Hello,
I joined today as I'm searching for answers. I have a lot of troubling symptoms and an equal amount of questions. Hope that's ok.
I've tried my best to trace back to any relevant occurrences, so I'll try to list my ailments in the order I began to suffer them. I can't be very specific on dates, as I didn't keep track at the time as I didn't know I might need to.
I've had insect bites in the past, but can't remember any one that caused any rash or anything. about 5 years ago I did suddenly develop an all-over body rash, which was not raised or painful; I was told by my GP that it was my body's reaction to some viral infection of unknown cause.
Within months of this, I think, I suffered from very severe joint inflammation - I remember not being able to walk down the stairs easily in the mornings, and could barely hold the kettle to fill it. As I remember, it effected all of my joints - it would ease up as the day wore on. This went on for a couple of weeks, and gradually subsided. This was also attributed to a viral infection of some kind!
Then about 3 years ago I began to have a host of other symptoms, from which I still suffer. I developed a roaring, vibrating tinnitus in my left ear. I frequently become dizzy and lightheaded/disorientated. I have occasional left sided headaches. I had an MRI for this which was normal.
Also about 3 years ago, I awoke one morning with very blurred/out of focus vision. Within a couple of hours it returned to normal, but my eyes felt painful - this very same thing happened about a year later. I now often get the blurred vision, and I've noticed that my left pupil becomes far more dilated than the right one.
Around this time, I had the most painful stiff neck - no medication would take the pain away - I still get it occasionally, but not as bad. Then came the tingling and numbness, first in my left hand, then down my leg and foot. I now have pins and needles a lot, and my feet feel heavy, like I'm walking through quicksand. I sometimes feel like my left foot is immersed in cold water. I very often wake up and feel the life drain out of my arm, and it can take hours before the residual tingling goes.
I now have a permanent tremor in my left index and little finger. I also get a vibration running right through my body. I have a bit of joint cracking, but not very severe. I get very short of breath, exhausted and lightheaded. I have a constant need to clear my throat, and have an excessive amount of mucus each morning - which makes me very nauseus.
I have been told that I have very high calcium levels - I was screened for cancer, but that was ruled out, and the doctors have now chosen to 'forget' about this. I also have high blood pressure (never have until recently) and quite high cholesterol levels, even though I am slightly underweight, don't smoke and have a low-fat diet, etc.
I saw a neurologist, who dismissed MS as I passed the neurological examination, but I'm still not sure, as I also had an experience of not being able to move my legs about 17 years ago, which took weeks to go back to normal, and no reason was ever found for that either.
I'm sorry about the length of this post - I warned you I had a lot of symptoms/questions.
Could anyone enlighten me about the possibility of this being Lyme Disease?
Thank you.