Hi, I think I have been suffering with Lyme for about a month. I went to my doctor June 3 for extreme dizziness, confusion, severe headache and what I thought was an infected insect bite of some sort. He said the infection could cause dizziness, and put me on 10 days worth of cephalaxin. That night, my "bite" blistered (looked and felt like a burn) across the back of my knee. I spoke to dr over the phone and he prescribed 10 days of Valtrax to treat what he now believed was shingles. Stayed on Cephalaxin, as well. June 7 test results came back negative for Lyme (ELISA?), and no elevated white blood count.
Fast forward to June 19. All symptoms recurring, except the rash blisters dried up and appeared to be healing. The entire area around it was very sore and inflamed (Urgent Care doc called it cellulitus and did not believe it was caused by shingles). She suspected tick infection of some sort. I continue to feel fuzzy-headed and exhausted, with off and on earaches and ringing. Sore skin on other parts of my body (feel sunburned, but I'm not). Flat personality - I am usually pretty perky and athletic - not the past several weeks. Urgent Care doc called with results today: Western blot reveals Lyme, but no elevated white blood cell levels. Also evidence of infection with Rocky Mt fever, but not sure when. She is concerned that I still feel fuzzy/dizzy and recommended that I follow up with an infectious disease specialist.
Any suggestions would be much appreciated. Not sure how to proceed, what to believe, etc. Thank you in advance!
Posted by Lymetoo (Member # 743) on :
OH my. If you have a positive western blot then you need treatment ASAP. Are you on antibiotics right now?? If not, call your doctor and demand treatment. You can't afford to wait ANY LONGER.
This will be much harder to clear if you wait.
Could you please copy and paste this over to Medical Questions? You will get lots of help there. Infectious Disease drs will only treat for a month at most. You are going to need more than that. The ID dr would be OK while you wait to see an LLMD... but that is all they are good for.
An LLMD is a Lyme Literate MD. I sent you a list of names of LLMD's.
Each forum also has special links at the top of each page containing information you may find helpful.
Posted by t9im (Member # 25489) on :
Hi Nature Girl:
Welcome unfortunately you have entered the Lyme controversy but many here like Lymetoo above can help.
Ticks carry many infections, not just Lyme. It sounds like you may have Bart and Lyme and if you've run a high fever (although Babesia takes a few weeks) you may also have Babesia.
You should be on at least 3 weeks of Doxycycline 400mg /day. This is late for Lyme but at least a start for erlichia.
Posted by Nature Girl (Member # 32509) on :
Thanks so much to both of you. To my knowledge, I have not had a fever during the entire month, unless it was low-grade. I generally read at about 97 degrees. I am on 100mg of Doxycycline 2X/day. The doctor at the Urgent Care prescribed that when I was in over the weekend (she also gave me IV antibiotics, but I forget the name...). Is erlichia what causes Bart?
Good advice about the ID - I wouldn't have known that. I will check out the Medical Questions forum, too. I'm also hoping to watch "Under our Skin" - should be rebroadcast on public tv this weekend locally.
Thank you!
Posted by Lymetoo (Member # 743) on :
Many (maybe most) Lyme patients do not have an appreciable amount of fever.
Ehrlichia is a coinfection. It is related to RMSF. I'm glad you'll be able to see Under Our Skin!!
