Lyme Disease and Ulcerative Colitis

Hi James,
Welcome to the forum! I'm sure you will find us to be a caring, helpful and understanding group! I am sooo sorry to hear that you have both Lyme and UC! Do you know if you have any other tick-borne infections along with Lyme?

If you haven't already, it would be beneficial 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 relevant information and informative links that have been put together by our members here! We also have a pretty good search function on this forum to help you narrow down your search for information from past posts.

There are some researchers that believe that Lyme can possibly lead to UC. Here is a link to one of the many articles about this: www.canlyme.com/crohn%27s.html

It is known that steroid use allows the Lyme infection to spread wider and deeper into the body, as it lowers the immune system.

I would suggest that when you get to your new LLMD's (Lyme Literate Medical Doctor) appt, that you ask him/her specifically about how to treat with both conditions. We also have a UC forum here on Healing Well, maybe you could pop over there and ask them too?

Thank you for the replies and the links. I do not know if I have any of the other tick borne infections because I was told with the Igenex Lyme test that if I am positive it is best to treat for all the tick borne illnesses anyway. It looks like I am not the only one with Lyme disease and Ulcerative Colitis. I was diagnosed with Colitis before Lyme disease hence the reason I am on the prednisone in the first place. The GI doc I have currently said I have been totally mismanaged with the prednisone and it seems like that alone is going to cost me.

The Lyme doctor I am seeing in August is in my home state (Illinois) and I am hopeful he will not turn me away as there are not many people who will treat Lyme disease let alone someone who has Lyme and Ulcerative Colitis.


I am still looking for a person or two that has them both and either is being treated for both or has been treated for both.

James

UC & LymeGirl- this is an old thread - from a year ago, and we haven't seen James since, but thank you for posting!!

I did have to remove the link from your post, as the sharing of doctors contact info isn't allowed here for a couple of reasons. The main reason is that any doctor who treats Lyme patients that isn't an Infectious Disease doc, is under heavy scrutiny and possible action from the AMA, so we like to protect our docs as best as we can. If you wish to share doctors contact info, we encourage you to enable your email address here, so that others can contact you off the board. We have email addresses here that are available to members if they don't wish to share their personal email addresses.

Please do read through our "New to Lyme? Start here!" thread that stays at the top of the forum, it has a ton of really great info in it, as well as things such as symptom lists and a list of questions to ask your LLMD!

We are glad to have you, as this forum is what it is because of our members!! So thanks for joining!!

There are some abx that are harder on the digestive system than others, but you can bypass the digestive system with IV med or injections - so don't give up hope!!

Because I have a doctor who doesn't know Lyme. My primary care doctor retired. He screwed up though before he retired by not treating me clinically. I had fevers, chills, aches, headaches, stiff neck, ringing in ears, etc. The tests were negative and he went by that. I didn't know anything about Lyme. A friend who has bad Lyme told me I could have it. She told me about Dr. Horowitz' book. I did some research and found out you could test negative for a lot of reasons, inept lab, not producing antibodies, etc. It should be a clinical diagnosis. I went to the doctor a few times complaining about virus symptoms. Tested me for Lupus, RA, etc. Went to an infectious disease specialist who told me I could not have Lyme because I tested negative (can you believe that one?) Finally got the new doctor who took over my primary care's office to prescribe the doxy over a year later. He really didn't think I had Lyme. He still thinks I'm nuts. I herxed each week on the doxy. After that, no real symptoms, but I got the UC. I think they waited way too long to treat me and fear it coming back again. My right ear still rings. I'm getting stiffness in joints again and achy legs during the nite at times. I doubt very much I can go back to this dude if I relapse when he doesn't even think I have it. I can't believe doctors in CT know very little about Lyme when it all began here. I don't have a LLMD. A friend who I think has Lyme (who also has been to these doctors) says she got a name of one but you have to pay $600 to get in the door. Can you believe she had a bullseye but tested negative and they didn't treat her?