Sudden SEVERE onset?

Hi tinkity,

My own experience is a bit odd, in that I did have a sudden severe illness, but am not sure if I was really infected with Lyme at the time. I developed an acute case of "cryptogenic" hepatitis that was so bad my doctors thought I would need a liver transplant. It could have been caused by Ehrlichiosis, which I definitely have (HME), but I just don't know. My doctors never did figure out what caused it....and then I slowly recovered on my own without any antibiotics. But I almost died at that time, in early 2004.

After my hepatitis subsided I began to slowly develop other symptoms beginning in late 2005, when I found a ring-shaped rash that slowly expanded and faded (I didn't realize it was a Lyme "bullseye" rash at that time). Of course that could have been the original bite, or perhaps I was actually bitten much earlier, before the hepatitis, and this was a second iteration of the rash. By mid-2007 I had severe lower back pain, then other symptoms showed up: peripheral neuropathy, vision problems, etc. I ended up in a wheelchair by late 2008, but I wasn't diagnosed with Lyme disease until January 2010.

So I guess this is not at all helpful! :(

However, my sister-in-law, Kelli, had Lyme and Babesiosis a decade ago, and her experience was very similar to yours. She seemed perfectly healthy, then woke up one day and couldn't walk, couldn't see well, could hardly speak or even hold something in her hand. Her hands trembled so badly that when she was taken to the ER that afternoon she couldn't sign her name. She was totally bed-ridden for weeks, then months, with extremely weird neurological symptoms, and ultimately was told it was all psychosomatic.

But a friend of Kelli's eventually brought her an article on Lyme disease and that was the clue she needed to find the right sort of doctor. She found an LLMD and ended up on antibiotics for 18 months, then was able to get off them and has not relapsed since.

She's a very lucky lady! There weren't many LLMDs in California 10 years ago!!

I don't really know a lot of specifics about Kelli's experience, such as lost reflexes or itching.

I have definitely had periods when some of my reflexes have diminished or even disappeared. And I'm actually going through an "itching" period right now, which has never happened to me before! I basically itch all over, and find it very odd!

I hope that some of this helps! :)

(((((((hugs)))))))
JoAnn

I had a severe onset of acute symptoms.

Three days after I pulled a tick off me (I didn't look at it so I didn't realize it was a deer tick), I was so sick it was unbelievable! All day, I was doing construction on our cabin, by about 8:00pm, I got a headache, my neck was sore and my jaw felt stiff, I attributed this to the fact that I spent the day working on above my head. By 10:00pm, I had chills, night sweats and was running a fever. I didn't get out of bed for another 2 days. The whole time I was miserable! That was absolutely the worst pain I've ever been in. It wasn't until 3 days later that the bulls-eye rash finally appeared and I went to the hospital.

Yep, sudden and severe here too. Gradually improved nearly 100% after a full year of horrible symptoms. Had one good year with only minor symptoms and just a bad day or two here and there, but then came back full force and has not gone away yet, although greatly improved with treatment (now at about 85% most of the time). Initially I woke up one day and didn't have the use of one arm and thought it was just tendonitis (awful pain, no strength at all, couldn't straighten it out - basically no use at all). One month later I suddenly developed SEVERE migrating joint pain, dizziness, virus/flu type symptoms, sore throat, etc. Symptoms just kept racking up and didn't go away! Very scary and went from doctor to doctor with no diagnosis. Took 4 years and ten doctors to get a diagnosis and since my results were borderline (Igenex lyme specific bands = one positive and 2 indeterminate) I too questioned if that's what is really wrong with me. Over time I realized it is the correct diagnosis, but wish after a year of treatment all the symptoms were gone...

yup, two weeks or so after I noticed 'spider" rash (didn't connect the two until much later) I fell fast and hard with the worst flu I have ever experienced. as this subsided strange electical things, neck pain, muscle tremors etc.. ocurred, it can happen real fast.