Hi everyone! My name is Kristie, and I'm 21 years old. I don't particularly know where to start, so I'll just dive right in.
During the summer of 2011, between May until September, I spent a lot of time outside with my dog. I also have two inside dogs that used the backyard to go to the bathroom at that time. One morning, I felt something on the back of my neck, near my hairline. I felt something and yanked it out of my skin and realized it was a deer tick. I had a small red bump from where it bit down, but I made my mother monitor it for any type of rash. I didn't develop a rash, and I don't think I had any fevers or flu symptoms. I did, however, become fatigued a lot, but I was also exercising at least 3 hours a day at that time. A few weeks later, there was tick crawling on me, trying to get to my underarm, and I found another tick crawling down the wall, and then one last tick on my dog. So I'm assuming there were quite a few of them, and I might've even missed some.
So I went on with my life.
In 2012, in February, I had a 3 month long menstrual cycle. I've always had irregularity, but I'd never in my life gone on for so long. In May, overnight, I developed chest pain. It wasn't anything I had experienced before, and after an entire summer of freaking out, I was diagnosed with GERD. I had never had any issues with acidic foods before, and I don't have a family history of acid reflux, so the abruptness of it caught me off guard. A little after the GERD began, I started having bowel irregularities. Mostly constipation.
The GERD goes away and comes back, I don't know if that matters. I maintain the same diet and such, but it goes away and comes back as if I'm eating or drinking more acidic things. Acid pills don't seem to really work at all.
2012 was really bad for me in terms of being depressed. I experienced extreme lows that were very scary for me.
Sometime near the end of the year 2012, I noticed a lot of strange body pains. My joints ached sometimes, my muscles twitched
everywhere, and it felt like bone pain just before bad weather.
This year, here are the developed symptoms:
- stuttering
- numbness on the top of my head
- dizziness
- excess, painful gas (gas pains)
- intestinal pain
- extreme fatigue during the day and after I eat
- burning on my ear, neck, and shoulder
- heart fluttering
- excess anxiety
- balance issues
- literally everything makes me cry
- i have a whole ton of headaches
- blurry vision
- ringing in the ears
- weakness in the body
- tremors in my left arm
- inability to fall asleep, but hard time waking up once asleep
- i forget what I'm doing all the time
- gaining weight like crazy
All of these symptoms (including those that developed in 2012) seem to come and go, but every time they come back it seems like I have something new to add to the list. I've had anxiety for a while, and I'm especially anxious over my health, so I'm been struggling somewhat alone for a while now and I just-- I don't know what I should do.
I don't have the funds to visit a doctor, but there is a testing facility in my town that offers two types of lyme tests, but I don't know... really anything about
this stuff.
They have:
Lyme Disease, Serum, Western Blot
Lyme Disease, Total Antibody Test
These are both less expensive than a visit to a doctor, and I asked my mom if she could help me out as an early Christmas present. She said she would, but I don't know if I should get a test. I also don't have health insurance, so I don't have a lot of options at all. I really want to get better though. These symptoms are ruining my life.
So, I know that you don't have to develop the rash in order to have lyme disease-- do you think it's worth the money to get tested? What if I don't have it, and I wasted that money on something I don't have?