November doctor visit

Here are the highlights of the visit while it’s fresh in my head:

• IgeneX tests all came back negative
• LabCorp blood work showed CD57 was low (50) and my complement c4a was at 2253 and the norm is 0-650. The doctor said “you are very sick”.
• She thinks I have Bartonella, based on my symptoms, so I’m going to start taking Mycobutin to combat Bartonella. She described it as a “harsh” antibiotic, so I’m not looking forward to that.
• She’s going to take me off the clonazepam that I have been taking at night to sleep and put me instead on Neurontin. She said it is not addictive like clonazepam and should help with the anxiety issues too.
• She gave me a diet to follow. I was dreading this day. It’s hardcore. No flour, no starches, no sugars, no caffeine, no alcohol. Basically, I can have meat and non-starch vegetables. Ugh. This may be worse than the lyme :) It doesn’t mention nuts. I wonder if I can have nuts? Seems like those would be a good protein snack.
• She wants me to change some of my supplements too. Double the daily Artemisinin, change to Theralac probiotic, and add in Perque adrenal support supplements.
• CBC and CMP blood work done every two weeks now to keep an eye on things.

CD57 and out of antibiotics

My next appointment is on November 5 and I ran out of Doxy (my second round) yesterday and will run out of Zithromax (my first round) in a few days so I called the doc to see if I need more of both/either. The nurse said my blood results (from the blood draw Tuesday) came back and I have low CD57 indicating chronic Lyme. Evidently it’s used to see how the Lyme treatment is going. Not sure what this means exactly for me or my treatment. I’m sure I’ll find out at next doc visit.

UPDATE: My CD57 was at 50.

IgeneX negative

Got my IgeneX results – all negative. Not sure if that’s good or bad really. Does that mean all my symptoms are strictly from Lyme? Is that good? or does it mean longer treatment cause Lyme is deep in me and hitting me hard? No idea. Questions for the doc on November 5.

Diagnosis

The week after the initial doctor visit saw me working only half days Monday and Tuesday and didn’t work Wednesday-Friday. On Friday I got the call from the doctor. The blood tests showed I have Lyme Disease. She prescribed a 30-day treatment of Doxycycline. She also said I had a few vitamin deficiencies so she told me to take some supplements.

I didn’t really have any good questions for her at the time because I didn’t know anything about Lyme except that ticks could give it to you.

She started me on a half dosage of Doxy and told me to go to full dosage at 4 days in. On 8/26 I started the full dosage.

And so it begins

So how did I get to the point of being diagnosed with Lyme? The first symptoms I noticed was lack of appetite and even nausea every morning for about 3-4 weeks. Initially I didn’t feel like eating breakfast then it starting affecting lunch too – no appetite at all. I did eat a good dinner though. I was also having anxiety in the morning. I was stressed at work, I figured that was it, no biggie. After 3-4 weeks I had lost 15 pounds, going from 170 to 155.

I started experiencing fatigue. I just felt exhausted all the time. Eventally I also had shortness of breath. Finally, it started affecting my work, and I had to leave work for a few half days. Once I couldn’t work, I knew it was time to visit a doctor. Again, I assumed it was stress. I probably just needed to relax. I also thoought it could be thyroid since my family has a history of it and the symptoms fit.

The day after the second half day of work (8/16/14), I went to urgent care since we still don’t have a primary physician and this urgent care always treats us great. The doctor asked me lots of questions, listened to my heart, took my blood pressure, looked in my ears, etc. etc. She said she thought it might be Lyme and wanted to do a full blood test and include a Lyme test. She said she deals with Lyme all the time and it really sounded like Lyme. I was skeptical. She asked if I went camping, had any ticks on me, etc. etc. – all answers were no. I’m a software developer… a geek. I don’t go camping or do a whole lot outdoors. It’s probably thyroid or stress.

I left with some recommendations for a few overthe counter supplements to take and to start drinking Propel twice a day. She said it would be a week to get back the blood results/diagnosis.