes fatigue and brain fog, and bad tendonitus in left elbow. The lung tightness and dry cough are 99% gone.

Maybe something will show up on my latest blood culture? I don't even know what they're looking for with that.

What was your son treated with? How long was the LD really bad before they identified it?