I was diagnosed with Lyme about two years ago, and contracted the rash as well as facial paralysis. I was treated with 21 days of doxycycline, and told this would be sufficient. I was then mostly symptom-free for nearly 2 years, when one day I noticed some pain in my elbow. I then started to get pain in other joints, but never in the same joint for more than a couple days in a row. The pain varies from mild to debilitating, depending on the joint affected. It seems I can usually prevent the symptoms from showing up if I make sure to eat well and get plenty of rest, but if I get sick or miss a few hours of sleep for a couple days, I'm struck with severe joint pain again. I saw a doctor at a walk-in medical clinic, who ordered a simple blood test which came back negative. I knew this was wildly innaccurate.
I started seeing a naturopath around September of 09, who sent me for multiple tests including a western blot at my request. I was found positive for current or past infection of babesiosis, and had 11 of 13 bands come back as positive for B. Bugdoferi in the Western Blot. Following my doctor's advice, the frequency of the joint pain flare-ups has gone down, but fatigue and flare ups are still relatively common; at least once a week for the joint pain(though lower severity than before), and fatigue at varying levels most of the time.
I'm a strong believer in natural medicine, though I'm not at opposed to antibiotics. For symptomatic relief, I would prefer natural/alternative medicine to pharmaceuticals but for actual eradication, I'm simply interested in what will work best(and well aware that full eradication is not very likely).
I'm interested in finding an LLMD in the eastern/central CT area or RI that is open to both conventional and alternative techniques for Dealing with Lyme.
Thanks in advance for any help.
Posted by Allie (Member # 10778) on :
I sent a PM.
Others should chime it too, since I don't have an exhaustive list of LLMDs for RI/CT.
Good luck, karrion.
Posted by Siciliano (Member # 15920) on :
Hi, Karrion and WELCOME to our lyme site. We're glad you came to us for help.
I have sent you a private message (pm) also.
Also, check out our great "Medical Questions" forum where you can ask all the questions you might have and our wonderful, knowledgeable members will answer them. Just read some of the threads and you'll see just how informative they are!
Karrion, you let us know if there is anything else you need. We are here for you!
![[hi]](graemlins/hi.gif)
Karrion and WELCOME to our lyme site. We're glad you came to us for help.![[Smile]](smile.gif)