Dropped one with the 204 in a ravine.

[nicholasjohn]

I also am not a fan of ticks and fleas . way too many diseases caused by them

I've been dealing with Lyme disease and a couple other infections that are carried by the same ticks since last October. ( The co-infections are at least as bad as the Lyme.) Believe me, Sir, it's been a full-time job for all these months, with no end in sight. The doctor told me to plan on 12 to 18 months to get rid of it. This is the single biggest challenge I have ever dealt with in my life. If you can stay away from ticks, you will be doing yourself a HUGE favor.

 

[DMP25-06]

I've been dealing with Lyme disease and a couple other infections that are carried by the same ticks since last October. ( The co-infections are at least as bad as the Lyme.) Believe me, Sir, it's been a full-time job for all these months, with no end in sight. The doctor told me to plan on 12 to 18 months to get rid of it. This is the single biggest challenge I have ever dealt with in my life. If you can stay away from ticks, you will be doing yourself a HUGE favor.

Nicholasjohn ,

Wishing you a full and speedy recovery .
Take care of yourself .

DMP25-06

 

[DSheetz]

My Mom got Lyme disease when it was first becoming known of . It took her a while to recover but she did . Take care and get healed up .

 

[nicholasjohn]

Nicholasjohn ,

Wishing you a full and speedy recovery .
Take care of yourself .

DMP25-06

Thanks. I'm starting to have some progress, but as with most things of this nature, it has been three steps forward; two steps back. As long as the trend is upward, though, I'm happy. Also, the doctor who is treating this condition for me has a very good track record with Lyme disease, including her own case about a dozen years ago. She has been symptom-free for all these years and is confident that I will be as well.

One thing I would like to pass along right here : It is a myth that if you don't have a bulls-eye rash you haven't been exposed to Lyme. If you have a tick bite, it's best to assume that you have lyme, and treat it accordingly. I got bit on a deer hunt in Minnesota back in '96, and had no bulls-eye rash. The doctor ( an ENT in Billings that I was seeing for the sinus infection that resulted from the flu-like symptoms I had had earlier ) told me "no bulls-eye =no lyme." Now, twenty-some years later, I'm a total mess from chronic lyme disease, and if it had been treated years ago when it was an acute new case, I would have been over it with just a long course of antibiotics.

All I have read about this says that only about 20% of the cases of lyme exposure by tick bite are accompanied by a bulls-eye rash, so I was in the other 80%. I wouldn't expect an ear, nose & throat specialist in Montana to know this, but an infectious disease specialist from the east coast certainly would have. The moral of the story is that if you get bit by a tick ASSUME THE WORST and deal with it accordingly. Also, if you want to do your homework before you need to know the ins & outs, the doctor who seems to have it figured out the best is a guy named Richard Horowitz, MD form Hyde Park, NY. His is book is "WHY CAN'T I GET BETTER ?" and it's the bible on this condition.

I hope you never need to know any of this, but if you happen to tangle with the wrong tick, getting on it early is the key. Thanks for your well-wishes, Sir.

 

[Ohlongarm]

I've been dealing with Lyme disease and a couple other infections that are carried by the same ticks since last October. ( The co-infections are at least as bad as the Lyme.) Believe me, Sir, it's been a full-time job for all these months, with no end in sight. The doctor told me to plan on 12 to 18 months to get rid of it. This is the single biggest challenge I have ever dealt with in my life. If you can stay away from ticks, you will be doing yourself a HUGE favor.

Hang in there you'll be fine,I know two close friends who've had it all recovered within six months according to them. Both started treatment immediately after the bullseye pattern was discovered on their skin.That's all I know about the affliction.

 

[YZ-80]

Good Job! Doin' right ain't got no end.

 

[DSheetz]

The Outlaw Jose Whales , captain red legs

 

[nicholasjohn]

Hang in there you'll be fine,I know two close friends who've had it all recovered within six months according to them. Both started treatment immediately after the bullseye pattern was discovered on their skin.That's all I know about the affliction.

Thanks. They were lucky that they got the bullseye rash, and smart to get right on it. The bullseye rash, when it occurs, is actually a good thing - it motivates people to deal with the issue before it really tears them up. I never had the bullseye rash, and mine went un-detected until several months ago. An acute Lyme infection isn't too hard to deal with, but a decades-old chronic Lyme infection is a totally different animal. What the Lyme spirochetes do is build little cysts around themselves and go dormant, until something wakes them up. Then they go crazy and cause inflammation and pain like you can hardly imagine. At that point, it is extremely difficult to treat, and takes a very long time. That's where I am right now, and it has been ugly. However, I have an excellent doctor who is very well experienced with Lyme disease, and my condition is steadily improving. It's a slow process, but I'm definitely gaining ground. The flare-ups that occur every time I have a major die-off of Lyme spirochetes are pretty rough, but every time that happens I know that I'm a little closer to wellness. I'm confident that I'll be OK soon enough. I'm thankful now that my hands have become useful again. They used to feel like they had been both been smashed with a hammer, and my fingers were all puffed up like sausages. Now I only have one swollen finger, and I can do a lot of stuff with them that I haven't been able to do for several months. My hips & thighs are also much better, and I can now walk OK. Stairs are still a problem, but not a big one. I can raise my arms above my head now, too. I couldn't do that for a while, but the arm & shoulder pain has subsided, and so has the stiff neck that is a typical Lyme symptom. All in all, I'd say that I'm about halfway out of this mess symptom-wise, and it's anybody's guess as to how much longer it's going to take to shake off the rest of it.

 

[DSheetz]

nicholasjohn , That defiantly is worse then when my Mom had it and not anything that I would want any one to go through .

 

[nicholasjohn]

nicholasjohn , That defiantly is worse then when my Mom had it and not anything that I would want any one to go through .

She may have been one of the lucky ones who got the bullseye rash and knew right away that she has Lyme. The bullseye only appears about 20% of the time, and doctors routinely tell people that when they have had a tick bite and don't have the bullseye that they have dodged the bullet. The reality is that quite often they haven't dodged the bullet, and they won't know about it until later - when it's a chronic case that is difficult to treat. That's my situation now.

Another thing is that the tests for the disease are kinda sketchy, and it takes a real Lyme specialist to know which ones to use for which patients. Any time there is a tick bite, testing for the presence of Lyme is a good idea. There are also other infections that are carried by the same ticks, and these can really complicate the picture. Sometimes the co-infections are even worse than the Lyme disease.

I'm glad that your mother has successfully dealt with her Lyme disease, because I wouldn't wish this on anybody either. This has been a nightmare situation for sure, but I am getting better. It's going to take a while longer, though. I'm pretty sure that your mother would agree with me that it's a real "character-builder." At times, though, I have to wonder - just how much character does a guy really need to have ???

 

[DSheetz]

No she wasn't one of the lucky ones she was one of the first ones that were found to have lyme when it was first being found out about . She was in the hospital for two weeks . They put her in because she had a fever of over 103 F , was swelled up over her whole body and ended up with bruising on about 60 percent of her body from the swelling . They called all over the country to figure out what it was she had and sent blood samples to a lot of labs all while keeping her in an isolation unit . There are pictures of her in a book written by an infectious disease specialist from back east on the east coast , she spent over a year on different meds being treated for it after they figured out what it was . But ended up getting over it . She did have a stroke from a blood clot caused by the bruising . She has since passed .

 

[nicholasjohn]

No she wasn't one of the lucky ones she was one of the first ones that were found to have lyme when it was first being found out about . She was in the hospital for two weeks . They put her in because she had a fever of over 103 F , was swelled up over her whole body and ended up with bruising on about 60 percent of her body from the swelling . They called all over the country to figure out what it was she had and sent blood samples to a lot of labs all while keeping her in an isolation unit . There are pictures of her in a book written by an infectious disease specialist from back east on the east coast , she spent over a year on different meds being treated for it after they figured out what it was . But ended up getting over it . She did have a stroke from a blood clot caused by the bruising . She has since passed .

God Bless her, DSheetz. It sounds like she really got pulled through the wringer, and I feel like I'm getting off pretty easy relative to her experience. She must have been an incredibly tough lady. It sounds very much like the case my doctor had, with the 103 fever. I don't now if she had the extensive bruising your mother had, because she didn't like to talk about it in the office. ( When someone gets a tear in her eye just talking about it, I usually stop asking.) I think that her own experiences with the disease were what pushed her into specializing in treating Lyme. She wants to do all she can to keep other people from having to go through what she went through.

 

[DSheetz]

Thank You nicholasjohn , she was tough as nails I,m a little partial though as she was my Mon . If your Dr. decided to specialize in treating Lyme God bless her for it . We have the need for people who specialize in some disease's so we can get people through them and healing as best they can . Good luck to you Sir God speed in your own battle with it .

 

[nicholasjohn]

Thank You nicholasjohn , she was tough as nails I,m a little partial though as she was my Mon . If your Dr. decided to specialize in treating Lyme God bless her for it . We have the need for people who specialize in some disease's so we can get people through them and healing as best they can . Good luck to you Sir God speed in your own battle with it .

Thanks, DSheetz. Things are actually going reasonably well, especially when I focus on the longer timeframe. Also, lots of people have health problems that would make this look like a day at the beach, and I figure that I'm better off praying for those folks than fussing about my own troubles. I learned a long time ago, when I was working in the cardiac unit, that there's always somebody who is worse off than I am. Any day that I can get out of bed under my own power is a good day. Once I re-calibrated my measuring stick with that thought in mind, Life got a little easier for me.