Monday, August 17, 2015

Lymed

What's that saying - you can't swing a cat without hitting somebody with Lyme.
Add me to the list.
But please don't hit me with a cat, I've got enough going on.
Holy crap - what a tick can do.
Crazy that our natural predators are the size of "."

In May I had some sort of bite or some such thing on my shoulder. I thought it was a pimple.  Oops.
So this thing got infected pretty fast, causing a rather large red rash over my entire shoulder area, and I felt pretty crappy. I even had the rigors one night. Have you ever had rigors? That is some crazy shit.

Blood tests at that time revealed a bacterial blood infection - so I was dosed up with antibiotics. These didn't kick in fast enough, which landed me in the ER to get IV antibiotics. Several doctors saw this rash. No doctor mentioned Lyme or even tested me for it at that time.

So I got 3 weeks on Doxycycline and Keflex. These two drugs are a great summer combo. With Doxy you can't go out in the sun - for me...not at ALL. I became super photo-sensitive. And with the Keflex you can't have alcohol.
This was perfect... I had to stay inside, and not drink ... and I live at the beach.
Good times.

After I got past that and the days went on I started to feel, achy and tired and sweaty and bloated and swollen and generally crappy.
I thought it was ..."THE Menopause".
But I was in alot of pain and had tremendous stiffness. It started to get harder to get out of a chair, I had trouble walking, the pain kept me up at night.
 I thought - hey, if this is menopause women would not make it to old age - this is just too hard. So I went to my primary and to my Gyn and pleaded with them to make it stop.

That's when we found the Lyme. That was 4 weeks ago.
While I have had improvement - today I am having a change up in my meds as symptoms are returning.
Lyme is not something to trifle with, even when you find it early.



3 comments:

maxine said...

OMG! I always think of ticks as ladybug size so this would have gone right past me as well. I am glad you are now properly diagnosed at least and on the mend!

e said...

It's perplexing that, in your region, NONE of those medical professionals thought to test for Lyme. It's practically an epidemic in your neck of the woods, right?

Sorry you are missing the summer...

Anonymous said...

Wasn't it last year, or the year before you had some sort of bacterial infection? You apparently are a very good host. Damn, this is some scary shit. Sending good vibes that you're able to get rid of it. I will pray to the mighty Banana Goddess.