? Can you get symptoms decades later?

I remember having a tick around 9 or so.  Don't remember a rash or any other symptoms.

At 29 developed fever, but this was after years of not sleeping and high stress.  I have CPTSD from childhood abuse.

Woke the next day after the fever and my body had seized up.  Could barely walk.

Diagnosed with Fibromyalgia.

I'm now 49, still dealing mostly with the fatigue and muscle weakness. 

Also had an MRI done and there was an area affected to an isthemic event they said was normal to aging?

Could I have lingering, really late onset Lyme?

 

wow, this is so interesting. Thank you so much! My neurological symptoms I've always written off to horrible stress effects of PTSD...perhaps it's something more concrete.

I was bitten around age 10 and have had no other bite that I know of. Growing up, I had minor symptoms-some fatigue and aching, but very active and functional.

Then, in 2011 after pregnancy, I became extremely ill. I tested positive on the IGENIX western blot for lyme. My LLMD (lyme literate MD) said that it's very common for a dormant infection to become active after any sort of trauma or stress. In my case, a suppressed immune system during pregnancy. In your case, not sleeping and stress could have triggered the infection to become active.

You need to see a LLMD to be properly evaluated and tested for lyme disease. There is more info. on the "new to lyme" thread on here. Most regular drs. (PCPs, neuros.) deny that it even exists and order inaccurate testing.

There seems to be a correlation between the onset of lyme symptoms and hormonal changes, such as pregnancy or menopause. More often menopause from what I've heard.

I had no symptoms, not even during a pregnancy when I was 43. Well, I had symptoms, but they weren't enough to make me think anything was wrong. I had fairly regular headaches and often felt like I was 'coming down with something'.

It wasn't until menopause, and a few other physical events during, that I developed symptoms that were debilitating: MORE headaches, TMJ, twitching muscles (eyelids) , profound fatigue and so on. That's when I started investigating. If it weren't for the bullseye rash that I had had previously, I still wouldn't have a correct diagnosis! (I passed off the rash as a wierd insect bite, but remembered it because it was so very weird - like a bullseye, and I had two of them.)

My daughter, now 11, has congenital lyme. She is starting to show physical symptoms, as is often the case with asymptomatic congenital lyme children when they start puberty. Again, the hormones seem to throw the switch.

I want to echo what Phantasmagoo said - using the Western Blot for testing for these infections misses about 50% of those that have the disease!!

An 'antibiotic challenge' -whether using natural or pharma abx- will likely be much, much more effective in determining if a person has these diseases- especially when combined with evaluating their symptoms against the symptom lists.