Posted 9/13/2019 4:23 PM (GMT 0)
Hello - glad I found this group. My teen and I spent the last year and a half hiking all 2200 miles of the Appalachian Trail from Ga to Maine. The last 2 or so months on the trail I started feeling pretty ick at times with some Lyme symptoms but never got the bullseye rash. The problem with Lyme and AT hikers is the symptoms mimic how a hiker feels every day due to non-stop hiking for months on end. Came home and symptoms continued and now for the past 5-6 months they are all snowballing with issues and every symptom points to lyme.
I have been bounced around from one specialist to another with them ruling out everything from MS to Lupus to Hepatitis and the general consensus is that my body is trying to fight "something". Docs I have found here in Florida don't like to say the L word or even consider it. I finally found one who did one blood test after I about got on my knees and begged and that of course came back negative so they dropped any further investigating into Lyme. A large number of my hiker friends through the years have shared how they got false negative test results only to be diagnosed later down the road with it. I also know that it appears that the longer you have Lyme, the more it starts to mimic your body tricking it into thinking it isn't an enemy and so Lyme antibodies are harder to detect?
Would love to hear if anyone has any recommendations for doctors in Florida or surrounding states like Georgia, Tennessee, North Carolina, Virginia that can help me figure out the right kind of testing to have done and help me. Those that accept insurance are a huge bonus because I can't afford 1,000s in medical bills - thanks so much