Fibromyalgia or Lyme?

Hi ChvyKc!
Welcome to our community!!
"a known side benefit of doxycycline." it's amazing how antibiotics clear up infections, right? LOL! Sorry, I know that this is not funny, but we find humor in odd places when we are ill for a long time. As you stated, antibiotics won't improve Fibro symptoms - unless it's an infection instead. Fibro is one of the more common misdiagnosis for Lyme disease and the fact that you have seen improvement in your symptoms confirms an infection and with your symptoms, I would say it's very likely Lyme disease.

If you haven't already, it would be helpful for you to start with reading through the thread at the top of the forum titled,"New to Lyme?...Start here!!", as it is packed full of important information, symptom lists (as Lyme rarely occurs by itself), helpful links and pdf's, how to detox when one has these infections, ​a list of questions that you can ask any doctor that you are seeking treatment from and so much more.

You will need to see a LLMD (Lyme Literate Medical Doctor) or a LLND (Lyme Literate Naturopathic Doctor) as soon as you can. For information on finding a Lyme Literate Medical Doctor(LLMD) in your area, you can start a new thread titled something like:"Looking for LLMD/LLND in the _______ area." Although you will need to enable your email option in your profile in order to receive any recommendations, as we don't allow doctor's names and contact info to be posted on the forum for several reasons. You can enable your email option in your profile, under 'edit profile'. Be sure to click the submit button to actually save your preference.

You can email Stephanie at: [email protected] You can also go to: www.turnthecorner.org/ if you want to learn a little bit more about Lyme Disease.

You can also go to The Lyme Disease Association and search for LLMD's 3 times in a month. You have to register first. Here is the link: www.lymediseaseassociation.org/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=277&Itemid=74

You will want to find an ILADS (International Lyme And Associated Diseases Society) trained doctor, as ID Docs (Infectious Disease Doctors) believe Lyme is hard to catch and easy to treat, and don't believe in the reality of chronic Lyme. Go to the ILADS site to read the new (2014) Treatment guidelines to get you started on your Lyme journey.www.ilads.org/lyme/ILADS_Guidelines.pdf

YES teragram… was just about ready to post my usual rant about fibro "diagnosis"… WTH are these doctors thinking? How can they actually "name" a bunch of symptoms and call it a diagnosis? Cymbalta makers are celebrating… Funny how many doctors are now prescribing abx for "fibro". Insurance co's don't seem to mind it.

-p

Exactly RTF. I didn't have muscle pain and had minimal joint pain until I started taking about 8-9 different rounds of various antibiotics and steroids throughout 2013 for chronic sinusitis and bronchitis. And then POW! The pain came—it was everywhere. Muscles, joints. A few docs called it "fibro" —just as previous docs years ago had called other symptoms "fibro" and "CFS" and called it a day and collected my money.

A boatload of $ was put into developing drugs to mask the symptoms—but what research has been done to help people like us get truly diagnosed and treated?

At that point, I quit my job and I started being my own health advocate and diagnosed myself with lyme. LLMD took it further—chronic late-stage lyme, bart, and bags. And of course, gong 15 yrs untreated, I have SO MANY OTHER systems breaking down (immune, hormones, neurotransmitters, GI) my treatment is insanely complicated, time-consuming, expensive, etc… And I may never fully recover at this point. Women like me who were hit in our 30s watched our child-bearing years being crushed.

I am so angry. I don't lament "why did this happened to me"—I'm angry at the so-called medical professionals who ARE NOT DOING THEIR JOB. I'm an architect. If I pulled the kind of b.s. with my clients that these doctors who took an oath to "do no harm" are pulling—I'd be out of a job. Some of them should be. I already had a full-time job, why am I also doing theirs?

-rant over. for now.

-p

Yes Roxie—I know without a doubt that I am in good company. I will repeat myself for the hundredth time—when I am done fighting these #$%#^% infections, I will continue to fight against this b.s. Not just for us—but also for those people who are too sick to rant on an online forum, for those parents of children who have never even had a life without lyme, for those professionals who are actually trying to help us—and for some, at great risk. THIS HAS TO CHANGE.

My personally was completely obliterated by this lack of treatment (I'm going to start calling this what it is—many things afflict us in our lives so the tick is not the problem—in the 21st century, the problem is the health care system). So, I'm going to put my lyme rage to good use. ;)

-p

I sure wish I could "like" posts on here!!! I agree with each of you!! LOL! I've ranted for quite a few years now () about all of this too, so I'm right there with you......

But, let's not forget that ChvyKc was asking for help in this thread. Being their first post, I don't want this to get too far off track and for them to get discouraged.

Thank you!!!

Chvykc it sounds like lyme is possible since you had a positive response to abx, that is a clue. I was also dx with fibromyalgia but it seemed like a lazy dx, none of my blood work indicated any of the diseases normally treated by rheumatologist s so I was labeled with fibro. They belived my pain, symps. Even during first evaluation a migraine was triggered so bad bp went thru ceiling and I had to be taken to ER. Try to find an llmd to get help.