HealingWell
Search Close Search
☰

Burning head/ scalp pain

Support Forums
>
Lyme Disease
✚ New Topic ✚ Reply
❬ ❬ Previous Thread |Next Thread ❭ ❭
Posted 7/11/2015 5:25 PM (GMT 0)
Hello does anyone get this.. The back of my head all of a sudden starts to ache and burn. It gets bad to the point that I gets headache and start to feel nauseous then my eyes get very dry and I start feeling like I catching the flue I've had an mri with contrast and its normal I'm not sure what else to do I went to an ID dr who treat lump pts and he says I do t have Lyme but one band 58 showed abnormal in the igg now I'm thinking I should get a spinal tap:(
Posted 7/11/2015 5:52 PM (GMT 0)
Hi Jasflower -

Have you ever had the chicken pox? Most people who have are also then exposed to the shingles virus. And many people who have lyme also have various viral loads, due to the fact that ticks that carry lyme also carry other co-infections, viruses, fungus.

I get the exact same sensations in my scalp… it burns and aches and this usually coincides with a flare of viral load, being run down, not eating or sleeping enough or maybe high stress. Although, after contracting lyme this happens w/out provocation. I started taking antivirals awhile back, which has helped tremendously.

Lyme tests are notoriously unreliable. If band 58 showed up at all, chances are you do have lyme but you have a low immune reaction to it, due to low immune function. The best way to test is to provoke a more accurate immune response by taking Olive Leaf Extract or abx for at least 6 wks, which is a little over the lyme life cycle. The antibacterials should help give your immune system a boost and create more antibodies, which the serology tests (IGeneX Western blot is best) are looking for.

Also, ID doctors are also notoriously ignorant about lyme, symptoms, testing and treatment. Do yourself a favor and find a lyme specialist (LLMD) if you want to seriously answer the question of whether or not you have lyme.

Hope this helps.

-p
Posted 7/11/2015 5:55 PM (GMT 0)
Also — a comment about spinal taps:

I'm assuming your ID MD suggested the spinal tap?

Lyme don't live in spinal fluid in any great numbers, so it's not a test to rely on to diagnose (or to rule out) Lyme.

Lyme specialists don't generally look to spinal fluid to diagnose or to rule out Lyme. From the 2008 ILADS guidelines, posted at ILADS.org:

"Spinal taps are not routinely recommended, as a negative tap does not rule out Lyme. Antibodies to Bb are mostly found in Lyme meningitis, and are rarely seen in non-meningitic CNS infection, including advanced
encephalopathy.

Even in meningitis, antibodies are detected in the CSF in less than 13% of patients with late disease!

Therefore, spinal taps are only performed on patients with pronounced neurological manifestations in whom the diagnosis is uncertain, if they are seronegative, or are still significantly symptomatic after completion of treatment. When done, the goal is to rule out other conditions, and to determine if Bb (and Bartonella) antigens or nucleic acids are present. It is especially important to look for elevated protein and white cells, which would dictate the need for more aggressive therapy, as well as the opening pressure, which can be elevated and add to headaches, especially in children."

-p
Posted 7/11/2015 6:09 PM (GMT 0)
Thanks a lot this is very helpful to me ... I will find an llmd
Posted 7/11/2015 6:22 PM (GMT 0)
My scalp gets this way ALL the time. I would itch when its not necessary that itchy, but i would scratch and scratch and my scalp is just so dry.
✚ New Topic ✚ Reply