Lyme Success Story

Thanks to other people posting about their symptoms and treatment, I was able to figure out (no thanks to my doctor who tried to talk me out of it) that I had all the symptoms of lyme and that I needed to get tested.

Here's my story, and hopefully somebody reads this someday, and that they benefit from it:

about a year ago, I started not being able to sleep all the way through the night, I would always wake up at 4am, but not from a dream or nightmare. My mind was always completely blank and had no idea what woke me up. Then, I gradually lost my libido.

I had flu symptoms early on, but thought it was just the flu. I never had a bullseye rash or saw a tick. Months went by and I had less and less energy or motivation to do anything. I was then diagnosed with major depression by my GP, and sent to a shrink, psychologist, and sleep specialist, all of whom could not help me. I had digestive issues and thought I had celiac disease but the test came back negative. I was tested for hypothyroidism but that was negative.

I started getting bad headaches about 3 months ago and heart palpitations. I was almost useless at work. I had bipolar symptoms on and off. Then one night I decided to take a couple of ibuprofen and I felt instantly better. The more ibuprofen I took, the better I felt. As the ibuprofen wore off, I felt worse again.

I was cruising the forums for clues to my symptoms when I ran across a guy who had the same thing happen when he took ibuprofen. He said the headaches were due to an inflammation in the brain that the ibuprofen was temporarily helping. He was then diagnosed with Lyme and felt a lot better once he was started on doxycycline. So once I read this, I found an LLMD with help from people on this forum, got my blood drawn, western blot performed, and 2 weeks later the results came back positive for Lyme.

I live in IL but occasionally go deer hunting in the woods of WI in the area between Lacrosse and Madison (Viroqua), and apparently I was bitten by a deer tick there about a year ago. Again, no bullseye rash and no tick was ever found.

I am in my 2nd week on Doxycycline now and am slowly starting to feel better, though still some days are better than others. But I wanted to offer my success story and hope for others.

I am still searching for an LLMD (or other infectious disease specialist) who actually accepts medical insurance, but that's a minor issue compared to my health!!

Andy

Glad to hear it! But please you might want to do some research on infectious disease drs and lyme before going to one.. If I had I might not be going through the problems I have now..

I forgot to add I also had strange vision problems too.  I work at a computer all day, and text on the screen grew blurry even though I have good vision normally.  I thought it was due to the lack of sleep, but after hearing other's accounts, it was probably purely lyme related.

From what I've heard also, the sooner you're started on an appropriate antibiotic, the better chance of full recovery.

I am concerned that having been misdiagnosed for about a year, that there was some permanent damage to my brain, but time will tell.  Unfortunately, the only treatment seems to be antibiotics.  If you have a really bad case of lyme, they may put you on an antibiotic IV directly.

There are some "natural" medicine alternatives, but there's no scientific evidence of them actually working.  It seems like "hogwash" to me, though a surprising number of people swear by them.

Cliqster,
I am living proof that those "natural" medicine alternatives that you spoke of work - but it's a personal choice. No "hogwash" going on.

Lyme Disease is in every state - believe me, those ticks don't recognize state lines any more than the birds that help deliver them do!


Optimistic,
Considering you said that you have had symptoms for a year prior to the acute symptoms, it's likely that you could have chronic Lyme, as this infection can turn chronic in as little as two weeks. There is no 'one size fits most' when it comes to treatments, you have go at it by trial and error.

I believe that this is due to there being over 100 different strains in the US alone (300 world wide), with each strain needing a slightly different approach, and the fact that a person can be infected with many different strains. Things get more complicated if there are other tick-borne infections tagging along.

I would like to point out that detoxing will help both of you!! If you haven't started already, there is a great post about the basics of detoxing for those with Lyme in our "New to Lyme?...Start here!" thread at the top of the forum. It's the second post in the thread. Please read through this whole thread if you haven't yet, as it is packed full of useful info!

Detoxing will help ease the Herxes, as herxes are caused by an overload of toxins in your body. The abx will kill off the bacteria, which release toxins - thus the need to detox. None of it is hard or takes long!

The lab that tested me was called "igenex". In their documentation they do not mention "natural" or homeopathic medicine, only antibiotics, as viable treatment. It is the same for the Lyme Disease United Coalition and the Lyme Disease Association, Inc. No mention of alternatives to abx. If they are true alternatives, why aren't they mentioned?

Thank you for answering my questions about timeline of recovery. I am going to see an LLMD in Redwood City, CA Jan 2. In the meantime I will continue taking my Doxycycline until then and then get more concrete answers. I can't believe how life can literally change over night! I will go on and look at detoxing ideas. Thank you again!

Friends,

Just a wee reminder of our forum rule:

3. No posts that attack, insult, flame, defame, or abuse others. Respect other members' opinions regarding treatment decisions. Decisions about health and well-being are highly personal choices. We should respect all points of view. Flaming will not be tolerated.


Let's keep it friendly!

For me personally, I thought that the doxy worked great, for myself as well as my daughter. But when I went on to the stronger stuff (like Mepron,Azythromycin, and Amoxicillin) at very high doses, it had a negative effect after a month or two.  My body could not handle abx at that level. But it took a long time for me to get to that point of realization.....for so long (years!) I was just aimlessly going about treatments; not sure what was working and what wasn't. I wish that the Lyme medical community would come up with some guidelines to help us all!

Post Edited (Thia123) : 12/16/2011 8:22:40 AM (GMT-7)