I think I have had Lyme a long time, and I tried to get my DR to test me but he wouldn't- he just gave me a week's worth of meds because I was bitten and had the bull's eye.
No one believes I could have been bitten the day after Christmas 2014, because of the cold but it was nice enough that I was raking!
I am fearful that this is why I have been sick my WHOLE LIFE. Upon my father's death I moved back to my childhood home, surrounded on 3 sides by big decaying trees and in the summer you cannot sit in the yard w/o a tick on you within minutes. We constantly pick ticks off the stray cats around here, and they are sometimes so incredibly tiny!
I am going to ask my DR again today, been hardly unable to move with shooting pain in neck, knees, bad in my back. To scare me more, they diagnosed me with a heart murmur a couple of weeks ago and I never had one before. I am 44. They do not seem to be worried, and say it is most likely from the fibromyalgia I was diagnosed with in 1999.
My hands have been going numb the last couple weeks, and I am about ready to lose my mind with depression, lack of sleep, pain.
I am scared though, because this outlet of DRs at "UHS" gave me a hard time last year when I was bit by a spider. The ER DR said it could not have been what I saw with my own eyes: a brown recluse. Now it is a year later and there have been a lot of people saying they too have been bitten by recluse. I had a lesion that was black, and he was so much in disbelief he took a sample of it and came back and told me we were both right, there was staph in it, but it started as a bite. HE INSISTED it was from a Wolf spider.
I feel like taking my rent money and using it for a Lyme test?
Or buying those survival meds (doxy) and treating myself?
Are there any places we can have tests done, and then the DR will honor diagnosis and prescribe meds.
Posted by Lymetoo (Member # 743) on :
Fibromyalgia does not cause heart murmurs. That's for sure. Some who HAVE FM also have murmurs, but that's another story. Most are misdiagnosed and actually have Lyme.
Any chance you can get to an LLMD in NY? Which part of NY is Binghamton?
I think your gut instinct is correct. Keep pushing until you get tested. Some chiros will even sign off on the testing.
You can order a kit from www.igenex.com and when the "free" kit comes, you take it to your doctor and get the bloodwork done. When you send it in, you send the money also.
You may want to post your story over in Medical Questions also.
Posted by hopingandpraying (Member # 9256) on :
Welcome to Lymenet! PM sent for PA & CT.
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!
A LLMD is one who has treated Lyme disease and the co-infections which come with it for many years and has gotten patients well. A good one will follow Dr. B's Guidelines, the "gold standard" for Lyme treatment.
Scroll down for financial help, etc., available from several sources.
The Lyme Test Access Program (Lyme-TAP) is a nationwide patient assistance program to provide assistance for initial Lyme-related lab tests to patients who demonstrate true financial need. I think coverage is up to 75%. View on www.lymetap.com
Btw - I know you are new to Lymenet, but please break up your posts into 2-3 sentence paragraphs, as there are people on Lymenet who cannot read large blocks of text due to neurological problems from Lyme.
To do this click the pencil/paper icon, make your changes, then click "Edit Post". Thanks.
Also, you should not use your real name, because this is a public forum with all sorts of people on it. Read this link about it:
You would have to contact the moderators to ask how to change your username.
Posted by Judy Carley (Member # 49393) on :
quote:Originally posted by Lymetoo: Fibromyalgia does not cause heart murmurs. That's for sure. Some who HAVE FM also have murmurs, but that's another story. Most are misdiagnosed and actually have Lyme.
The sad thing? It was a cardiologist that my primary sent me to, that told me he commonly finds murmurs in fibromyalgia patients ;0(
Posted by Judy Carley (Member # 49393) on :
Thank you both!
Posted by mmicron (Member # 49649) on :