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I just got blood work done yesterday and havnt got the first phase results back yet but Im pretty confident that Im dealing with lyme. It has been an absolute nightmare and I feel like I need to vent and maybe get some feedback from anyone else that has had experience with it.
It all started about 2 months ago. I was taking my socks off getting ready for bed and found a strange scab on my shin that looked really different. It was very blotchy and flaky and when I touched it it fell away instantly and left no indication of a wound or anything under it. I had no recollection of hurting myself there and didnt really think much of it at the time other than it looked really strange and not good at all.
Fast forward about a week and I started having really severe hip pain that would radiate down my leg and into my feet. I tend to do a lot of running around at work and I do get pains now and then so this was pretty unremarkable at the time so I just popped some ibuprofen and toughed it out.
The pain came and went for a couple days and I wasn't too concerned until a little bit later my left testie started to ache along with it. The pain went from a small pulse to being kicked in the crotch full blast every 2 seconds in a matter of days. I had also noticed I was waking up drenched in sweat in the middle of the night with extremely bad shakes and weakness that made me dizzy and extremely sick to my stomach.
At this point I had entered full panic mode as I could tell something was horribly wrong with my body. During this time I had no recollection of the strange scab being significant and started to assume I had testicle cancer or some kind of auto immune issue in my hip. I quickly made my way to the doctor and explained the pain and she ordered blood testing. While I was there I asked them if there was anything I could take for anxiety and she recommended an SSRI gave me a prescription and sent me home to wait for blood test ressults. I started to take the SSRI the next day and thats when I got hit with the major symptoms.
My brain felt like it was being scoured with acid. A constant cold burning sensation would flow up from my neck into my head and then wash down my body / torso / limbs leaving me in convulsions and extremely weak. There was no way to fall asleep because there more I tried to focus on sleeping the more intense the sensation would get. I stopped taking the ssri because I had suspected it was making things worse. The symptoms got worse and I had stopped sleeping. I had stopped eating. I was in a fever state 24/7 my entire body was in constant nauseating agony and I had to piss every 5 minutes regardless if I drank anything or not.
About 4 or 5 days later I had went back to the doctor and she had discussed the blood work results. Everything came back normal and she said other than me losing about 17 pounds in 2 weeks there was nothing wrong with me. This was the point where I had lost my mind. I had basically been so sick that I couldn't leave my bed for longer than an hour without passing out and there was apparently no reasonable explanation that could be provided. I still had not put together the symptoms and the bite on my shin.
So I went home and basically had just accepted that I was going to die as I got sicker and sicker and there was nothing anyone could do. A couple days later I started losing the ability to walk or even lift cups and plates. My wife and I decided I should go to the emergency room. I had to have her open the car door for me because I could barely even stand at this point I was so weak the door was an unmovable object.
After explaining my symptoms the hospital staff did more blood work on me.. did an xray of my chest and pelvis did scans of my testie checked my liver and kidneys. Everything came back normal. They had no idea what to tell me so they basically gave me some fluids in an iv and some pain meds and wished me good luck as I went back home to suffer in absolute desolation.
My father called me the next day and asked me if I had been bitten by any ticks because he thought it sounded like I had lyme. I told him no but later after thinking about it I had finally remembered the small scab on my shin (theres no sign of it ever even being there other than the fact that there is no hair on that part of my leg anymore) and started looking up information on lyme disease symptoms. Everything clicked. The symptoms mirrored mine perfectly and it was easily treatable with simple antibiotics. I called the doctor and scheduled a visit with my new self diagnosis and got some antibiotics.
So after having taken the antibiotics (I was prescribed amoxicillin for 4 weeks) for a little over a week the fever and intensity of the symptoms have slowly started to dissipate. The awful burning sensation is mostly gone except for a light bit of it for a couple hours after I take the pill. Apparently I start to feel the symptoms again after taking the meds as the bacteria is being killed off it releases toxins into my system that make me feel sick. after about 3 hours I start to feel a little bit better. my weight is still ping ponging back and forth between 150/155. (my avrg weight is around 175)
The shakes and sweating are much milder now and im able to sleep now for stretches of 5-6 hours without too much trouble. I still have extreme joint pain and discomfort pretty much all over and my stomach is still very upset all the time ( feels like my gut is being clenched constantly ) but the flu like feeling has gone away for the most part. Its still really hard to eat and im getting some uncomfortable heart palpitations that seem to originate from my stomach. these are increased after taking the meds. but seem to be hopefully wearing off as I recover. When I first started taking the meds my heart rate would sky rocket so bad that I was afraid to even move.
I get some slight numbing sensations in my feet and hands and my head/neck aches really bad pretty much all the time and my joints are popping and snapping like popcorn anytime I move them but compared to what I was feeling like before I started taking the meds I am doing better. I still got 2 and a half weeks to go so hopefully I continue to recover.
 
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TLADT24920 Posts
Sounds like you've had quite the experience. Glad you figured out the cause and are on your way to recovery! Best of luck!
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United States24740 Posts
Good luck Coagulation. Please let us know how things go. If your treatment goes well make sure you buy your dad a nice steak dinner or something when you are better.
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kitaman27
United States9245 Posts
Hope the recovery goes well!
It's kinda crazy to think that things could go downhill so quickly without the doctors having any ideas what is wrong. Must have been a scary couple of weeks.
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Hey man, sorry to hear you have been sick and experiencing this, please post back soon to let us know if your symptoms have improved after taking the antibiotics.
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That sucks good sir. Make sure you actually get a diagnosis as opposed to self diagnosis via internet or friends.
Good luck to you. I hike quite a bit in PA... ticks surely are troublesome.
My girlfriend came home from hiking one day and I found one on her hairline... little fucks.
I had one on me after a music festival.. was able to get a pocket knife underneath it luckily and flick it out of the car before it stuck in good.
Hope everything works out for you, those symptoms sound bad.
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There's no way you have a bacterial infection that doesn't show up in your blood.
Nevermind they dont cause inflammation.
Either way, wish you a good recovery and hope you find out what it is. Some causes you can only diagnose when you know what you're looking for.
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Damn dude thats rough, glad you did get a solid diagnosis though, surviving is definitely a helpful aspect of life.
Go slap the shit outta those doctors.
Also, fuck ticks.
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Damn, when you're that sick you should basically be trying to find a new doctor every day until you can get a reasonable diagnosis. I didn't used to think this way until I was misdiagnosed myself (for a very benign thing though).
Get well soon.
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I am not really sure, what do you make of the scab? Lyme is transmitted by ticks, tick bites do not leave particularly interesting scabs and the main tell is the red circle around the bite. Self-diagnosing is not a very reliable thing to do, because you faces enormous confirmation bias. I wouldn't call it diagnosed until a definitive objective result comes back.
In any case, given your symptoms, I find it curious that the doctors took it so lightly. It really does look neurological (but I might be also biased, given my neurological condition) and neurological issues should not be taken lightly. Maybe it was just specialisation blindness? It really happens a lot in the modern medicine, where doctors have troubles seeing obvious things when they are not in their particular field.
For your own sake, I hope the tests come back positive and you'll know what you are dealing with. If they don't, but you get better after the antibiotics, I urge you to not take that as a sign that those worked - I don't want to stress you unnecessarily, but the symptoms you describe could be an MS relapse, which often gets better on its own after a couple of weeks.
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Canada11355 Posts
Well now I feel bad not hanging out in the music room more. Get well soon coag I hope it's not lyme disease
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Yea without the bullseye rash and a history of hiking through some northeastern woods, Lyme disease is going to be hard to pin down since the other symptoms are nonspecific (fever/malaise) or can be attributed to other stuff (arthritis/neuropathy/heart disease), unless you happen to have them all at once I guess.
Reminds me of a friend who got malaria in Korea, the doctor didn't diagnose it correctly and the guy lost 20 pounds in two weeks while feeling straight up like shit.
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On May 17 2017 23:45 riotjune wrote:
Yea without the bullseye rash and a history of hiking through some northeastern woods, Lyme disease is going to be hard to pin down since the other symptoms are nonspecific (fever/malaise) or can be attributed to other stuff (arthritis/neuropathy/heart disease), unless you happen to have them all at once I guess.
Reminds me of a friend who got malaria in Korea, the doctor didn't diagnose it correctly and the guy lost 20 pounds in two weeks while feeling straight up like shit.
I live in Michigan in the woods. For what it's worth the doc had said she thought I was right after I discussed it with her.
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On May 18 2017 00:31 Coagulation wrote:Show nested quote +On May 17 2017 23:45 riotjune wrote:
Yea without the bullseye rash and a history of hiking through some northeastern woods, Lyme disease is going to be hard to pin down since the other symptoms are nonspecific (fever/malaise) or can be attributed to other stuff (arthritis/neuropathy/heart disease), unless you happen to have them all at once I guess.
Reminds me of a friend who got malaria in Korea, the doctor didn't diagnose it correctly and the guy lost 20 pounds in two weeks while feeling straight up like shit. I live in Michigan in the woods. For what it's worth the doc had said she thought I was right after I discussed it with her.
Well that narrows down the diagnosis, I think it's a pretty good chance of it being Lyme disease as you said. So two weeks doxy? Hope you get well soon.
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Pretty sure Lyme disease is uncurable but manageable ): Best of luck.
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Holy shit. That sounds terrifying.
Good luck man.
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On May 18 2017 17:24 Jealous wrote:
Pretty sure Lyme disease is uncurable but manageable ): Best of luck.
Maybe are pretty, who knows, but I don't know why are you so sure. Early stage Lyme is perfectly curable in the sense that the infection is removed, however there may be lingering symptoms due to nervous system damage. Later stage disease is trickier, but also with good prospects.
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On May 19 2017 03:55 opisska wrote:Show nested quote +On May 18 2017 17:24 Jealous wrote:
Pretty sure Lyme disease is uncurable but manageable ): Best of luck. Maybe are pretty, who knows, but I don't know why are you so sure. Early stage Lyme is perfectly curable in the sense that the infection is removed, however there may be lingering symptoms due to nervous system damage. Later stage disease is trickier, but also with good prospects.
Granted my information is about 10 years dated but I went to school in an area with very high incidence rate so we learned a lot about it. Could have been fear mongering. You are also correct that catching it sooner can lead to a near full recovery but even then the spyrokete can burrow into the bone and be practically immune to at least the previous generstion of medication iirc.
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So after having taken the antibiotics (I was prescribed amoxicillin for 4 weeks) for a little over a week the fever and intensity of the symptoms have slowly started to dissipate. The awful burning sensation is mostly gone except for a light bit of it for a couple hours after I take the pill. Apparently I start to feel the symptoms again after taking the meds as the bacteria is being killed off it releases toxins into my system that make me feel sick. after about 3 hours I start to feel a little bit better. my weight is still ping ponging back and forth between 150/155. (my avrg weight is around 175)
The shakes and sweating are much milder now and im able to sleep now for stretches of 5-6 hours without too much trouble. I still have extreme joint pain and discomfort pretty much all over and my stomach is still very upset all the time ( feels like my gut is being clenched constantly ) but the flu like feeling has gone away for the most part. Its still really hard to eat and im getting some uncomfortable heart palpitations that seem to originate from my stomach. these are increased after taking the meds. but seem to be hopefully wearing off as I recover. When I first started taking the meds my heart rate would sky rocket so bad that I was afraid to even move.
I get some slight numbing sensations in my feet and hands and my head/neck aches really bad pretty much all the time and my joints are popping and snapping like popcorn anytime I move them but compared to what I was feeling like before I started taking the meds I am doing better. I still got 2 and a half weeks to go so hopefully I continue to recover.
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Love your artwork. Sorry to hear about the disease and it infuriates me how often its people that figure out what's wrong and not doctors and their nonchalant attitudes. Glad its finally being treated.
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EPT
