Got Lyme?

[Engineer]

I think I've got early stage Lyme disease.   >:(   Been feeling mighty tired the past few days, nausea, bad headaches, muscle aches.  Plus some stuff that didn't make sense, like pretty severe back pain and loss of appetite. Went to the doctor today, they took a blood sample and urine sample, I guess I also have a kidney stone that's been plotting its' escape and picked NOW to do so.

I'm not a happy camper.  I'm supposed to be going on vacation in 2-1/2 weeks and I can only hope that I feel better by then.   Can't even get any work done I feel so rotten.  I spent all day yesterday stuck on the couch, basically half asleep and in pain.  I know some of you have got it worse than me sometimes, but this stinks.

[gary]

Have you read the thread in the  outdoor board about lyme

[Engineer]

I just went over there and read it.    Would have been just as appropriate for me to post over there.    Definitely a "Health and Safety" issue, though.    I sure have all the symptoms and then some, although the rash isn't there and no swollen lymph nodes.    I told the doctor to test for Lyme anyway, insisted on it.

[Raphael]

I had most of those symptoms with my first case of Lymes, felt like I'd been hit by a truck or rolled one.
Any fever?

Lymes doesn't always express the same symptoms from case to case.  My second case of Lymes I had what I thought was a spider bite until I saw it under flourescent light almost a week after it first appeared.

[Don P]

Don't play with it. We've all been missing a friend who is still here for some years, it really messed him up.

[Ron Wenrich]

I had what I thought was a bug bite.  I noticed it pretty quick, since it was on my arm.  I waited until the bullseye formed, then went to the clinic.  I asked the doc if it was Lyme and he had never seen a case.  So, he gave me the antibiotics, just in case.

A friend of mine has it pretty bad.  He's been a surveyor for many years.  He takes a handful of antibiotics whenever he sees the bullseye.

My blood test for Lyme turned out to be negative, but it could have been that I caught it real early.  I had no symptoms like yours.  I think a blood test only catches about 80%.

I've also had kidney stones.  That'll put you out of business PDQ.  My cousin had one that caused pretty bad back pains, but they couldn't find any problems.  Turned out that he had a kidney stone the size of a lima bean.      He didn't pass that one.   :D

[UNCLEBUCK]

Engineer Jon I hope you get well !  Neighbor had kidney stones ,he would sit in a warm bath tub every night and drink two beers and sit there until he could get up and relieve the pain and he also screamed from the pain. He eventually had a professional fix him up.

I am only guessing but I bet you have some kind of bladder infection causing everything else . I hope you get well fast .  That small deer tick is nothing to mess with .

[UNCLEBUCK]

Engineer Jon , how did your tests come back ?   ???

[Mooseherder]

I had a Kidney stone removed this time last year. Turns out during a follow up visit, yep...I got another in the tube. :'(
The last little calcium deposit cost 10 grand to remove. Little do they know, I would have paid double at the time.  Hope your feeling better.

[Engineer]

Right now I have a visit scheduled with a urologist to check on the kidney stone, but I suspect that little varmint is NOT the cause of the back pain I had last week.  Since then there's been no localized pain and nothing resembling a stone.  I think it was a false alarm.  I'm supposed to have a physical tomorrow and hopefully the blood test for the Lyme will be in.  I'm 95% positive that's what it is.  The disease has been all over the local papers lately, and I'm finding more and more people that either have it or have been misdiagnosed for years.  I'm just happy I'm catching the symptoms early.  It feels just like flu, without the associated coughing/sneezing/hacking/phlegm that you normally get.   Today is the first day in a week I've gone without a painkiller for headache.   ;D   The last seven days have been Vicodin, three or four a day.  I hate drugs.   :(

[Gary_C]

Keep in mind that the test they use are not at all reliable. Put another way, there is no test in use that can tell if you have, do not have, or have been cured of Lyme Disease. The only good determination is through clinical evaluation. Because of the lack of any good tests, they say for advanced cases, it can take an average of seven doctors and 30 weeks to find out if you have Lyme Disease.   :(

It is important that if you are given antibiotics, to take all of the prescription and not just until you feel better. Many experts now are convinced that you need the antibiotics for a longer period of time to cure even the early stages.

[Engineer]

Well, I tested positive, and I'm on a regimen of doxycycline for the next month or so.   :(  Then we'll see how it turns out.  If I can just keep the headaches and fatigue at bay, I'll be doing alright.

[Raphael]

  Odds are the next 48hrs will make this past week look mild (this is from a massive release of toxins as a majority of the bacteria die),  then symptoms will start to fade rapidly.  Be sure to stay on schedule with your Doxycycline and you stand a very good chance of knocking it out completely.

  Also I'd suggest eating live culture yougert as spirochetes aren't the only bacteria wiped out by Doxy.

[UNCLEBUCK]

Oh geeeez , sorry to hear that Engineer . Hang in there .  Hope to hear when you get better .

[Patty]

I hope your symptoms are going away by now, Engineer and you are on the mend.

I need to read up on this Lyme Disease, it sounds like a nasty one.

[Engineer]

I'm feelin' a lot better now, back to my old self (still fat & lazy though)  :D

Lyme goes away if you catch it soon enough (and you're not mis-diagnosed).    It's when you let it go that the permanent damage starts.

I have heard there's a recent development, a newer species of tick that is spreading into the northeast, is larger and more aggressive and much more likely to carry Lyme.  Heard it from a forester friend of mine today, gonna do some research on it sometime soon.   :(

[UNCLEBUCK]

Thats good news Engineer , maybe you get your vacation now ?

I been fencing pastures the last week due to the drought here , its so dry not one woodtick to be found . A month ago the tall grass was loaded with them . I am much more aware them dirty rotten little buggers now .