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Posted 7/14/2012 11:49 AM (GMT 0)
Hi. I'm new to this forum. In the last two months, my life has completely turned around. I had been affected by sinus and allergy issues for years. I also have worked 2nd shift for years. I'm the father of 3 young kids, the oldest is 9. After prodding my PCP after months of sinus issues to give my something else besides the Z-pack, he put me on Augmentin. Well this opened the flood gates because I had a severe reaction to it. Diarrhea can be typical, the the red sore throat wasn't. PCP suspected mono and ordered blood tests. EBV came back positive. He ordered me to stop the Augmentin, put me on Levequin and referred me to an ID doc who was not concerned with EBV stating it meant I had mono in the past. about 3 to 4 weeks prior, I had shown my PCP my left foot, which I had gotten a strange tingly rash on only a few days before. I showed it to the ID doc as well who voiced her concern and ordered up a bunch of tests (blood and throat cultures). Well this is when all hell broke loose. I became completely anxious and stressed. I start losing weight and sleep. I started getting weak and the foot with the rash started getting numb. My neck gland swell and contract and hurt at times. My head felt hot and tingly, especially in the back. Dry mouth and occasional foamy saliva.
After 10 days of angst and some paranoia, 2 tests came back positive, Lyme and throat culture showed yeast (from 2 weeks of ABx). Now I'm into 3 my 3rd week of Doxy and an oral anti-fungal. I also just completed an MRI of my brain to rule out MS yesterday. ID doc gets the results next week. All this started with a sinus issue. I'm still not completely convinced I have LYME, but many of the symptoms described here seem to match. I still have anxiety and what appears to be tension headaches, pain and tingling in the back neck muscles. Also exhaustion and weakness.

I have 2 questions, does anyone believe stress can trigger Lyme or Lyme-like symptoms and more importantly, has anyone here been cured of Lyme. I've heard some people have been. Sure would like to hear their stories. I need some hope of regaining some sense of normalcy. Thanks for indulging me.
Posted 7/14/2012 12:19 PM (GMT 0)
Hi Pete and welcome to the forum, lyme is a very tricky bacterial disease. If you get treated early, studies have shown that it is possible to totally eradicate the bacterial. This makes sense because you are pounding it with antibiotics that do kill it before it has a chance to spread and infect tissues and organs. In addition, the bacteria once established in the body will form their own cysts and cyst walls are much more difficult to treat. There have been many people treated for lyme that never show symptoms again. Whether or not it is one of those diseases that lay dormant and can resurface is not well known in my opinion.

That being said, both my husband and I and my 12 year old son were all diagnosed with lyme. My husband and I were infected long before diagnosis and were and are on treatment for a long time. We are both feeling great these days. We both have residuals like peripheral neuropathy and take many supplements and herbals to try and keep things in check. I do believe that once you have it as extensive as we have, that we will always battle it but we have finally gotten our old lives back and oh how we are enjoying them. As you know, when you lose something and get it back, it is ever so sweeter.

My 12 year old presented with 2 huge bullseyes so we are hopeful he had just been infected. He had dizziness, headache, eye pains, extreme fatigue. I insisted he be on antibiotics for 3-4 months and he is doing wonderful and showing no symptoms at all (knock on wood).

I hope this has been of some help to you. The important thing with lyme is to listen to your body (not the doctors) and do your research. Have you thought about seeing an LLMD?
Posted 7/14/2012 1:05 PM (GMT 0)
Thank you so much for your story. I can honestly say, I'm in overload with the information on Lyme. Having run through the woods of NJ since I was a kid, I'm sure I've had plenty of ticks on me. I honestly don't recall getting bit. I'm very hopeful I can get back to some normalcy. It affecting my interactions with my family. The lack of sleep I think is the worst of it all. Gonna try Rescue Remedy to see if it'll help with the mind wandering at bedtime. I think that keeps me up most of the night making me jittery in the AM. Thanks again.
Posted 7/14/2012 3:33 PM (GMT 0)
I hear ya Pete. Lack of sleep is tough, which makes the anxiety worse, which makes the fatigue worse and all other symptoms. I found melatonin (start low and move up) is helpful to at least fall asleep. I keep waking up few hours in - some nights better than others. Doc prescribed Trazodone but that made me spacey and didn't help sleep through the night anyway. Try the homeopathic stuff like Rescue Remedy- sometimes it seems to help me.

I'm struggling with the same questions you have. Is anxiety causing symptoms that overlap with Lyme or is Lyme the trigger for the anxiety? I've asked many docs and nobody has an answer or way to determine this. So they treat both the anxiety (on Lexapro) and the Lyme (antibiotics). I did not have severe anxiety before Lyme but I think there was always a low-level anxiousness. Perhaps this just magnified everything for me.

People certainly have been cured (or are healthy functioning people with disease in remission) - just not going to find as many of them hanging around the message boards anymore as they're out living their lives. Stay positive - we'll all get there again.
Posted 7/14/2012 5:44 PM (GMT 0)
Thanks Dojopo. This has been a lot to deal with.
Posted 7/14/2012 7:00 PM (GMT 0)
Pete, IMO, Lyme disease can lie dormant until stress, etc. affects us.  For me, I had a toxic reaction to Levaquin that affected the cns and pns and I am pretty sure that as my immune system became weak the Lyme bacteria erupted.  I also read a medical journal article that levaquin can do this.  For me, it is hard to distinguish what is what as all the symptoms resemble the 2 things I have been through.  I am looking for a LLMD and have been tested positive for Lyme's disease.  Good luck, Pete.
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