Hello everyone, I am a 20 yr old female in PA. I have a pretty long story for my age, but I will try to quickly summarize. I have been feeling like crap for years, but it has recently gotten much worse. my main issue has been fatigue. Also have had muscle aches, daily headaches, stomach issues, anxiety.
about a week ago I began having muscle aches that were unlike any that I had been having. The pain was excruciating in my legs, so I couldn't sit still. On day 2 of that I realized I had a fever so figured I was just sick. I work in a daycare in the infant room during the summer, and I go to college for occupational therapy.
The next day I started having watery diarrhea which lasted about 2-3 days. Then I started to feel a little better. So I went to work this past Friday and felt the worst I had felt all week. It hurt so bad just to pick up the babies.
That night I started running a fever again. The fevers were all low grade, about 100.5. I slept about 20 minutes that night because the muscle aches, mostly leg, came back and I sat on my bed rocking back and forth the entire night. In the morning I convinced my mom I needed to go to the ER.
My temp was 101.8 when we got there and my heart was racing the entire time. They found low potassium and treated that and gave 2 bags of fluids. The Dr then said that my Lyme test was unequivocal, neither positive or negative, so he gave me 21 days of doxycycline and told me to follow up with my Dr. He also said he thinks I have the coxsackie virus, as I have large ulcers in my throat.
So that was 2 days ago, my fever went back to being low but I don't think it has really broken at all since. And my throat is killing me, mainly due to one large ulcer I can see, and terrible headaches.
My mom is supposed to make an appointment with my GP to get the results of the western blot test, but I am not fond of my doctor at all and I've heard these tests can be tricky. So now I am trying to find a good doctor to go to, not too far because my mom hates travelling and was hoping for some help.
I have a list of 4 doctors so far, but I'm worried none will accept our insurance. So if anyone could help me find a doctor in PA that would be great. Also, since I am new to this I would love some advice on anything I should know, especially about getting accurate tests and diagnosis. Thanks to anyone who read all of this and for help in advance!!!
Posted by hopingandpraying (Member # 9256) on :
Welcome to Lymenet! PM sent for PA & MD.
You need to be evaluated and treated by a Lyme-literate doctor (LLMD). Non LLMDs have no clue about this horrible disease or its complex treatment!
LLMDs are far and few between, so you need to go where they are!
Also, most LLMDs do not take insurance due to the politics surrounding this disease. Read poster TF's explanation about this: