story

MY SYMPTOMS AND TREATMENT 1998 TO 1999

I must start out by saying, everyone is different and from what I have read on Lyme Disease symptoms and treatments, they vary to some degree. I can only offer you my experience and hope it helps at least one person understand the nature of Lyme.

August/September 1998

My symptoms started with a rash on my arms and legs, it was red and itched, but did not appear to be the dreaded tick rash. I ignored it until the rash on my arms was severe enough for me to go to the doctor, I had scratched the skin on my hand raw. He diagnosed dermatitis. By this time the rash on my leg was gone. Thus the beginning on the road to Lyme.

October 1998:

I fell into a deep depression. I couldn't understand why, nothing bad was happening in my life, nothing I couldn't handle. I was suicidal and just couldn't find my lust for life and I just wanted to stay in bed. I went to the doctor and he diagnosed depression due to empty nest syndrome. My son went off to school in North Carolina so he figured I was lonely....NOT. He gave me a prescription of effexor and monitored the dose over 4 weeks. The depression subsided with the medication, but then I had insomnia and was exhausted during all the time. Got some pills to help me sleep, they didn't help.

November/December 1998

I am still feeling run down and tired - it is like having a low grade infection that will not go away. Is it because I am middle aged? Am I just getting old? I need my energy for the holidays and I am running on empty. I am gaining weight and keep promising to get into shape but can't do anything strenuous. I am aging rapidly. HELP!!

January/Feburary 1999

Happy New Year!! I don't think so - I was out cold at 8:30 pm on the couch. I couldn't go out, and I didn't want company. I was getting sick, I was coming down with a cold. yea right!! A week later I had a 104.5 degree fever for 5 days. I couldn't move, I felt paralyzed and realized how awful that must be and just started to cry. Here I was feeling sorry for myself over a little virus and some people really can't move. I was truly pathetic. But this was how I felt. My Doctor wasn't concerned since the flu was going around and so - guess what - of course I had the flu. In February I had the worst sinus infection I ever had - it was awful. My face and eyes were swollen, my nose was clogged, every bone and muscle in my body hurt, and nothing helped. The doctor gave me antibiotics for the sinus infection. But I was exhausted and thought my nose would never stop running. I was keeping kleenex in business.

March

Thats it!! I've had enough! There is something wrong with me. I was exhausted all the time, I had weird pains in my arm between my elbow and shoulder, my hips hurt!! I am gaining weight and I don't even have the energy to unwrap the Tibo exercise tapes I bought, let alone actually exercise! My job performance was slipping - I was making dumb mistakes - just forgetting things and not realizing it. As you can tell from this page spelling is a problem and so is everyday skills like cooking - I couldn't remember how.

I went back to the Doctor, and insisted on being tested for a vitamin B12 deficiency - I was sure I had anemia. He protested that I just had blood work done about 7 months ago. I didn't care and insisted he test me for something anything - I said test me for Lyme - I wasn't serious about the Lyme but good thing he ran the test anyway. At that point He would do anything to shut me up. On April 6th he called me at work and told me I came back positive for Lyme. CALL ME CRAZY, EVERYONE ELSE WAS, I WAS TRHILLED JUST TO HAVE A DIAGNOSES.

Summary of My Symptoms

Exaustion: People this is an exhaustion like you have never felt before. It is disabling. When I was working I would start to crash about 3pm. I would come home and go to bed, I didn't always sleep but I couldn't do anything but lay there. I spent the weekends in bed also. I stopped working when I started my antibiotics and spent all day on the couch or in bed.

Body Aches: Pick a body part - it hurt. The worst was my head, my neck and upper back, my knees and my arms.

Shortness of Breath: I live on the second floor of a 2 family house with one flight of stairs - retrieving my mail was like running the marathon. I would have to lay down after that and try to get my breathing back to normal. This would happen even after the slightest form of exertion. If you can call walking to the bathroom exertion!! My heart would race and my breathing was labored.

Sweating, Headaches,Low grade fever: I would start sweating in a comfortable room - and no I am not changing life - thank you. Headaches were a constant everyday thing - and my body temperature was always 99.5 or higher.

Dementia: OK where did my brain go? I think this was the worst part, and the scariest. I felt as though I was stoned. I have problems remembering and processing information. simple things I've done all my life became a chore. I would try to have conversation and couldn't find the words. I think of the brain as a fileing system. When you are in conversation the brain looks through your file cabinet and finds what you are meaning to say. With Lyme though one of the cabinets are locked and your brain can't find the key. Creating this web page has been very difficult, between the energy it consumes and trying to put my thoughts into perspective, without spell check - I am truly struggling. I don't know HTML and it hurt my brain to much to try to understand it. So I am doing the best I can.

Weight Gain:I have never had a weight problem - always a size ten. The weight gain began right away = matabalism slow down due to old age? I gained 35 pounds in 4 months - went from a size 10 to a size 14. Good thing I have no energy to go out, because I have no cloths that fit. This really pissed me off. No matter what I ate, I couldn't lose the weight. And of course I went to sleep thinking tomorrow I will exercise, but I never had the energy to do it. Glad I didn't join a gym, I thought about it and my doctors suggested it - before the diagnoses of course.

Seizures: Involentary movement of arms, legs torso, strange smells, pains in my face usually on the left side along with migraines.and limited periferal vision on the left sidel.
Terrible memory problems and cognitive dificulties.
insomnia.

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