Negative for Lyme test, not satisfied(should I be?)

First I will start with a little background. I am a 19 male college student, and over the summer I am a camp counselor in Northern Wisconsin. For almost the entire summer I was counseling kids in Northern Wisconsin(8 weeks). I am very accustomed to tick bites and bug bites in general and I recall pulling multiple ticks off me this last summer. One day though, I looked down at my thigh to what appeared to be a bad bug bite. It was very small(diameter was a centimeter), but it was a distinct bullseye. I knew lyme was associated with bullseye, but I was told if it doesn't get really big it isn't wasn't lyme. For the rest of camp I seemed to be fine. I had no fever or typical sickness so I thought there was no way I had gotten lyme. One curious thing that happened though was that a I mysteriously woke up one day with a bad armpit rash under both arms. It was very raw and fleshy. It was almost impossible to heal with prescription strength antibiotic cream but eventually went away. I never had a fever or symptoms of a typical illness of infection, but looking back I was more fatigued and I started drinking coffee. Other than those subtle things I was fine.

So I went to college after an uncharacteristically anxious week back home and things were pretty smooth until I started getting weird night sweats that would smell god awful and a non-stop cold/cough with sinus pressure. This was weird because I've never really had a sinus infection before. I thought this was just a lingering illness that would pass, but one day, I had an occular migraine which scared the living crap out of me. My vision became blind and distorted in the middle and expanded out into wavy blind pattern in my left field of vision. I thought I was having a stroke! I immediately went to the doctor and got antibiotics for a sinus infection. An optimoligist checked my eyes and they were perfect. I was scared I had multiple sclerosis for a little bit, but then I thought MS onset would have been more dramatic. I discussed this with the doctor, and she said it was possible so I got tested. All week I waited anxiously for my theory to be confirmed so I could move on with my treatment and get more antibiotics. I was disappointed to learn the test came back negative.

So now, my current situation is I just lost access to antibiotics that I thought were gonna treat me. And I've been told that all my symptoms have been caused by anxiety, and I am open to that possibilty, but I feel that some of my more physical symptoms seem like a lot to be caused by anxiety. The doctor told me that a tell tale sign of Some other symptoms

-itchy eyes
-skin seems irritable
-filmy looking substance in pee
-ear aches when i lie down
-buzzing in head when i try to sleep
-alcohol intolerance
-general increased anxiety(probably college)
-cold hands and feet, sometimes feels like they are burning
-occasional chest discomfort
-sooooo many eye floaters
-the occular migraine, only had 1 in my life and it was a couple weeks ago

I guess what I am asking for is if anyone has had an experience similar to mine. If you have been diagnosed with lyme with little to no arthritis I would love to know. I have read the above symptoms as symptoms of lyme, but on paper does it sound like I could have it? I understand that anxiety can cause some pretty serious symptoms, but this just feels different.

Thank you

Hi amart. Welcome aboard. I went through the same kind of stuff and it took me months to find a Lyme Literate MD who would treat me. I started out at a walk in tx center, went to a regular MD who ignored me and later asked me not to come back. I got a couple of scripts to hold me over. But I had visual issues, stiff neck, dizziness, shooting pains, ringing in ears, blurry vision, left arm weakness and numbness, memory and cognitive problems etc. I immediately responded to antibiotics.

Saw a LLMD yesterday and asked him about the reliability of the tests. He said they are accurate about 50% of the time.

My guess is you are dealing with Lyme but you need to see a LLMD to confirm it and get the treatment you need. Other dr will tell you that you are cured after a couple of weeks. And in my case I relapsed as soon as I got off the medication.

You can use a walk in tx or regular dr to give you a short course of medicine. But you need to find a long term doctor who will follow you. In my case I was prescribed 200 mg of antibiotics and it did absolutely nothing other than quell some of the symptoms.

It takes a LONG time to recover from the illness. I hope you are able to continue your education but DO NOT be afraid to take a medical leave to deal with this issue. It can be very hard to carry on your normal routine bc the disease creates severe disability. Perhaps once you get the correct medication you can resume.

Im sorry you are going through this and we have all been there. The beginning is the worst but you will stabilize. And remember do not let the medical community ignore you. Lyme causes extreme dysfunction of your central nervous system which adds to the confusion in resolving all this.

Good luck to you in restoring your health and keep in touch.

Post Edited (BarnGurl) : 10/11/2013 5:57:39 PM (GMT-6)

I know, if you have medical insurance try the walk in tx center and tell them you recently got bit. Regular md are for the most part useless and are puppets to the "you are cured after a short course of abx" mantra. Try a google search for lyme and your state, and see what you come up with. There may be clinics not far from you. Seek assistance from family and friends until you stablize. You will get through this. Take care.

www.lymenet.org/BurrGuide200810.pdf

Familiarize yourself with Burrascano's Guidelines. They can help you tremendously. And you are going to find that Dr's. like, Burrascano, Jones, Jemsek et al. are the big heroes in this story.

Amart23, your symptoms were very similar to mine this past June, I was bit the end of May. I was diagnosed by a LLMD in August with Lyme+Babesia. I found out that the disease itself causes anxiety which confuses the issue.
I have never had any joint pain and as opugirl stated, I also have many neurological symptoms. When I asked my LLMD about the "lack of" joint pain, he said. "you don't need to have it, not everyone with Lyme or the coinfections get joint issues".
Lots of help on this forum if you need it. Good Luck

I know from this forum that alcohol is a BIG no-no. I don't drink it, but I occasionally liked a beer or two in the past, especially in the hot weather. I have not had a beer since I got bit.
My symptoms are mostly anxiety, restlessness and depression. I have eye floaters all the time, and this morning I awoke with a blurry, hard to focus right eye. about 3 hrs later the eye was normal again.
I get ear buzzing, twitching in my hands, especially after I use them for some light work. In the beginning my left arm would go numb, like it belonged to someone else, very weird sensation. I get muscle twitches in my calves, thighs, upper arms. In the beginning, lots of left sided chest discomfort. I get occasional hear palpitations, especially watching TV at night. Weird. Pin prick pains all over the place, even the toes. Buzzing in my right ankle. Slight headaches. All of these symptoms come and go as they wish. The only thing that stays around every day is the fatigue. Sometimes, really bad.
As you can see, mostly its my nervous system.
I can also relate to the "dissociation" you mentioned. Sometimes I feel "out of place" with no logical explanation for it. When that happens, I take a couple of deep breaths and try to remember a time when I was normal.
Hope this helps. Lets all get better!