new to lyme

Hi All,

         I got bit on 4/10/14 on my knee.Body of tick fell off,head remained intacted,had the bullseye rash.My PC put me on two,200mgs of doxy.She also said that the head of the tick would be absorbed by my body.So on 7/23/14 all hell broke out with just about every symptom coming all at one,anyway need to ask you all if you have experienced any of the following.I have been diagnosed,many years ago with Hoshimoto's  ,EBV as well as shingles.Will the lyme virus change in any way,do damage,because of the other autoimmune disorders?

hi Cairn1 -

I have Hashimoto's, highly reactivated EBV, and shingles, HHV-6, and others. I believe these specific viruses have been with me for 35 years, which makes me suspect I was bit as a kid (but I was in KS at the time, so this seems unlikely). But the Hashimoto's (auto-immune) came along at age 30, which is when I moved to NYC and spent a lot of time in the northeastern part of the country and when I had other symptoms come along that made me suspect I was bitten at that time.

I think you're asking if your pre-existing conditions will be affected (made worse) by the lyme infection?

At the beginning of the year I started major antiviral treatment even before lyme treatment and it took about 3 months to feel any improvement whatsoever. I was pretty sick. My LLMD felt it was important to get the immune system mainly focused on tackling the lyme & co-infections so it was important to lessen the viral load immediately.

I don't know how you are treating your viral load. If you aren't currently treating it, your recent lyme infection will likely overload your already-struggling immune system. The viruses will always be in your body. If you have a healthy immune system, you may not feel symptoms of the viruses, as it has kept them in check. If your immune system is struggling or not very strong, the symptoms have a tendency to linger and further challenges to the immune system (like lyme infections) can really overload it and you can get very sick very fast.

Since I've struggled with the viruses for most of my life, I think my immune system has always been challenged with them. And many people say that they didn't experience lyme symptoms after being bitten until they became ill with some other issue or experienced something traumatic or stressful that rocked their immune system.

Regarding the autoimmune condition, Hashimoto's, I would bet that if your lyme treatment is successful, you shouldn't have further damage to your thyroid. But you should also be supporting it with the right thyroid treatment, which is a complicated topic. More and more it's become apparent to me that most MDs don't really understand how to diagnose or treat thyroid disorders, and therefore patients are misinformed and go untreated, basically. Please visit www.stopthethyroidmadness.com for some of the best thyroid info I've come across.

Hope this helps—this forum is a great resource so glad you're here.

-p

Post Edited (Pirouette) : 8/3/2014 10:35:37 AM (GMT-6)

I guess I an pretty scared of getting a viral overload,then what happens.On 7/23/14,I was put on a 3wk course of doxy 200mg,2x day.But I am thinking not enough,and probably need a lot of something else.I was also diagnosed with CFS,back in 79.I am so blessed to have found everyome on here.I used to wait for darkness so that I could go to bed,and cry in frustration,now I can go to this woderfull board and not feel so alone.
THANKS

I will be a forever member

I'm so glad you feel at home here already. There are a great bunch of people here.