Life with Lyme Disease can suck. Especially if you go undiagnosed. Now this may differ for each person. This is how it was and is for me.
I ached daily. But not in the same places. One day my arms would hurt, so bad I couldn’t carry a cup of coffee without fear of dropping it. The next day my arms would feel ok, but my knees would hurt to the point of tears. My knees were probably the first to hurt and ache. Always blamed on me being over weight. Which I am overweight yet I don’t think I’m THAT overweight. I think I’m relatively active. Fishing, riding four wheelers, hunting, working in the yard, gardening to name a few. I felt nuts. I knew, in my mind that if something hurt, the pain shouldn’t jump around. That isn’t how it works … or is it?
In February 2008 I began with horrible stomach spasms. I was sick, and took a dose of nyquil. I awoke in the middle of the night with pain so bad I couldn’t roll over or even kick my leg at my husband to wake him. I thought “Dear God, I’m having a heart attack, and can’t even wake him for help. Please don’t let me die.”
I think that was one of the worst “spasms” I have had. I have had other spasms, as I call them. My fix? A bottle of G.I. Cocktail in the fridge. It numbs everything from the lips back. I hate taking it. It most often is effective, however there are times where I’m on the fence of whether or not a spasm is coming. Hard to explain how it feels, but it’s not severe, yet it’s certainly not comfortable. Is it part of the lyme disease? I don’t know, but I blame it on the lyme disease.
I was diagnosed in September 2008 with Rocky Mountain Spotted Fever, and Lyme Disease. See Lyme Disease very seldom comes alone, if ever. It comes with it a “co-infection”.
I keep my dogs treated regularly for ticks and fleas for their health and our family’s health. We use bug repellent such as “Off” when outdoors. Since we spend a lot of times outside in the yard, the garden, fishing, riding four wheelers and other fun stuff. For me it hasn’t been real effective, so far I have wound up re-infected not once, but twice. I still use the repellent, and I make sure our yard is treated, and the kids are sprayed down.
I cried not because I was diagnosed. But because I was relieved. Relieved that I wasn’t nuts. That the things I had been feeling were real!
The Dr. has discussed sending me home with a PIC line for an IV to adminster anti-biotics. I have taken more anti-biotics than I care to even think about. Four a day for a month, 3 a day for 21 days, take this once a day for 7 days. About every dosage you can possibly think of. Take this one after that one, stop taking this one when you start that one. Good grief.
Well I have been anti-biotic free for about 3 or 4 months now. It’s been nice. But the aches and pains are still here. Pain medication. I hate it too. It works, sometimes makes me sleepy and cranky, but it eases the aches and random pains.
Lyme Arthritis. Chronic pain. More feeling blah than is “fair”. I already deal with depression and anxiety. For me, one tends to feed the other. A hateful little circle of feelings.
Ah but the arms and legs, the aches here and there, sometimes everywhere it sucks. You may be wondering why in the world I’m posting this now.
Warmer weather brings lots of outdoors fun, outdoors fun brings bugs. With bugs come ticks. The nasty culprit responsible for this whole lyme disease ordeal.
Don’t buy into the crap that if you get bit by an infected tick you’ll get a “bulls-eye rash”. That is NOT always true. It is a sign and symptom, but only a small percentage of people get that tell-tale rash. I didn’t. I got a rash across my back at least a month after the bite that eventually got me diagnosed. It certainly was not a “bulls eye rash”, it was as if I was allergic to a soap or lotion of some kind.
It’s possible I have lived with this for more than 10 years. A tick bite on the back of my neck that resulted in an infected lymph node. I don’t know why the Dr.’s didn’t test me then.
If you suspect you have been bitten by an infected tick, go to your Dr. insist that they test you. MAKE them test you more than once, I think the best times to be tested is when your symptomatic, feeling bad, or feeling at your worst. It’s a blood test, and don’t be fooled by a single test or even three tests. It’s pretty common for this particular test to come back with a false negative. Meaning the test says you’re ok, but hidden in your body are those hateful lyme bugs. (Ok it’s not a bug, but it’s my term.)
Since I have been very wordy with the post, I’m going to bring it to a close. If you have ANY questions, please don’t hesitate to ask me. You can comment here, or drop me an email from our About Us Page.
