Are your symptoms worse in the spring?

[JackieCalifornia]

We have just passed officially into Spring (March 21?) and I notice a sudden upswing in my symptoms, like the bugs are waking from a long winter's nap.  Could be coincidence, could be just me.  How about you all?  Just wonderin'.

[JackieCalifornia]

Have you considered pursuing a longer course of treatment?  Three weeks is rather short, according to many/most Lyme MDs.  The trick is (acc. to what I read) that Lyme bacteria hide in the body in places (cartiledge, eg knees) that there is low blood flow, and where there's not much blood flow, the antibiotics have a hard time reaching the bugs.  Also, Lyme bacteria has a very slow reproductive cycle -- I can't find the reference now, but I recently read that most bacteria reproduce very quickly compared to Lyme, and so three weeks of abx is plenty for regular bacteria, but not for Lyme.  Months of abx treatment is more appropriate, acc. to my Lyme dr and many others.  Finally, the Lyme bacteria are able to hide in cysts inside the body, where the immune system can't locate them and antibiotics have a difficult time reaching them -- which is why many Lyme MDs use Flagyl/metronidazole as a 'cyst buster' so the other abx can kill the bacteria inside the cyst.

I would suggest you go to ILADS [dot] org and read the 'treatment guidelines' there.  It gets pretty technical pretty fast, but it's worth reading through.

I'm not medically trained, so consult your MD, but if s/he blows you off, think about expaning your horizons to an LLMD (slang for Lyme-Literate MD, who understands that Lyme is no easy thing to kill off).

And PS, it may be that last year when you got the symptoms again but no positive test, it was because your immune system gave up reacting, not because the bacteria are all gone.  There is a method some LLMDs use, called an 'antibiotic challenge', where you get a short course of antibiotics and then retest -- because the test measures your *antibodies* to the bacteria, not the bacteria themselves.  The tests are not all that good, so they are not the last word -- they have to be taken in context with your symptoms.

In your shoes, I wouldn't blow off the current MD ... but would quietly go searching for an LLMD for a second opinion.  Mainstream MDs sometimes don't want anything to do with patients who step out of line -- been there myself.  

Good luck, let us know how you're doing.  Thanks for posting.

[HarrisWalk]

I have had Lymes symptoms every spring since 2006.  I have tested a strong positive the first two years.  Last year I got the symptoms back but did not test positive.  Dr still put me on an antibotic and I felt better and was back to running after 2 1/2 weeks.  Now it is May 2010 and I started with the syptoms again.  Couldn't finish my daily workout.  Just got back from the Doctor with my three week course of anitbiotics.  So this makes four years in a row -- it's like an allergy.  Something in the spring makes my symptoms come to life.  Sounds like I'm not the only one!  This disease just affects people so differently and there's so much more to learn about it.  

[Hope75]

I have always felt worse in the spring, even before my formal diagnosis of Lyme disease.  It was and is puzzling to me.  May is my least favorite month, as I always seem very anxious and depressed that month.  

I was flaring last week, but as you know, we think it could be herxing.  I'm  not sure...but it's worse in spring for me.

[Jena906]

for me- always worse 2 weeks before my period then relief. I think it is the extra stress of ovulating on ones body, then the little lyme bugs come out since your body is busy coping with the other.  Maybe that is how it is for you in spring due to the wonderful allergy symptoms.  Your body is busy focusing on that. I am doing a little experiment on stress and worse symptoms of lyme.  One thought is that if you r body is sick or stressed the wonderfull feeling of having lymes is hightened.  I will do a question post on that to see what others think.  

[dvdbrn79]

mine used to be worse in the winter when I lived in Chicago now that I live in Hawaii I am noticing that I seem to have more seizure like activity in the Spring

[FightBackHarder]

i find my lymes is worse in the winter due to the cold weather.  im severely affected by the change in weather but especially if the temperature drops. my arthritic pain explodes over my entire body. my muscles start to twitch and spasm pretty bad. and  i have a really horrible time controlling my body temp.. more so tryna keep it warm. so in the spring/summer when its warming up my body feels like it gets a brief break from this war.

i hope that helps with researching more about this.

[JackieCalifornia]

I hear you.  The confounding aspects of overlapping causes and effects is hard to tease out, like you say about allergies etc.  

These last couple of days I had a major flare up of symptoms the like of which I have not seen for months and months.  It resolved late yesterday, but left me puzzled and concerned, and made me wonder about the bugs coming out of hibernation.  

You take care.

[22dreams]

Can't really say Jackie because:

1) I have seasonal allergies in the Spring anyway which add to the load;

2) haven't been healthy enough to clean my house so the dust I'm sure is presenting issues for me; and

3) I had exposure to toxic mold the week of St. Patrick's day so I'm feeling worse anyway.

I think I usually feel worse in the dead of winter but that may have more to do with the Cold temperature. This winter was relatively mild though.