Thanks for the reply Beth :)
So my journey with this began after I got home from a trip from Mexico March 2012. Prior to this trip I was a relatively "normal, healthy" person. Upon return I got a sudden and acute UTI which quickly turned to a kidney infection, both of which were accompanied by a high fever. I got started on Abx and got sent home.
Over the next few days I was in and out of emerge and taken off and put on 4 different types of abx because none of them were working. I had also developed a swollen red rash from head to toe. Along with the rash came an extreme migraine as well as sensitivities to light and noise. The rash lasted a couple of days and then started to subside. Then the muscle and joint pain and exhaustion started as well as the complete confusion and brain fog. I wasn't dizzy but had no perception of what my body was doing and couldn't remember anything. I decided to stop all abx after a few weeks because I wasn't sure if they were actually doing anything as it seemed like I wasn't getting better, just that my symptoms were constantly shifting to something else.
Over the next few months I kept seeing doctors and asking for more tests. My lymph nodes seemed swollen and hurt so they wanted to do an ultra sound in my right underarm. I got a renal ultrasound, which turned up nothing.
My symptoms were getting worse. I had a hard time breathing and my heart had palpitations constantly. Instead of feeling hungary, my stomach and throat felt cold. When I had to go to the bathroom my heart would just beat even faster instead of the usual feeling of having to go. I would intermittently have diarrhoea or be constipated.I also got uncontrollable night sweats and insomnia as well as the extreme exhaustion. It seemed like my body as a whole was shutting down. Every doc I saw said they couldn't find anything wrong with me. I was so sick I didn't have the ability to even function properly or to seek any other advice.
These symptoms, along with others I can't even remember at this point, lasted until about
July 2012….then I began feeling like a normal person again. It was like getting a second chance at life. Every once and a while I would get a pain in a joint or a head ache and wondered if it was related but was just busy enjoying that my life was relatively normal.
Then in January of 2013 I got Strep Throat and went back on some ammoxil for 10 days. A week after stopping my symptoms all started to come back. At first I didn't think anything of the headache and diarrhoea. Then the head fog came and the cold stomach came and then the heart, lungs, joints, muscles and the rest of my body followed suit. I was so horrified that this was happening again and told my husband that I thought I had Lupus. I honestly thought I was going to die and got my affairs in order. I thought that it wasn't possible for my body to survive all of these things again.
I began researching and testing for whatever I could think of. I thought auto immune but tested negative for everything. Negative for fibre and CFS. I even had a rhuematologist tell me I was the epitome of health. My husband suggested that I might have Lyme. I didn't know anything about
it at this point and put it to the back of my mind.
I started some supplements to treat for a parasite and testing my blood for iron, thyroid, etc. My iron was all of a sudden extremely low, 8 I believe but my MD just wanted to put me on iron and check it again in 3 months. I said that there must be an underlying issue as I had never had low iron before and he agreed and said that low iron would not cause most of the symptoms that I had.
So I began to research Lyme. I have been in contact with a LLND as well as a very experienced vitamin guy. I have researched Hansa and Envita as well as some ABx treatment and been in contact with my MD about
Lyme testing and an Infectious Disease Doctor for another opinion. Most from the Western Medicine practice roll their eyes at me and think it must be something else as we don't have Lyme in Alberta…..yah right. I understand the controversy behind it all and don't buy into what pharmaceutical companies are trying to push on the world.
I am trying my best to seek out the pros and cons from an MD side and a ND side. In Canada there are no real protocols for treatment. I am hopeful that I will find a positive treatment plan but am losing faith in Western Medicine when I just keep hearing that there is nothing more they can do for me. They appear to be closed minded on Chronic Lyme and the treatment of it and profess to do no harm but it seems harmful to me to throw prednisone at me and say that there is nothing more to do.
And while I do believe in natural medicine I often wonder if it is any different and if it is masking the problem as well or if it is truly "healing/curing" lyme.
This is a long and seemingly negative post. I do try to keep up hope but sometimes I find that the more I research the less hope I have.
Thanks again :)
Post Edited By Moderator (Traveler) : 11/22/2013 3:02:55 PM (GMT-7)