Lyme Arthritis and Physical Activity

Starting in about September of last year, I started having minor swelling, pain, popping, and stiffness in my right knee. As Marine Officer Candidate in ROTC, this was an issue as I have to participate in mandatory Physical Training three times a week. However, being stubborn, I decided to tough it out for the semester. By the time Winter Break came around, the problems were getting worse, so I decided not to exercise my legs for the month I had off and see how it felt upon retuning for the Spring Semester. During that month, I also saw an Orthopedic Specialist who diagnosed me with Chondromalacia (minor cartilage damage caused by overuse or muscular imbalance) - he recommended getting a knee brace as well as avoiding any sorts of lunges or squats. So, I got a knee brace and jumped right back into things. While I was certainly able to tough it out through long runs and grueling calisthenic workouts, I always paid for it afterwards, and the symptoms were only getting worse. When I got home for Spring Break, my knee was swollen to about 4 times normal size. I got an MRI and was (Mis)diagnosed with Chondromalacia and Prepatellar Bursitis, and my doctor prescribed me some anti-inflammatories. Of course, these had no effect. Two weeks later, around the end of March, I went to another Orthopedic doctor who was sensible enough to drain my knee of synovial fluid and run some tests. I tested positive for Lyme. Thinking back, this made sense, because in July I had been at Mountain Warfare School in Northern California, an apparent hotspot for ticks carrying Lyme. However, I never had any of the initial symptoms, such as the bulls eye rash or flu-like symptoms, so really I have no idea how long I've had it in my system. Regardless, while I was on the antibiotics, I was beginning to feel a lot better. Yet, just a week after finishing my first round I feel like I'm regressing. Its hard to explain, but it almost feels like my knee is deteriorating slowly. The swelling isn't bad (just a little puffy), but the stiffness, incessant popping, and overall feeling of weakness won't seem to go away. Perhaps more disconcerting though is that I've began to take on other symptoms, such as numbness in my right foot and lower calf as well as severe fatigue. Honestly, its really pissing me off, and to top everything off, Officer Candidate School, the final assessment between me and commissioning as an Marine Corps Officer is this July. This training is extremely physical, and while I know I can push myself through it regardless of how I feel, I certainly wouldn't mind some relief. I have an appointment with an infectious disease specialist soon to see if I need to undergo another round of antibiotics, however, I was wondering if anyone here had any advice regarding Lyme Arthritis and how to deal with it.

Yeah, I'd suggest staying away from the infectious disease doc. That'll certainly only piss you off further. Get yourself to an LLMD quickly. How long were you on antibiotics? Probably not long enough, as your disease is well-established at this point. You can get better, but you need someone who knows what he/she is talking about to lead you through the healing process.

You did activate it, so I'd suggest that you remove your address from your post so you don't get a bunch of spam.

You do need to become your own advocate when you have Lyme. It's just good to be informed when you go to your doctor so can ask questions and understand more about Lyme. You can do some things on your own and there are home protocols too, so you can learn about that here too.

You can use the search function on here to find past threads about arthritis. Just be sure to put Lyme in the search too so it will only bring up Lyme related topics.

If you don't get any answers about doctors in your area, start a new thread titled "Looking for LLMD in the Mid Tennessee area". Then more people will see it and hopefully help you.