Early October. I'm in the gym. In good shape. Just ran a half marathon in my best time. I do my usually routine at the gym. Being that I feel good and I blew through it quickly, I decide to do a few sets of machine assisted hack squats. On the 1st set, all of a sudden, I get dizzy, heart starts racing, shortness of breath, I'm just flat out exhausted. That week, I have night sweats and this unnatural anxiety. I go to my PCP thinking that I just got a bout of mono or something that kicked in in the gym.

This just begins compounding. Next week, I feel like I have a lump in my chest, my gastro is screwed up. The following week, my back, and primarily the left side, goes into spasm. Twitches. You name it. Allergic reactions out of no where. I can't think. Just insanse.

I'm sitting there wondering to myself, what the hell happened. I mean, at first, I'm thinking it's a back injury that throws my entire back out of whack and has some kind of effect on my nervous system and just completely throws my system out of whack when combined with the stress of this whole situation.

The kicker is that this is the third attack like this I've had. I had one 7 years previous and another 7 years prior to that. Those weren't as severe, although very severe, I had no clue what was going on, toughed it out, always attributed to my back. But it made no sense since I never felt an ouch.

So on this occasion, I persist in trying to find out. Lyme seemed very fitting, since I grew up in CT and lived in the woods. I get an appointment with an LLMD and I have a positive Western Blot from Igenex after my Elisa's and Western Blot from Quest came back negative with my PCP.

I mean, WHAT HAPPENED? Can Lyme strike so acutely after prolonged periods of time? My LLMD says I have Lyme, but it seems like I have something else going on. I mean, I'm an ex pro athlete. Just got married, very little stress in my life. I have a positive IgG from Ingenex. I've gone through a myriad of tests, including a couple brain lesions on my MRI.

Welcome to Lymenet

You may have you answer simply by how you respond to the antibiotics (abx). If your symptoms seem to get worse all of a sudden while on the abx, and your LLMD confirms that your worsening symptoms are not related to a side effect of the abx themselves, then I'd guess with your history that it sounds like Lyme.

Lyme is a very intelligent critter. It knows how to hide out from our immune system. Even if that means it will camp out in our organs and brain for years until it senses a weakening in our immune defense, then it comes back out to attack.

It doesn't take much to invite the attack. A simple fall, a minor car accident, any physical or emotional trauma or stress--anything that we normally wouldn't think much about under normal circumstances--that weakens our own defenses a bit, invites the Lyme to come out of hiding.

That's why someone that is undertreated or untreated right at the beginning can end up ten/fifteen years later with a full blown attack, often affecting the central nervous system (including mental).

Who is your LLMD? Don't type his/her name, just "Dr." and the first initial of their last name. If you have a true LLMD, you should be fine following their adivce for treatment.

Let me get a good starter link for you in case you haven't seen it. I'll be right back.

This link has a lot of info:
http://flash.lymenet.org/ubb/Forum1/HTML/029917.html

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Tabby

I think you have ld and a co-infector--night sweats? That would be Babesia. I have Babesia and I only take one zith a month. My doc wont give me mepron because of the insurance--if you have money go with the mepron. And have your wife checked--you can get this sexually--any kids? Have them checked--if Mom has it the kids will have it too...Maybe wife had something and then it weakened your immune system more or maybe you got bit by a nymph baby tick and didn't even know it. Who knows where we get it.

I think I have had this since I was a little girl--I remember have titinitius when I was really small.

Then as I became a teenager my thyroid screwed up--the lyme will attack your thyroid--if you want to know more I can tell you about that.

But I can remember having night sweats really BAD in my early 20s--talk about anxiety! My thyroid was screwing up more and I was hyperthyroid...then when I meet my husband in my late 20s I had night sweats again--I think he had it or I was stressed by the wedding--but I feel like it shows up when I am stressed. Through all of this I was realitively fine...

But after I had my baby the sh*# hit the fan and I was sooo sick and didn't know what was wrong--incredible fatigue. After second baby I thought I was going to die with fatigue--honestly thought I would go into a coma. First the thyroid was found, then active ebstein barr and finally the lyme.

Your story doesn't sound that different--it is when your body is under stress (physical or mental) and your immune system can't kick it's scrawney bacteria bottem that it gets a foot hold. Any place you have had an old injury--the bacteria will go there--and then disappear in a few days--it will move around.

Your immune system is in the toilet. A lot of us have struggled with that for decades--you are so lucky you got diagnosed so quick.

If you have money go see Dr. C in MO. Just my opinion--that is where I would go if I could.

This is a great place for questions!

L

My Lyme came on really strong after a recent tick bite. I have since learned that I had Lyme for many years prior. There were so many medical mysteries that were never solved. Every single one of those mysteries was described exactly by somone else here on LymeNet. Stick around and you'll hear from people with similar experiences. My biggest "flare ups" in mystery symptoms were 4 or more years apart.

It's hard too for me to understand how I was functional with Lyme for so long and then suddenly became acutely ill. Now that I have been on antibiotics for 10 months, there are various aches/pains/allergies that are completely gone. Some of these were things I endured my whole life!

Welcome and wishing you the best. You'll get lots of support here.
hatsnscarfs

I mean, like I've said, I had two flares earlier in life that I fought off naturally. What I will say is that during each one of these periods in my life, I was drinking REALLY hard. This past year, I was at weddings what seemed like every weekend, stags, parties. And I binge. I mean, what it seems like in my case is that this bugger waits for some break in my health and then attacks. It's also odd that the intervals are so even, being that this attack is again on what seems to be like a 6.5 year anniversary. Should I mark it in my calendar or what? I mean, I literally thought I was going to die this time around, I was so impaired. Everything is coming back slowly, but surely. I'm not even sure if it's time or the antibiotics sometimes(been on tetra, levaquin, doxy, and minocyclin). Prior to this, I hadn't had as much as a cold in about 4 years. I thought my health was perfect. It's the acuteness of these attacks that I just don't understand. I could see Lyme slowly moving in. Feeling some aches, whatever. And I've never really had the arthritis.

I am seeing a very well reputed LLMD in Wilton, CT, Dr. P. He seems to think I'm a complicated case. Why, I don't know. I am currently under second opinion to a well reputed Lyme Specialist ID person, Dr. A-K in Stamford, CT. I'm covering all bases here.

I mean, I just don't know what to make of this. I mean, it happened IN THE GYM. I'm not sure if I injured myself and set off Lyme. I just depleted my immune system a bit too much in the gym and it struck. I had something else going on in my body that opened it up. I did have a bit of an inflamed pancreas on one ER run(maybe due to the drinking). I just don't friggin know.

I do know that I've battled this off naturally before, so it is possible(although it takes a long friggin time), although I don't know if my health was actually 100% or I just ignored all the little signs. This attack is easily the most severe, which is maybe due to age in this event. Another funny factor is that about 10 months before this attack, I did have this little bout of night sweats, tingling in my left pinky, some odd vision stuff. I went to the walk in and they said I probably did something in the gym. It blew over. I thought I was having a stroke or something at the time.

1) I think most people here in CT have been exposed. The strains of the bug keeps getting stronger and making people sicker. I know alot of people that have had it years ago (mostly kids) and are now fine (or appear to be). Then there are cases like my family that can't get rid of it. Over a year into treatment.

If I think back, I can remember dealing with periods of ear ringing when I was a kid and when I was in my 20s. These would last almost a half year. I belive that this was lyme that I just ended up fighting off naturally.

At 39, was exposed again, to this mutated strain that is just too much for me to handle on my own.

I haven't heard of anybody lately that gets it and can just brush it off and be totally ok afterwards...if it happens, its usually a kid or the person caught it very early.

I think growing up in CT and being exposed to it will make it worse the next time you are exposed. My LLMD Dr. R. (Stamford) compared it to a booster shot.

My wife and I both grew up in CT, and my kids haven't lived anywhere else. We brought a live Xmas tree into our house in Dec. 2003 that we cut from Thomaston. It probably had
nymphal ticks on it. And we we exposed.

2) Acute onset does happen.
Jan. 5. 2004, my wife seems to be feeling flu-like. Feels nauseous. Goes to the toilet to vomit. Has a massive immune response. Her body involuntarily cramps into a fetal position. I thought she was having a seizure, however, she was lucid, talking to me (screaming) the entire time. She remained paralyzed from the neck down for a week.

We didn't know it was lyme at the time.
A few weeks later, I wake up, ringing in the ears, and I can't figure out how to tie my shoes. Went downhill fast after that. I went to bed the night before just fine. Some sort of thing with my kids.

My point is, there is really no rhyme or reason to any of this, but the strain you get infected with makes a difference as well as your past exposure.

I hope this helps.

- Mike