My husband has Lyme in addition to a herniated disc in his C-spine.
Both came on at the same time. I have no idea if they are related.
It is hard to know sometimes if his headaches and pain are from Lyme or the disc.
I would love to hear about this too.
Posted by randibear (Member # 11290) on :
i, too, would be especially interested in hearing from those with cervical issues.
since my fall mine is getting much worse. how much is lyme i don't know.
they won't do an mri until at least a couple of months. i think that's stupid but the insurance says you have to do conservative treatment first.
when you're in pain, i think they should do one immediately. guess you have to go to the er for that.
Posted by tdtid (Member # 10276) on :
This is always a tough call. I know my daughter was a cheerleader in high school when they were a full tumbling squad.
During her gymnastics training for cheering, she was doing the backward flips across the mat and during one of them, took a spill.
She was out for the season since they said she had a herniated disc, but this made sense. She had a major tumble and KNOWS when she hurt it.
It did get better with time, but then years later, when she was cheering in college, she noticed the pain coming back but she hadn't injured it this time.
Eventually, other things started going on and since I had been diagnosed with lyme after it left me unable to walk, many of her symptoms looked similar.
In my case, I was told I had degenerative disc disease.
So whether a herniated disc is related at all, it's hard to say, but I do know if you have had an injury, a surgery or whatever, that lyme does love to travel to that area and cause havoc.
Good luck and hopefully you will find something that will settle down the pain since it's not fun no matter what it's caused from.
Cathy
Posted by tickedoffjan (Member # 15944) on :
I know that I have 3 herniated disks. Two in cervical and one lumbar. I'm not sure if there is any connection to lyme but would love hearing others opinions.
Posted by tickssuck (Member # 15388) on :
Hi,
I have posted before on this. For me, IMO, it is completely related.
After infection I only had mild symptoms, didn't seek a doctor (night sweats, itchy skin etc.). Several months later the nagging neck pain started, got worse over about 4 months, then BAM, huge, dibilitating cervical herniation.
I was told 90% of people recover from such a herniation on their own, without surgery, fine. 6 months after my C6-7 herniation, the multiple, terrible neuro symptoms started, was in the ER twice. After a year of the neuro stuff, I had surgery on my C6-7 as I was in the unlucky 10% where it didn't improve and got worse.
Of course, the surgery did little to nothing to relieve me of the neck pain and all my neuro symptoms remained. It took another year to finally get figured out - Lyme, Babs, Bart, Ehrlichia and Mycoplasma.
I know people can have spontaneous disc ruptures. However, for me, the timing was all there - when Lyme infection was there, cervical issues began. In my heart of hearts I know Lyme and company caused the deterioration of my disc, though I guess I'll never be able to know for sure or "prove it" to any doc. By the way, I have also read several times that cervical issues among Lyme patients is much higher than the general "non-Lyme" population.
That's my story. TS
Posted by WeRAll1 (Member # 18674) on :
Eric I have read in many places and seen people talking about this connection.
Not seen proof.. But I have had these issues and it is interesting because I had the issues for the year leading up to getting fully ill and was not sure why.. Just kept having degeneration and herniation and was always treating the back.
To this day.. I get epiderals.. Every year... I am so trying to skip this year... I do not want to depend on them.
But.. well. I had to .. to walk..
Posted by Amanda (Member # 14107) on :
A few weeks ago I saw where someone on this site was asking for people with spinal issues to contact them. They were working with some doctors to make this connection.
I remember one person saying that they had MRIs over a 2 or 3 years period, and that the doctors were astonished at the amount of degeneration, given that the person did not have a degenerative disease or an accident.
My worst symptom is neck pain, I have not been able to sit for more than 15 minutes at a time for almost three years because it makes my neck pain worse. I had an MRI, and they only found a small bone spur, not enough to account for all this pain. OFten times, I will get a burning sensation at the base of my skull
Posted by janis1023 (Member # 15942) on :
TS I am with you. It has to be Lyme related.
I'm not outdorsey so there is no logic in my being bit by a tic,
and I am not athletic so there is no logic in my having 2 bulging discs, a cyst on my lower right back that rests on a joint and can hurt like a @4#%, lower back pain all the way across, and I can't lift my legs to put my pants on!
It's damage from the bacteria or from auto-immune.
I had high ANA in 1999.
Posted by LuLuFlorida (Member # 12066) on :
My brother has herniated disks in C2 and C3. Our LLMD said that is was caused by lyme because he has never been in any car accidents or dont anything that could have caused it. He also said with treatment it should get better.
Posted by lpkayak (Member # 5230) on :
from tdtid:
"but I do know if you have had an injury, a surgery or whatever, that lyme does love to travel to that area and cause havoc."
i agree-from yrs of experience-what i have seen and gone thru myself
Posted by lymebrained (Member # 22066) on :
i had 3 spinal cord injuries my former llmd's said were absolutely linked to lyme, though my neurosurgeon and other drs refused to believe that
i have degenerative disc disease...age 37 and i have recurrent cervical myelopathy, which means that the discs keep moving and compressing my spinal cord so i was temporarily paralyzed 3 times and i never know when it is going to happen again
I know too it is caused by the lyme.
Most of my pain now is in my neck, back and legs...the areas that were most affected by my spinal cord injury so lyme does travel to that area alot.
Posted by Amanda (Member # 14107) on :
I never participated in sports that would hurt my neck, I never had a fall. I have no autoimmune disease, low ANA, in fact low immune cell counts. In fact, I was in a car accident a while ago before Iw as sick and they did an MRI and everything looked great.
Then I get sick with lyme and Babs. I was in bed most of the time. Then one day I woke up with neck pain and not being able to sit more than 15 minutes, out of nowwhere, lying in bed..
HAd another MRI done, and there is deterioration at c-5, c-6. Its gotta be lyme.
Made big mistake and had a steriod shot doen in the area. 30 minutes after that shot, I started having hearing problems, facial twitches, other muscle twitches... The doctor that gave me the shot said he had never seen or heard of a reaction like mine. So, its gotta be that the shot suppressed my immune system, and sent the lyme into overdrive. IT also made my neck pain worse.
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