My symptoms have been gradual. I'm 29, male, from Utah. I think I have had some level of fatigue and brain fog, but not a lot, for about a year. Then 8 months ago, I started getting HOT red kneecaps, mostly in the evening or at night. Like, I would be fine the whole day, but then at night, they start feeling uncomfortable to stand on because the area is filling with blood. They would be like this regardless what I did. But no pain.
I went to doctors everywhere, I tested negative on every autoimmune test, RA test, biopsy. Still, my knees were getting hot nightly. NO pain. No evidence of arthritis on X-ray. And no hint of lyme from doctors, no idea what it is.
So then 4 months ago, I got costachondritis. Pain in the middle of my sternum region. It still lingers when I sneeze or lay flat. THEN I started getting heavy, fast heart beating at night a month ago. My hands and feet started getting red and hot. And then with that, stress/emotions/depression. Irritability with onset of symptoms. I got on doxepin to sleep through the night and I feel WAY better. Started taking supplements like magnesium, garlic, B12. I went on a low-dose (3.75mg/day) prednisone for a few weeks, which actually helped my feet and hand issue go away when I tapered off. (They say this is bad to do, but I wasn't sure if I had lyme at the time, it was a low dose, and I actually felt better during and after I was off).
I went to an LLMD and they gave me the Pharmasan Labs iSpot test. I got positive, with a result of 147. My research tells me this is a new lab, not FDA approved, yet my LLMD says they trust it 100%. Fishy, no? But yet, don't I seem to have many lyme symptoms? My LLMD didn't want to give me abx unless I needed them and gave me Nutramedix Samento and Lobelia to take everyday. I have been the last 5 days and while my knees started getting better, now they are worse actually. I get irritable and fatigued when it happens, like I can't control it. That's not an RA symptom, is it? Again, no pain.
So... is this a herx?
The other thing is ALL the research I have found indicates that nightly inflammation can totally lead to arthritis if not treated with ABX. My LLMD was unconcerned. It's only inflammation on the top of my knees, but still, I feel like this is different than typical lyme. If I don't want arthritis, I need to treat aggressively ASAP following a Buhner protocol, no? What do you guys think?
Posted by Lymetoo (Member # 743) on :
Well, I'm off to bed so I will move this over to Medical Questions for those who are on the Pacific time!
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