I believe I had my first flare the summer of 1996. I'm *hoping* to get my diagnosis on Wed, but I thought I was going to get it last month, so we'll see.

What's meant by "tertiary" in you diagnosis?

First bite in 1978. Bulls eye... crazy rash on the feet... extreme fatigue. My immune system got it under control. Second bite in 1998. That's when my life started being infiltrated with weird and unexplainable symptoms. I was Dx'd on July 31 of this year. I have a feeling this date will live in my mind forever... but I do have lyme you know, so I could forget... uhmmm... what was I saying...? Did I say something....? Oh never mind my mind!

Thanks for the chuckle Donna! Right, that's your name, right? ;)
Jenn
ps - I laughed the 2nd time I read it too.....

We thought 3 years initially, judging by some crazy cardiac stuff and the onset of extreme fatigue, but after some thought I place it at nearly 5 years; I recall a week of crazy high fever with no other symptoms, then after the fever went away, I went to the doc because I was so tired. Turns out I was preggers, so no farther testing done at the time. I lost that one, and another after it; lyme causes miscarriages. Thank God for my current bundle of...errr..ummm....joy?! Somewhere along the way I was dignosed as depressed.

Tertiary meaning stage three since it was found in my cerebral spinal fluid. new dx is Tertiary Neuro/Cardiac Lyme Disease...ahhh what's in a name except more letters on a chart, no physician takes it anymore serious than if it said I had Lyme disease in my left pinky toe!

Huggssssss

Lorraine

I haven't been dx'd with lyme yet, only bartonella (really high titers). My only known exposure was in 1999 to a cat who almost died from hemobartonella. I started going downhill w/extreme fatigue around 2001 and in 9/07 another dr dx'd cat scratch fever from swollen glands in my neck and scratches on my arms (from a different cat) w/o a test and gave me a script for an antibiotic. I was already on one for a UTI and could barely tolerate that one so I figured one antibiotic was as good as another (what did I know???) so I never took the clarithromycin. I have had cats my whole life and had no clue that cat scratch fever was bartonella until a DS friend mentioned it was a coinfection of lyme just a couple of months ago. And the vets that treated the cat never told me it could be transmitted to humans. I guess that's why the call it practicing medicine. It's just some drs don't practice so good....

I had a TB in with BE in '86, and another in '88 . I thought the 2nd was a spider bite and subsequent reaction. I even went to the doctor's and he agreed! My Elisha screen (1st time ever tested) just came back positive in July '08 and the WB was negative. Next the controversy about whether is was Lyme! I definitely remember removing the 1st tick and the classic rash that followed, though. My pcp sent me to a LLD and he started me on abx about 6 weeks ago. He said he would not test for several months. I think I am going to ask that he checks for co-infections after learning more about all this stuff!

Four months in -- too late for me to prevent chronic lyme or lyme-induced fibro or whatever this is.

Hopefully we can assist in changing this messed up system for other potoential victims!

4 years of thinking I was nuts....Tx of sx and many tests.....all which came back negative in Canada.