Hello everyone. I'm a 40 year old man. Three years ago I had a series of things happen to me that caused me to be chronically disabled and ill so I'm trying to find answers and recover. Around then I caught Epstein Barr and XMRV virus infections. I also was bitten by fleas from an outside cat in Eastern North Carolina. I recalled after getting bitten initally I had a flu like illness with a few abdominal rashes that looked like contact rashes, back pain and fatigue. The fatigue continued and then I developed night panic attacks, muscle pain, severe depression, occasional bone pain and nausea. The drug benecar palliates the depression for a few hours and sunlight increases it and gives me frontal headaches. From the time that this started I lost the ability to get a fever and my body temperature runs cold (97F). I'm negative for lyme on a Western Blot and my symptoms don't match and the Epstein Barr virus has cleared.
From what I've read this is probably bartonella sp. however the MDs in this area are incompetent to manage it. Most have never heard of the illness so asking them to treat based on clinical symptoms has gone nowhere. There is only one reliable lab test for this from Galaxy Labs in NC which has patented the test and uses three samples in an amplified growth media.
Has anyone had a similar case of bartonella sp as this? I'm really worried about whether the lab test is positive. My life is also falling apart. I have to move into public housing shortly to reduce rent and am fighting disability rejection. MDs also haven't been supportive of disability except for one alternative one who felt sorry for me.
Posted by rmsfnc (Member # 27539) on :
pm sent.
Posted by fadingout (Member # 32511) on :
Thanks for the PM. Another patient with bartonella has the same presentation. This is encouraging!
Posted by canefan17 (Member # 22149) on :
That is ALL Bartonella.
Treat it asap
Posted by jeninma (Member # 31544) on :
My son continues to test negative for Lyme Has tested positive for Bartonella Is very sick (after 4 months of oral antibiotics) Hasn't had a temp. in years but does get hot to the point of needing ice.
Posted by ardraneala (Member # 31416) on :
those are my symptoms, two specialists have told me bart now, from two different countries
Posted by fadingout (Member # 32511) on :
Thanks Canefan. Much as I hate to do it I'm going to hold off another four weeks to get the Galaxy blood test before I start treating it. Until then I'll keep living on benecar, tylenol and ibuprofen. It's amazing how incompetent these MDs are. I went to an alt med and many regular ones and none of them has ever heard of bartonella sp. They are so inadequately trained. If I hadn't read up on it myself I would have been left to die with a false diagnosis of chronic fatigue syndrome.