Lyme Disease Support Group
Lyme disease is the most common vector-borne disease in the Northern Hemisphere. It is now one of the fastest growing infectious diseases in the U.S. Lyme disease is caused by infection with the Borrelia burgdorferi bacteria, and is primarily transmitted to humans as well as dogs, horses and other domesticated animals by the bite of infected ticks.
HI, I'm new to this site.
My name is Jess, I'm 21. I was diagnosed w/ lyme about a month ago.
For about 8 years now I've had symptoms ranging from joint pain, muscle pain, joint stiffness, joint swelling, depression, anxiety, stomach pain, headaches, severe jaw pain, back pain, neck pain, neck stiffness/cracking, chest pain, palpitations
and the latest in the past 5 months or so: a red spotty rash on my face, chest, and arms... (kinda looks like a malar rash)
My symptoms get so bad to the point of where I think I'm dying- LITERALLY. It's insanely painful... I've had many trips to ERs for random things from the list above, and many complaints to the PCP.. and never got answers.. I literally thought that if my pain gets any worse-- I'll end up disabled at a very very young age... EVERYTHING HURTS!!!!!!!!
At this point I've only been to my PCP.... he gave me Doxycycliene 100mg twice a day
I have an appointment with a rheumatologist on the 25th..
I still feel absolutely awful
I've never had a "bulls-eye rash" so I'm unsure when the lyme could have started but my guess, if anything, would be about 8 yrs ago when all of my symptoms began
Is there a way to tell when the lyme started?
Did only 1 round of doxy clear yours up?
Was your ANA positive? ( mine was, also .. . in very high numbers)
Does ana usually raise w/ lyme?? could it be lupus? My pcp originally suspected lupus before the bloodwork results came in
Family history of autoimmune issues:
mother: fibromyalgia
grandmother: (maternal) fibromyalgia
grandmother: (paternal) granularous reticularis (rare autoimmune vascular disease)
My name is Jess, I'm 21. I was diagnosed w/ lyme about a month ago.
For about 8 years now I've had symptoms ranging from joint pain, muscle pain, joint stiffness, joint swelling, depression, anxiety, stomach pain, headaches, severe jaw pain, back pain, neck pain, neck stiffness/cracking, chest pain, palpitations
and the latest in the past 5 months or so: a red spotty rash on my face, chest, and arms... (kinda looks like a malar rash)
My symptoms get so bad to the point of where I think I'm dying- LITERALLY. It's insanely painful... I've had many trips to ERs for random things from the list above, and many complaints to the PCP.. and never got answers.. I literally thought that if my pain gets any worse-- I'll end up disabled at a very very young age... EVERYTHING HURTS!!!!!!!!
At this point I've only been to my PCP.... he gave me Doxycycliene 100mg twice a day
I have an appointment with a rheumatologist on the 25th..
I still feel absolutely awful
I've never had a "bulls-eye rash" so I'm unsure when the lyme could have started but my guess, if anything, would be about 8 yrs ago when all of my symptoms began
Is there a way to tell when the lyme started?
Did only 1 round of doxy clear yours up?
Was your ANA positive? ( mine was, also .. . in very high numbers)
Does ana usually raise w/ lyme?? could it be lupus? My pcp originally suspected lupus before the bloodwork results came in
Family history of autoimmune issues:
mother: fibromyalgia
grandmother: (maternal) fibromyalgia
grandmother: (paternal) granularous reticularis (rare autoimmune vascular disease)
It seems we are very lacking in research/tx of lyme..
He had no suggestion on what I had but he said it wasn't Lyme. He suggested I see a different kind of doctor. ID doc was a waste of time and big money for me.
I went to a rheumy..
He made me very very very confused...
He made the comment.. I don't think you have lyme..
I think you may have SLE (lupus)
I'm sooooooooooo confused.
My western blot said I have lyme?... He did not re-test for it either.. just ran more blood work to figure out mroe about the positive ana and if I have lupus .
:-/
Sorry that you are dealing with this. I was diagnosed with Lyme last month based on a CD57 test but my doctor is waiting on the test from Igenex for more information. Like you, I think that I've had this for a long time. I did test positive for ANA nuclear antibody a few months ago and a lot of my other immune system tests were messed up like low IGG and low IGM. My mom has had Rheumatoid Arthritis for 6 years now. I've read where ANA can be a sign that you have something like Lupus but I read also that someone can be completely healthy and have a positive ANA test, or that you are healthy and one of your family members has an auto immune disease and you may test positive for ANA although nothing is wrong with you. I suspect that Lyme could be the underlying cause of my mom's RA but she will not get tested. Not sure if I could have caught this through her. I grew up deer hunting, we had a lot of pets and spent a lot of time outdoors so it is hard for me to tell where I could have caught this. I guess at this point I need to just focus on getting better. I never noticed a bulls eye rash either.