He said that if Lyme were the underlying cause of my son's virus's that he's been getting, that he would not get better right away.
The virus's would trigger a lyme flare-up and it would take weeks to months for my son to get well.
He's getting well from these virus's within a few days - normal recovery for strep throat, etc.
Dr. J is also not concerned with the swollen lymph nodes at all. That was a big relief for me.
So I am very happy. Dr. J is willing to do the western blot the IGENEX if I would like, but since he so strongly feels that my son is ok, I am going to hold off.
If my son starts showing more Lyme symptoms, I will call him back to do the blood work.
Thank you all for listening to me worry over this. I'm going to keep my fingers crossed that my little guy stays ok!
Posts: 65 | From Beacon Falls, CT | Registered: May 2007
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CaliforniaLyme
Frequent Contributor (5K+ posts)
Member # 7136
posted
*)!*)! I trust Doc J!*)!!)*!*)! !*)!*)!*)!*)!*)!*)!*)!)!*)!*!!
Glad to read that!!! Sincerely, Sarah
-------------------- There is no wealth but life. -John Ruskin
All truth goes through 3 stages: first it is ridiculed: then it is violently opposed: finally it is accepted as self evident. - Schopenhauer Posts: 5639 | From Aptos CA USA | Registered: Apr 2005
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Aniek
Frequent Contributor (1K+ posts)
Member # 5374
posted
Many Lymies don't get the common viruses. Or at least not the symptoms, because our immune systems are too weak to fight it off. The symptoms of most viruses are actually our immune system fighting.
-------------------- "When there is pain, there are no words." - Toni Morrison Posts: 4711 | From Washington, DC | Registered: Mar 2004
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Tracy9
Frequent Contributor (1K+ posts)
Member # 7521
posted
That is really interesting; I always wondered why I hardly ever get sick anymore with colds, etc
13 years Lyme & Co.; Small Fiber Neuropathy; Myasthenia Gravis, Adrenal Insufficiency. On chemo for 2 1/2 years as experimental treatment for MG. Posts: 4480 | From Northeastern Connecticut | Registered: Jun 2005
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posted
Hmmmm, maybe this also explains why my daughter, who has been in treatment for about 5 months finally caught the cold that's been going around my house...
Posts: 217 | From New Jersey | Registered: Apr 2007
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quote:Originally posted by Aniek: Many Lymies don't get the common viruses. Or at least not the symptoms, because our immune systems are too weak to fight it off. The symptoms of most viruses are actually our immune system fighting.
This is the same old Urban Myth that has been going around in CFIDS circles for years.
Lymies and PWCFIDS do get viruses and do show symptoms and, as Dr J says, when we do get a virus the sickest among us take weeks to months to recover because of nasty reactivations of our other players.
My opinion: if you haven't come down with the common viral things that are going round it's either because you have just been lucky not to have picked them up or because your immune system IS dealing with them properly, in spite of the Lyme and co.
If your immune system didn't fight off viruses you'd be dead, not symptomless!
Nelly
Posts: 416 | From france | Registered: Oct 2001
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quote:Originally posted by Aniek: Many Lymies don't get the common viruses. Or at least not the symptoms, because our immune systems are too weak to fight it off. The symptoms of most viruses are actually our immune system fighting.
This is the same old Urban Myth that has been going around in CFIDS circles for years.
Lymies and PWCFIDS do get viruses and do show symptoms and, as Dr J says, when we do get a virus the sickest among us take weeks to months to recover because of nasty reactivations of our other players.
My opinion: if you haven't come down with the common viral things that are going round it's either because you have just been lucky not to have picked them up or because your immune system IS dealing with them properly, in spite of the Lyme and co.
If your immune system didn't fight off viruses you'd be dead, not symptomless!
Nelly
That certainly seems to be my case. I catch viruses a few time a year and it takes me weeks to recover. My Lyme symptoms flare up as well.
-------------------- Why me? Well, why not me??? Posts: 411 | From San Francisco, CA | Registered: Mar 2007
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Michelle M
Frequent Contributor (1K+ posts)
Member # 7200
posted
Isn't that such sweet reassurance to your ears?
If Dr. J says it, you can rest assured it's so!!
Nobody, but NOBODY, knows kids like that guy!!
So glad you got to talk with him!!
Michelle
Posts: 3193 | From Northern California | Registered: Apr 2005
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posted
Congrats Michelle. Know that is such a relief! Have been watching ur posts and keeping up with you!
Keep your eyes open!!! Your a great mom for going the extra mile!
-------------------- Seeking renewed health & vitality. --------------------------------- Do not take anything I say as medical advice - I am NOT a dr! Posts: 830 | From TN | Registered: Aug 2007
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Aniek
Frequent Contributor (1K+ posts)
Member # 5374
posted
Nelly,
It's not an urban myth. It's something I've been told by more than one LLMD.
It's not every Lyme patient. It may not be most Lyme patients. But many Lyme patients do have suppressed immune systems.
I didn't say that the body doesn't fight the virus at all. But the system is suppressed and doesn't have as large a reaction in some people.
-------------------- "When there is pain, there are no words." - Toni Morrison Posts: 4711 | From Washington, DC | Registered: Mar 2004
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MariaA
Frequent Contributor (1K+ posts)
Member # 9128
posted
quote:Originally posted by nellypointis:
quote:Originally posted by Aniek: Many Lymies don't get the common viruses. Or at least not the symptoms, because our immune systems are too weak to fight it off. The symptoms of most viruses are actually our immune system fighting.
This is the same old Urban Myth that has been going around in CFIDS circles for years.
Lymies and PWCFIDS do get viruses and do show symptoms and, as Dr J says, when we do get a virus the sickest among us take weeks to months to recover because of nasty reactivations of our other players.
My opinion: if you haven't come down with the common viral things that are going round it's either because you have just been lucky not to have picked them up or because your immune system IS dealing with them properly, in spite of the Lyme and co.
If your immune system didn't fight off viruses you'd be dead, not symptomless!
Nelly
When I first got really sick with chronic lyme (which can't be confused with a cold at all) I didnt catch a cold for two years, and it previously had been normal for me to be sick with a cold three or four times a year. I didn't know about the 'urban myth' and this still happened.
I started a thread here called 'not getting colds or flu for a long time' (or some such title) last year, and several people reported the same experience, the most amazing story being a schoolteacher of young kids who stopped getting colds after getting Lyme- which would be really odd for someone dealing with a classroom of young kids.
Maria
-------------------- Symptom Free!!! Thank you all!!!!
posted
Thank you everyone! It certainly was music to my ears to hear Dr. J speak that he thinks my son is still ok!!!
But for some strange feeling, I still feel like that darn tick bite is going to come back to haunt him. I suppose only time will tell.
Thank you so much for your support! I certainly can sleep a little easier after Dr. J's great phone call!!!
Posts: 65 | From Beacon Falls, CT | Registered: May 2007
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posted
"...the most amazing story being a schoolteacher of young kids who stopped getting colds after getting Lyme- which would be really odd for someone dealing with a classroom of young kids."
Maria...Was that me?? I had that exact experience!
-------------------- --Lymetutu-- Opinions, not medical advice! Posts: 96223 | From Texas | Registered: Feb 2001
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CaliforniaLyme
Frequent Contributor (5K+ posts)
Member # 7136
posted
I haven't had a cold since Lyme pretty much. And I have 2 kids, 10 & 2!!!!!!!!!
-------------------- There is no wealth but life. -John Ruskin
All truth goes through 3 stages: first it is ridiculed: then it is violently opposed: finally it is accepted as self evident. - Schopenhauer Posts: 5639 | From Aptos CA USA | Registered: Apr 2005
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quote:Originally posted by CaliforniaLyme: I haven't had a cold since Lyme pretty much. And I have 2 kids, 10 & 2!!!!!!!!!
Since you got Lyme or since you started getting treated for Lyme?
Anyhow, I'll happily conceed that some people stop getting colds when they get Lyme or CFIDS but certainly not that "when you have Lyme or CFIDS you just don't get the symptoms of colds and flus", because one reason I had to give up work was because I caught every viral thing and it always made me so ill and I always took months and months to recover. To the point that I had become known as being obsessive and weird because I prefered not to be kissed on both cheeks twice a day by every member of staff, once on the way in, once on the way out as required by local custom here in France. No shaking of hands from me either, but despite all these over the top precautions, I still caught everything that went round.
One clever ID doctor said to me: "you'll never recover if you don't give up being a teacher" His wife had CFIDS and was a teacher and she had to stop working. I did too, about a year after he told me, I thought I could beat it, but the months long viral flares nearly killed me, I had no choice.
During 'flu season, we stack up on food and we avoid contacts with the outside world, well, crowded places that is, (my husband works mostly from home), and now I don't get these viral things. If J has to go and meet people during 'flu season, he wears a mask at home for a few days and he has to sleep in the quarantine room, and he has to use the spare bathroom.
It's a pain in the neck but I have avoided most nasties since we have started doing things like this.
On a few occasions I really thought a viral respiratory thing was going to spell the end of me. It triggered really, really bad heart things and an adrenal-storm-like episode which landed me in hospital. I couldn't even watch TV I was such a mess.
In short: getting viral things are just about my worst fears, so that's why I react when I hear others spread this notion that "we don"r get viral things"
Husband with Lyme also gets very sick with viral things
Nelly
Posts: 416 | From france | Registered: Oct 2001
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CaliforniaLyme
Frequent Contributor (5K+ posts)
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posted
Since I got Lymed!!! Even when sick as heck and getting sicker I bypassed all colds & flus- pre Lyme treatment~!
and my whole life I was someone who almost always DID get sick too!!! Weird.
Don't miss it though-
-------------------- There is no wealth but life. -John Ruskin
All truth goes through 3 stages: first it is ridiculed: then it is violently opposed: finally it is accepted as self evident. - Schopenhauer Posts: 5639 | From Aptos CA USA | Registered: Apr 2005
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pamoisondelune
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Member # 11846
posted
I'm on Day 39 of a cold. Presumably because of lyme.
Posts: 1226 | From USA | Registered: May 2007
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quote:Originally posted by CaliforniaLyme: Since I got Lymed!!! Even when sick as heck and getting sicker I bypassed all colds & flus- pre Lyme treatment~!
and my whole life I was someone who almost always DID get sick too!!!
Me too. I suddenly stopped getting all colds etc. when I got sick with lyme, I'm talking for many years. Pre-treatment. I was in a school environment too, it was weird. After lots of good treatment the colds have returned! (The only downside.)
Posts: 621 | From US | Registered: Jun 2006
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merrygirl
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posted
I was wondering what became of the phone call. Glad to hear Dr. J. says all ok!
Melissa
Posts: 3905 | From USA | Registered: May 2007
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CaliforniaLyme
Frequent Contributor (5K+ posts)
Member # 7136
posted
Yup, in the past 9 years I have had ONE tiny sniffling cold for a few days- that's it- and I was someone who would end up in bed for 2 weeks every year, completely debilitated by colds that other people didn't GET so sick from!!!
I hope your sons Lyme experience is over forever, JaimeS!*)!*)!)!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
-------------------- There is no wealth but life. -John Ruskin
All truth goes through 3 stages: first it is ridiculed: then it is violently opposed: finally it is accepted as self evident. - Schopenhauer Posts: 5639 | From Aptos CA USA | Registered: Apr 2005
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