Hi all,
This is my first post, but I’ve been lurking for a while and reading all the great info available on this and many other sites. I know this post is ridiculously long, so I thank anyone who has the patience to read through it! I just want to get everything down to see if this even sounds like Lyme. I don’t even think a lot of this stuff is related, but I figured I’d put it out there.
November 2011 – Was bit by a deer tick. Tick was not engorged. No bull’s-eye rash, but the site of the bite was red and swollen, like a mosquito bite. When my husband tried to remove the tick, a piece of it remained stuck in me (head?). I went to the doctor; she prescribed a 2-week course of doxycycline. She did not remove the tick and said it would work its way out on its own. It did, but it took over a month. The redness/swelling/itchiness lasted for about
9-10 months beyond that. I had no flu symptoms, fever, or anything like that.
January 2012 – Woke up with some mild jaw pain. It continued to get worse over the course of several weeks – to the point where I could barely
open my mouth enough to eat. Then, after about
5 weeks, it began to get better. I’d set up an appointment with a TMJ specialist, but by the time I went to my appointment, the pain was almost gone. TMJ specialist noted no abnormalities.
April 2012 – Got a bug bite that will not go away. Still present and itches as of December 2012. Have had plenty of other mosquito bites that come and go within weeks, so my concern is that this wasn’t a mosquito??
July 2012 – Woke up with significant back pain. Pain was in one particular spot (just to the right of my spine, upper back) but radiated from there with certain movements. The pain lasted for about
3 months and eventually resolved itself
Early October 2012 – Became persistently lightheaded, with occasional dizziness/vertigo. Very tired. Constant need to take deep breaths (air hunger?). Went to PCP, she suspected it was viral since she’d had so many patients with complaints of dizziness.
Late October 2012 – Still having symptoms – doctor scheduled MRI, came back negative.
November 2012 – Doctor scheduled a cortisol test to check my adrenal function. The cortisol test came back normal, “so no explanation for lightheadedness/vertigo” according to my doctor. I explained that I was still having symptoms and am not ready to just give up on figuring this out, so my doctor scheduled a CT scan of my sinuses for 12/19.
Other random symptoms – Occasional nausea. Mild pain in my right knee. It feels a lot like it does when I’ve just started running (only I haven’t run since September). I’ve also begun to feel pain in my right ankle, which is new. Neck and shoulders have had on/off stiffness and soreness as well.
On a good day, I just feel “off”, like I haven’t eaten in a while or didn’t sleep the night before. Some days I feel almost normal, and am convinced that it’s going away, but so far it continues to come back.
On a bad day, the world looks distorted, as though I’m wearing someone else’s glasses. I have to constantly focus on walking in a straight line and not bumping into things, which can get exhausting. I’ve had trouble concentrating at work, and can become forgetful (like I forgot to take my BCP for four days in a row, and even forgot to feed my chinchilla for a few days! Luckily he’s fine). I have a particularly difficult time staying focused when someone is talking to me for any length of time.
I’m still working, driving, etc. but doing normal activities (like walking the dogs, or going for walks at lunch) is tiring. I can no longer go running or do any real exercise. It seems to get worse in certain situations - like when I’m in a grocery/department store, and definitely when I’m in the woods. I still try to do easy hikes, but even they are a challenge now. I’m tired all day, even though I’ve been sleeping well. I just don’t know where to go from here, especially since my doctor seems to want to give up trying to figure this out. Truthfully I’m not convinced it’s Lyme – it sounds like my symptoms are so much less severe than most others, and a lot of these “other” symptoms could just be part of getting older.
I’m so sorry for the length of this post, I just figured the more info the better. I’m curious if these more mild symptoms sound familiar to anyone else – or, if they sound like some other illness besides Lyme that you may have been tested for, that I still need to rule out. Thanks again for reading!!
