Sick for half a year now

I have no idea if I have lyme disease, but the issue has been brought up to me as I have a lot of the symptoms of it.

My story is that I got very ill starting January of 2007. I was somewhat dizzy and not right before January, but it only became really noticeable and bad in January. I was in the ER twice. They did blood tests and told me I was hypothyroid (which I am), and to see an endocrinologist. Other than that, my blood was fine except for low potassium (which is continuously low, even now). I went to the endo, who didn't believe I had hypothyroidism because my symptoms didn't fit a person with hypo. After a MONTH of misplacing blood tests, they finally got them sent in and told me that I did indeed have hypo, only borderline though. So I've been treated for that.

I still feel ill even after taking Synthroid. I've been to five different doctors who all told me I was depressed and needed to see a shrink. I took their advice, but of course, I'm still really ill. I finally found a doctor (environmental doctor), who has done a TON of tests on me. He didn't do a test for Lyme Disease, which I am going to call him and ask him to let me have done because I am really starting to wonder if that's what I have.

I've been sick for half a year with the same symptoms:

Dizzy, lightheaded, heart palpitations, fast pulse rate (though this isn't really something new), extreme fatigue and weakness, fuzzy thinking, hot flashes but then also very cold at other times, chronic headaches, Tinnitus - roaring and ringing in ears, no sex drive whatsoever, depression and feelings of worthlessness, shortness of breath, low blood pressure (usually lower than 105/65), etc.

I've been to a cardiologist a few times because of the palpitations and racing pulse. All tests done have turned out fine.

The worst symptom I have is the dizziness I get. I get so dizzy and lightheaded and weak.

When this first started in January, my GP noticed I had a rash on my the back of my right wrist. At the time, he told it was Excema (as I do have that). In my opinion, it didn't look like the usual excema rashes I get, but since he is the doctor, I didn't question it. Since that was nearly four or so months ago, I don't remember exactly what it looked like, but it did have a bulls-eye type look to it. I also thought maybe it was a rash from the bracelet I had worn months at a time and just recently took off.

I guess I'm just wondering what the heck is wrong with me. I've been sick for so long and no doctor knows what to tell me except that it's all in my head and that I'm depressed. Of course I'm depressed, I've been sick for half a year and STILL don't know what's wrong with me.

I'm also wondering if this is familiar: Sometimes I'll feel good for a weak at a time and then the next week I feel terrible. Or sometimes, as has been happening lately, I'll feel almost 'normal' for half a day and then the other half, my symptoms will hit full-force. Does this happen with Lyme? Is it possible to feel fine half a day or for a week and then feel sick the next part of the day or for another week at a time?

Also, I plan to call my doctor today and ask him to write up the tests for Lyme, so I can go have the blood drawn today. What blood tests do I make sure he does to look for Lyme?

Thank you all so much,

Ashley

There is so much to learn about Lyme disease and it can be overwhelming. The following is just the tip of the iceberg.

Lyme disease is a very complex multi-system disease that is not understood by mainstream Md's across the U.S.A. It is first important to understand that their are many issues that surround this disease, the unreliable testing, the illiteracy of mainstream Md's and the even treatments.

Many of us with LD, including me, have seen many doctors and had many tests before seeing a LLMD (Lyme Literate MD) and having blood tests sent to a private specialty lab that specializes in Tick Borne Illness, Igenex and finally being correctly diagnosed.

Many of us had been sick for months or years before being correctly diagnosed. Lyme Disease can manifest itself in many ways, since there are so many symptoms and 300 strains worldwide. It is rare to even find two people with the same set of identical symptoms.

I was misdiagnosed in 1996 with Fibro, but had manageable symptoms. I did have migraines over the years, vertigo and muscle aches that would come and go.

Lyme Disease can lie dormant and "percolate" coming out one symptom at a time or explode with many symptoms all at once.

It wasn't until 2006 I experienced a sharp knife like shoulder blade pain that felt like it went straight through to my chest and a mainstream MD misdiagnosed me with muscle strain, gave me cortisone shots and unknowingly disseminated Lyme Disease throughout my body. Cortisone is very detrimental and in my case the shots suppressed my immune system giving free reign to the bacteria, spreading it throughout my body making it active and widespread.

Within weeks widespread symptoms appeared including neuro symptoms that included pins and needles, numbness, shooting, burning, stabbing pains and flu-like symptoms, I had 35+ symptoms in all, I could not eat and lost 20 pounds within weeks, I felt like I was dying.

My symptoms were extreme and excruciating. But others can experience much less severe symptoms, each person is different. Symptoms can wax and wane as well.

I ended up seeing 12 different doctors & some of the best specialists in California and had many, many tests, including MRI's, CAT scans, Ultra Sounds, blood tests, including 2 negative blood tests for Lyme disease. All other labs returned normal as well. A respected Neurologist suggested MS, my primary doctor diagnosed me with Anxiety, another MD diagnosed Fibromyalgia again. None of them were correct & when you think about it, none are "diagnoses" they were "symptoms".

Many, in fact most are misdiagnosed with everything but Lyme disease, from from MS, ALS, Fibro, CFS, Lupus, Anxiety just to name a few, until finally finding direction to correct lab testing and Lyme literate Md's.

As I searched on line using my symptoms, Lyme Disease kept coming up. I learned that the blood test that doctors use was highly unreliable and can produce a false negative more times than not.

The blood test (devised by the CDC) given at all conventional labs like Quest, hospitals and other labs, was not designed to diagnose Lyme disease, but instead in was designed to track a narrow band of patients for epidemic purposes and has a reliability rate of about 30%. Please click on this link to read more about the unreliable CDC tests, read both pages: http://www.ilads.org/basic.html

Unfortunately, doctors rely 100% on the unreliable blood test. I realized (after extensive research) that you can have a negative blood test and still have Lyme disease.

Md's will also rely on patient recollection of the actual tick bite or classic "bulls eye" rash that sometimes follows a bite. But in most cases patients do not remember a bite at all or a rash. Since many infected ticks are the size of the period at the end of this sentence, up to 85% of people do not recall a bite, which can occur in hidden areas such as the hairline or scalp.

Most Md's don't believe ticks live everywhere in the U.S., but ticks know no boundaries & Lyme has been found in all states. The most common and likely place to get Lyme Disease is your own backyard.

The most important thing I can tell you right now & that I hope you understand, it is very important, illiteracy about Lyme disease runs rampant among conventional doctors and specialists, none are aware of the co-infections. You can run around for years from MD to MD and be told many different things. Even if they use their unreliable blood test for Lyme they never test for the co-infections. Ticks carry at least 4-5 other other bacteria that can also be transmitted through a bite called co-infections. Other bacteria include Babesia, Bartonella, Mycoplasma & Ehrlichiosis. It is imperative to be tested for Lyme and all the co-infections as each has their own symptoms and requires different treatment and you will not get well treating Lyme if you are also co-infected and up to 60% of us are co-infected.

This is why it is imperative that your blood test be sent to a reputable lab that specializes in tick borne illness called Igenex.

To be correctly diagnosed with Lyme disease (or to rule it out) and be tested for the co-infections you must see a Lyme literate doctor. These doctors are not easy to find and are virtually unknown to conventional/mainstream Md's.

Please click on the link below you can read much more at the website and their is a contact link if you think you'd like to see an LLMD (Lyme literate MD), just mention your city and state in your email.

Some conventional doctors/specialists may try to make you believe and may tell you they are "Lyme literate", but they are not. This is a very complex disease, not even infectious disease Md's understand.

The common misconception among Md's is that Lyme is a very rare disease & if you have it, it is easily cured with a short course of antibiotics and neither is true.

Lyme is the fastest growing infectious disease, right behind AIDS in the United States and the number one vector borne disease in the U.S. LD needs prompt and aggressive treatment.

There is no quick fix for treating Lyme disease, it is a disease and diseases can be managed. It requires high dose, long term antibiotic treatment, until the patient is symptom free plus an additional 2 months beyond that. The average chronic LD patient can take 1-5 years of treatment before symptoms abate.

There is so very much more to learn. Start by visiting this website, click the Resource link, each link there are extremely helpful, read each one. http://www.truthaboutlymedisease.com/

At least now you are on the right path.

Take care.

I came across your post doing a google search and I was astonished to see that you seem to be struggling with the same symptoms that I have. Except I've been sick for five and a half years. When I first became ill my doctor ran blood tests several times over the course of a few months and everything came back normal except for low potassium levels. This is in addition to the fatigue, diziness, brain fog, etc.. I have never been able to get an explanation as to why I would have low potassium in my blood. The only explanation I got for whatever illness I have in general was depression and that was definitely a false diagnosis (I even had to have a psychiatrist evaluate me before my doctor would listen to me that it wasn't depression).

At any rate, I'm sorry to hear that you are suffering and getting no explanation either. I have only just thought about looking into Lyme's Disease and will be trying to get some lab tests done on that soon. If you have any knowledge as to why the low blood potassium might occur, I would really, really appreciate it if you could pass that information on to me.

Ally