Hi everyone,
I have been reading posts on this forum for a few weeks now, as I was highly suspicious I had Lyme. This was confirmed on Monday through bloodwork. My naturopath said he knows how to treat it, but I am set on seeking an LLMD near Portland, Oregon to kick this.
I believe I've been fighting this for 16 years. I am 26 years old and was diagnosed with Lyme Disease when I was 10 years old, when I had the classic bulls-eye rash after a family trip to SunRiver, where we spent time bike riding in the woods. My doctor prescribed me two-weeks of antibiotics and called it good. My family and I had no idea what Lyme Disease actually meant or that two weeks of antibiotics wouldn't rid me of the infection. Now, 16 years later, here I am.
For the last 16 years I've been fighting various symptoms and like most here, have been in and out of doctors offices for various reasons- being told every time that nothing was wrong, they didn't know what was wrong, or my personal favorite, a referral to a psychiatrist. I have known all this time that something was very wrong, but since my family and I were clueless about
the effects of Lyme Disease, we had no idea to ever push for that.
My symptoms have worsened in the last 2 years, and I finally sought treatment from a naturopath, since I was tired of getting the run-around from MD's. He found my vitamin deficiencies, so I started supplementing, but 6 months later when my symptoms worsened, he did more testing and found that my adrenal function is poor. This is when he told me he was suspicious of Lyme. When I told him i was diagnosed with it when I was 10 and was treated for 2 weeks, his eyes about
jumped out of his head. I still have not seen him since my positive bloodwork came back, so we have not discussed this in person yet... He's been on vacation and I've been so adamant about
getting these results that he emailed me on Monday to let me know it was positive. So although I am not new to battling Lyme, I am new to the diagnosis.
Any recommendations for LLMD's in the Portland, Oregon area would be greatly appreciated, as well as any guidance on what to expect. All I know so far is what I've found on the forums thus far, and some helpful websites about
Lyme.
I am so unbelievably thankful to finally have a diagnosis! I am hopeful that now I can kick this, but am also trying to be realistic and looking for any insight as to what 16 years of infection may mean for treatment... What/how long/success rate (unless you'd prefer to have my future LLMD break this to me
).
Thank you a thousand times for taking the time to read this! Much love to all who are dealing with the same thing! I'm here for you, too!