This is my first post here, just looking for some advice. I am waiting on the results of a test for Lyme, among other things. I honestly don't know if it is Lyme disease. I live in Ohio and it's pretty uncommon here, but it is also on the rise. I know I was in a wooded area and found ticks on myself twice in April. I was very, very pregnant and my son was born May 1st.
about
5 days after he was born, I started experiencing tingling in my fingers and feet as well as blood pressure issues (as high at 180/115 and as low as 110/60 within the same day). I had midl hypertension during my pregnancy that was well-controlled with a low dose of medication, so I assumed the tingling was related to the spike in BP... But it persisted even after I got my BP under control after a few weeks. My first thought then was MS.. I know childbirth can bring on a flare-up in women with MS. I've had a brain and cervical spine MRI that came back normal. I know it could still be MS if this was my initial event and it didn't show any lesions on the MRI yet.
Anyway, since then, my symptoms have done nothing but worsen. I've had a lot of stiffness and pain in my neck, random pains in my body that seem to move around or come and go, but mostly in my legs... It almost feels like it's coming from the tendons, and not actually from the muscles. Also pain between my shoulder blades. Numbness/tingling in my face, around my mouth, and tingling in my neck/scalp. I have developed a tremor, I'm weak all the time, quite sensitive to light, and a little bit of sound sensitivity. My hands hurt ALL the time. It's just this deep aching pain, and a bit of burning neuropathic type of pain also. I'm really feeling debilitated and my husband has to do most of the work in taking care of our three kids (including new baby!). I'm scared to go back to work in about
4.5 weeks, because I just feel so weak and incapable of doing anything right now. I hate this... I've always been healthy and active, healthy weight, etc. and I'm only 29 years old.
So my question... I'm waiting for the results of my Lyme test. It may come back positive, but if it doesn't, should I press for more Lyme testing? They only drew the ELISA, which I've read is not always very accurate. I'm seeing a second neurologist next week (because the first said he didn't know what was wrong with me and wanted a second opinion). I will press for further testing for other things like MS. But the doctors here (Columbus, Ohio) don't seem overly knowledgeable about
Lyme, probably because it's so uncommon here, and I don't want them to miss the diagnosis if it is Lyme. I wouldn't be so worried about
it if I didn't know for a fact that I had ticks on me twice in April. I took the ones I found off quickly, but I've also read that some are so small they're hard to see. I also found one behind my ear and just pulled it off really quickly when I found it, then later remembered they're supposed to be carefully removed with tweezers. I don't know if that makes a big difference in their ability to give me Lyme if it was an infected tick..?
Would you seek out a Lyme specialist if you were me? Thanks for reading if you've made it this far. :)
Post Edited (marymoonu) : 6/22/2013 8:41:43 AM (GMT-6)