On Tuesday this week I woke up after about 7 hours of sleep still very tired and my whole body ached (neck, arms, legs, etc). It continued throughout the day as did a headache and intermittent times of freezing one minute and sweating the next. This lasted until Thursday morning. Now the body aches seem to have vanished but I still have a headache and have occasional periods of sweats (no chills though). I also feel extremely fatigued.

I have taken my temperature several times and haven't noticed a fever.

My mother seems to think I have lyme's disease but I haven't really been outside (rural Wisconsin) and haven't noticed any ticks on me or the "bull's eye" rash. I have a dog that goes out every once and a while that might have brought a tick in. But like I said I can't find one on myself.

Is this worth going to a lyme specialist to get tested?? I am normally a very healthy person so these last few days have come as quite a surprise. I guess it could be the flu but I haven't really been exposed to many people and I don't have symptoms like a runny nose, sore throat, fever, etc...

Thanks.
 

By the way, if your testing for lyme, get a western blot, elisa's arent as reliable, and ask if it can be sent to Iggenex lab, as they are said to be the most reliable. Also testing for coinfections is important, especially with the night sweats and all. But dont panic, if it is lyme or another infection, and its treated right away correctly then you should be just fine. Best of wishes.

BB
 

IF you have lyme it is much easier to treat in the begining

The symptoms of lyme can be devasting if it is left untreated... I'm curently disabled from pain and fatigue (and i'm one of the lucky ones it hasn't mess up my memory much)

I'm not saying this to scare you and I'm not saying you definetely have lyme ... but you may and I just want you to realize that it can be a serious thing.

I did see a tic on me before i started with symtpoms (but the babies can be the size of this period . ) I didnt get the rash but i have lyme.

if you go to a dr go to a llmd because they are the only ones that understand lyme and they will also rule everything else out.

best wishes
 

Testing is chancey because all the commonly used tests are antibiody tests. What that means is that they detect your body's response to exposure, not the presence or absence of illness. If you have been exposed and it is just recently, you will not yet have an antibiody response to measure. It takes at least a month.

Many of us here have chronic Lyme disease due to delayed treatment yet, without a documented exposure, high risk factor, or rash, you will be hard pressed to get any treatment right now.

A lyme specialist who believes in chronic Lyme (that's a whole other story) might be willing to treat you prophylactically, just in case. While I can't recommend it, people have been known to scrounge antibiotics ("Doctor, my throat hurts so much!!!!)

I guess that I agree with the others in that, if you can, get yourself to a lyme specialist who actually treats Lyme, as opposed to "expertly" denying it's existence.

David
 

I will keep you posted.

Take care.