New to forum, lyme questions - similar experience?

I'm new to the forum and am interested to learn if anyone else has experienced similar symptoms...

Background -
After having pneumonia twice in a very short period of time, I was diagnosed with Lyme in 2007 because my mother suggested I get tested for it after a neighbor tested positive. Sure enough I tested positive as well and was given the doxycycline regimen. After the initial treatment I felt better day-to-day, and my fainting spells that had developed had severely lessened. I occasionally have other minor symptoms - joint pain, etc.

However, over the past few weeks I've noticed increasing "fogginess" in correlation with physical activity. I JUST ran the Boston Marathon in April, and experienced none of this during my training, OR during the actual race. This has all developed in the last month or so. I'm having a hard time articulating the feeling...when I describe it, the common response is, "oh it's likely your blood sugar, drink gatorade and eat more." I've been an athlete my entire life and know the difference between dizzy / lightheaded and what I'm feeling now. I do not feel like I'm going to faint...it really is just, "foggy."

It feels as though my vision is delayed to catch up with what I'm looking at, and like I'm mentally slow. I notice it most when I'm playing basketball, which requires me to react much more immediately than something like running. It's become quite a distraction, and is also very frustrating.

Has anyone else experienced this or anything like it? Any idea what's going on?

-AM

Post Edited (am4) : 7/26/2011 2:00:43 PM (GMT-6)

Yes.  I too was treated once, then years later had problems.  I've experienced all the same symptoms, even the pneumonia.  (and newly diagnosed COPD).  The fog (hard to describe:  SLLOOOWWW processing of incoming information and speaking or doing even simple tasks?) has greatly improved with my current treatment (oral abx); so has my lung function.  The dizziness and faintness (yes, much different), was due to a heart rhythm problem with low bp and pulse ox.  This is also improving with the Lyme treatment. Hang in there.  It will get better. 

Okay, Miss C, Now you've got me to wondering!! What color are the creases in your palms???

Wow, am4 - I have been trying to qualify for Boston and was hoping this was my year - I am 51 and need a 3:35:59 this year before it DROPS 5 minutes next year! Uggh - Well, this Lyme put a damper on that - I have a couple of 1:37 Half-Ms over the past couple of years so I would have likely been close to making a BQ.

I just noticed my Lyme symptoms this past spring - I was on a goal to run 2011 miles in 2011 but started fatiguing when running - I'd have to stop an 8-mile run after 3 because I was so tired and my muscles were bothering me. I blamed it on over-training. Turns out Lyme was the culprit and I probably helped it along by wearing my body down too much running all those miles.

After only three days on the antibiotic, all my physical symptoms were practically GONE. But then came the fog and dizziness or unsteadiness and heart palps - the mental feeling of not being quite focused. This triggered me to remember having similar symptoms at different periods of my life and it all clicked - Lyme has been with me a long, long time (but I did not know it till 6 weeks ago).

Find an LLMD and get treated and you'll be back in Boston soon!
In the past, I have been able to overcome it by healthy life style, running, etc. So, it CAN be overcome. On one hand, it's nice to know this strange thing I have had for years has a cause. But, on the other, I now have to TREAT it and that has caused a higher level of symptoms for me than I have felt in the past. Meds and I do not get along and I think they cause me as much or more grief than the treatment of the Lyme.

I am living proof you can get better from it...I have lived thorugh various episodes of what folks wanted to label me as depressed or anxious cuz it was "ALL IN MY HEAD". I guess, quite literally, it WAS - the LYME WAS. LOL, but in between the pisodes, I had many years of normal, fun living. That was without knowing so I am thinking now that I know, this episode will be less!