posted
Hi there I'm a 30 year old women who recently started feeling all wrong.
It all started after I came home from our hunting cabin in the mountains. First symptoms where I was hanging laundry and my heart started to race, got dizzy and the urge to go to the bathroom all at once.
I made it upstairs and has to sit on our cold floor to keep from falling because my legs went weak and started to tingle. Then I got really hot but started shivering uncontrolled.
Once at the hospital it slowly went away but my stomach felt horrible. Now before I go on I have never had stomach issues before.
Since then I have been to the hospital 4 times, had flu like symptoms then got diagnosed with pneumonia.
I have head aches, stiff neck, muscle and joint pain, stomach and bowel issues , constant dizziness, fatigue, low fever, depressed feeling (I will cry for dumb reasons ),
blurred vision, sensitive to light and sound, and I'm losing way to much weight I now weigh 89 lbs which is 17 lbs less than before this started.
Please I need to know if lyme is a possibility since none of my doctor's have bothered to check but one brought it up.
(breaking this up for easier reading for many here)
posted
Yes, these are symptoms of Lyme disease. It means you were bitten by an infected bug(s) on your trip.
Just curious about the doctor who brought it up - that's a good sign re that doctor. Curious to hear what kind of doctor they are.
I suggest you start a post in Seeking a Doctor and ask for referals to Lyme-literate doctors in PA, or wherever you're willing to travel to see a doctor. We call these Lyme-knowledgeable doctors LLMDs, which stands for Lyme-literate medical doctor.
Could you say how recently your trip was? It matters, because if it was really recent, you have a chance to knock it out with sufficient antibiotics and you will need access to a doctor's office immediately who does triage care. But if more than say 3 months ago, then you'll be in treatment for Lyme.
The good news is, that once you start treating and finding out what works for you, you will feel better eventually. There's a lot of remedies that we do for the symptoms you're listing, and we have those conversations in Medical Questions and General Support.
You can also start reading info about Lyme disease in the sticky at the top of Medical Questions called Important Information on Lyme disease and Co-infections. Especially read through the Burrascano 2008 guidelines.
Posts: 13117 | From San Francisco | Registered: May 2006
| IP: Logged |
me
Frequent Contributor (1K+ posts)
Member # 45475
posted
Those are some classic Lyme symptoms. I suggest you see a qualified LLMD. You can get good referrals from here. The type of doctor and quality of the doctor is very important. The vast majority of doctors are dismissive of Lyme.
-------------------- Just sharing my experiences, opinions, and what I've read and learned. Not medical advice. Posts: 1431 | From USA | Registered: Mar 2015
| IP: Logged |
TF
Frequent Contributor (5K+ posts)
Member # 14183
posted
Where are you in Pa? I can give you the name of a good lyme doctor.
Posts: 9931 | From Maryland | Registered: Dec 2007
| IP: Logged |
posted
First let me say thank you to all the quick responses! I went one the trip right after 4th of July. I live right outside of Reading pa an I can't go more then 45 minutes away. Oh and the doctor that brought it up was a er physicians assistant really lol. Kind of funny since the one "doctor" there said it was all in my head and to take anxiety meds lol.
Posts: 3 | From Pennsylvania | Registered: Oct 2016
| IP: Logged |
TF
Frequent Contributor (5K+ posts)
Member # 14183
posted
There are VERY few good lyme doctors. They are not in every town and not in every large city. In fact, many states have no lyme specialists at all.
At least half of all lyme patients go out of state for their care, and many fly to see their doctors.
So, I hope you can see that if you want to regain your health, you MUST be willing to go more than 45 minutes away. You are more than an hour away from any major city!
The longer you let this go, the more it is going to progress. I don't want to scare you, but that is the way it is.
So, if you want the name of a very good doctor who can see you right away, let me know. He is near Washington, D.C. You would be in good hands with him. You should begin to feel better soon with his treatment.
Most good lyme doctors have 3 to 9 month waits to get in. You will find that out when you begin calling around.
So, once you understand all this, you will then see why I am offering you a name that can see you in a few days. You would only have to appear in person once every 3 months. He will do telephone or Skype appointments the other months.
I know the lyme docs in the eastern/central Pa. area. I know that the docs in Maryland are better than the docs in Philly. I have been helping folks find lyme doctors for many, many years.
So, once you see for yourself what is going on in your area of the country, you may then realize what I learned years ago: To give yourself the best chance of getting rid of this horrendous disease, go to the very best lyme doctor you can possibly afford.
Don't mess around. Choose expertise over location. People from Texas, New Mexico, Florida, Canada, upstate New York and Ohio are coming to see this doctor. He is getting people well. His practice is strictly lyme disease. And, that is what you want.
I have no doubt that you are suffering from lyme. That PA did you a great service. Lyme is embroiled in a major medical controversy that has been going on for at least 30 years. So, the PA actually told you about lyme at great risk to her career.
You see, the medical establishment has taken the stand that lyme is RARE and easily cured.
However, the truth is that lyme is worse than an epidemic and extremely difficult to cure.
So, just by mentioning lyme to you, the PA was violating the official stand that lyme is rare. I know this is hard to believe, but the Infectious Diseases Society of America (IDSA) has taken this stand and they are sticking to it in spite of the evidence.
See Support Groups on the left side of the page. Contact those near you and talk to some folks in your area. Learn all you can about what is going on. There is no substitute for an educated patient when it comes to this disease.
Just know that your situation is very common. I went undiagnosed for 10 years, going from doctor to doctor, being offered antidepressants because all of my blood work came back normal. I even went to John's Hopkins.
Finally I went to a very expensive very smart endocrinologist who tested me for lyme. After 10 years of being sick!
So, that is how bad it used to be. It is only a little better now.
A Boston TV station did a show on the lyme disease controversy a few years ago. Here is the Boston Chronicle video on YouTube:
I suggest you watch this video a few times. It explains the lyme disease controversy and the role the IDSA plays in making it difficult for a person to get good lyme treatment.
The best way to learn about this difficult to cure disease (which is really a number of diseases) is to read the Burrascano Lyme Treatment Guidelines found here:
You must attack both the regular and cyst (or other) form of lyme simultaneously--requires at least 2 different antibiotics taken together to do so.
You must test the patient for all co-infections and other physical ailments (thyroid, etc.) and treat everything the person has.
You must treat all co-infections the patient has(including babesiosis, bartonella, ehrlichia, mycoplasma, etc.) or the patient will not get well.
You must use Igenex for most of these tests--they are a tick-borne disease speciality lab in Calif. or another tick-borne disease speciality lab (Quest and LabCorp will not do)
You must use very high doses of antibiotics to kill the diseases (batericidal doses).
You must give the patient supplements, probiotics, herbs such as artimesinin if babesiosis is suspected, and require adherence to rules such as low carb diet, no alcohol, no smoking, rest, and exercise as the patient is able to do it.
You must treat at least 2 months after all symptoms have disappeared (if sick at least 1 year).
These are just a few of the important points you will see in the guidelines. If possible, you want a doc who does EVERYTHING Burrascano says to do. He treated lyme for over 25 years, and compiled what he learned so that other docs could benefit from it. He was the most successful lyme doctor on the planet. They came from every country in the world to be treated by him.
I got well once I went to a lyme specialist who followed the Burrascano protocol. It is now over 11 years since I was cured of lyme, babesiosis, and bartonella. (Nearly every lyme patient has these 3.)
I am so glad you found this website! I stick around just to point people like you to the good doctors who know enough to get folks well. There is a real lyme doctor learning curve! I don't want people to waste years with lousy lyme treatment like I did. A typical lyme patient treats and treats this disease for years without getting well.
So, you have to find one of the VERY FEW lyme doctors who knows enough to get rid of this disease for you. I know a few of them.
Posts: 9931 | From Maryland | Registered: Dec 2007
| IP: Logged |
The Lyme Disease Network is a non-profit organization funded by individual donations. If you would like to support the Network and the LymeNet system of Web services, please send your donations to:
The
Lyme Disease Network of New Jersey 907 Pebble Creek Court,
Pennington,
NJ08534USA http://www.lymenet.org/
UBBFriend: Email this page to someone!
![[Frown]](frown.gif)
Printer-friendly view of this topic