UKRobert
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| Rank | Member |
| Online Status | OFFLINE |
| Member Since | 12/10/2010 07:56 AM |
| Last Online | 04/06/2011 10:48 AM |
| Gender: | Male |
| Birthdate: | 12/09/1985 |
| Country: | United Kingdom |
| A little about me: | From my initial post: My name is Robert and I'm from the UK. I turned 25 yesterday. I also found out that I have Lyme Disease yesterday. I'm not really sure when this all started but the first thing that I noticed was that in mid-2008 I started to have trouble with my throat and was constantly having to clear it - especially in the mornings. I was also ill a lot off and on in the second half of 2008 - at the time I put this down to catching bugs off people on the London Underground whilst I was commuting to study law. By this stage I was also finding that although I was still more than capable of running and playing football for hours on end it was leaving me feeling low and zapped afterwards - no runners' high. I just thought maybe I had let myself get out of condition. In January 2009, halfway through my post-graduate law studies I got a phone call from my best friend's father saying that he had passed away in his sleep. He was my age and this loss and the manner in which he had passed really shook me (he had suffered from heart failure). I took some time off law and missed my mock exams. After a couple of weeks I went back determined to get back up to speed with everything and at first I was. But at some point I just lost my energy and enthusiasm and worse still I had no wish to continue my studies. I thought perhaps this was just a continuation of my grieving. I became ill and took some more time off from law school. I never returned. From that point on I started to lose touch with reality and other problems had emerged or began to emerge. Insomnia, night sweats, fatigue, lethargy, sensitivity to sound and light, memory and concentration problems - all sorts of things that seemed generally like they might all just be linked to depression and lack of sleep. I thought it would pass. Sometimes it would pass for a time, then it would re-emerge. I had absolutely no enthusiasm for anything. I'd stop and start playing sport in monthly cycles and drift in and out of touch with friends. I thought perhaps I was becoming bi-polar. At this point I felt my physical problems were all pretty minor and probably just down to stress. I completed my first marathon in the spring and in August 2009 I attempted to run an 85 mile run to raise money for a UK charity called Cardiac Risk in the Young - I only managed 60 but this in itself convinced me my problems were all in the mind. At some point I tried to get help from the doctor for my throat problems but didn't get anywhere. I did another charity event this spring - a 40 mile walk - I ran parts of it. Again this made me think my problems were all in my mind and that there was no other issue. At around this point we realised there was something odd going on with my mum. This is already getting very long, so to cut a long story short, having seen some ticks on some of our holidays in the Balearics and having deer roaming freely around our home in the UK my mother felt that Lyme Disease might explain why she'd been so ill off and on for the last couple of years - unexplainedly. She went to our GP and was told 'It's not possible' In any case unless she could remember be bitten by a tick they wouldn't test her. My mother decided to get a second opinion and paid for some tests which were inconclusive - she was advised to take further tests at a later date. At this point, having sat in on my mother's consultations and learnt more about the disease and the symptoms I did wonder if it was possible I might have it. I had actually had a tick crawl up my leg and attach itself just as I tried to brush it off. This was a few years ago. But as it was attached for a matter of seconds I decided that unless my mother's results came back positive I wouldn't investigate it - afterall it was going to cost a bomb (just for the results to come back negative and confirm I was in fact a basket case). I told the GP about my possible correlated symptoms and that I a few years ago I had actually removed a tick. He gave me some standard blood tests which came back negative. I started to get headaches - I hardly ever get headaches. In the past when I'd had headaches it had generally been accompanied by pain around my wisdom teeth... So although I wasn't having problems with my wisdom teeth I thought perhaps there was some underlying problem and had them all removed in September. I picked up an infection and took a week of antibiotics - I felt far better and far more positive than I had for ages, for a week or so at least. After that I got a bit worse - pins an needles, loss of appetite, weight loss, more dizzy spells, and more memory problems and trouble conversing without having to really focus on what I was saying. Upon further testing my mother was shown to be positive for Lyme Disease. She has just started a course of antibiotics in tandem with various vitamins. She is also taking Samento. I got myself tested and some of the results arrived yesterday and appear to my non-Doctor eyes to be worse than the results my mother had. Having said that my immune system is not as shockingly low as my mothers and scrapes in at around the normal lower limit. It seems to affect my mother more physically, and me more mentally, although I have some physical symptoms and she gets some of the mental side as well. We both seem to be suffering off and on from bouts of rage - over the smallest and most trivial things. It's worse than when I was a hormonal teenager! I know from having browsed a couple of discussions and other members intros that I don't have it that bad compared to others, but it worries me quite a bit that this may be something I can't entirely rid myself of. But at least now I know there is something inside me messing me up and I'm not just generally messed up - I thought I was on my own worst enemy - now I know better. |
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"Finally I know what's been messing me up!" |
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 | Sending hugs and prayers to you, my fellow Lyme Warriors.... Let us stand strong and united this weekend for Worldwide Lyme Disease Protest day... Let us speak the truth... the ugly, shocking, scary, unbelievable truth... Let us be heard... and Let us be healed. *hugs and prayers* purple |
| Hugs to all my fellow Lyme Warriors and Lyme Supporters :)~~~~~~~ Until the site problems are cleared up. ~~~~~Please use the GREEN REPLY button instead of the quick reply box when responding to a post.~~~~~ hugs and blessings, purple |
| Hi Lyme Group, I'm sorry for not being around so much the last month. A lot of personal issues came with the New Year. I hope you all are doing well and hope to catch up soon. Please always feel free to PM me if you need anything. Blessings and light - purple |
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