Is it Lyme on not Lyme?

People, I am lost. This is happened to me last year. I went to play soccer and during the game I felt bad low back pain worsened by running. I had to quit early. I went home and lived to the end of the day. I woke up next morning and immediately felt that something wrong with me. I had bad tingling and needles in both, fingers and toes. My low back was hurting and my upper back felt like I was hit by a truck. Really, it felt like a knife was inserted into my spinal cord. These symptoms continued for few days and I went to the doctor. Here I have to pause to say that at that time I was suffering from anxiety for 2 years and my doctor knew that. I think, she kept that in mind and didn't take my new complaints as something else. But while anxiety was giving me bad sleep, IBS, stomach pain, it never hurt me in such way. And the tingling symptoms came suddenly, over the night. She told me to wait 4 weeks if it is radiculopathy. I waited, but it got worst. Moreover, I started to feel weak in legs. I thought, I am going to fall. I went to neurologist and he said that there is nothing but if I don't feel better to come for some test in a month. My back wasn't getting better and I went for physical therapy because I couldn't sleep on the bed, only on the floor. PT really helped to the point that I was able to go to play soccer again. But at the same time I started to feel some light aches in many joints. I went to the different doctor and he ran tests on me. Blood work was clear besides that test on lyme returned 1 positive component out of 10. But doctor said that the test is really negative as it needs more positive components to be positive. Few months passed and joints felt better besides elbows. And now the aching is back. Mostly fingers, wrists, elbows and hips.
While I don't have explicit anxiety anymore, I still have something on subconscious level. I know, that when I was recently really stressed, I had pain spreading from the back to my shoulders.  Well. 11 months from the time it all started I still have these issues even that not as strong as it used to be. For example, yesterday I pitched baseball to my son and my elbow started to itch strongly.
So the question here, could this just be my anxiety or nervous system damage? Or because I have that positive Lyme component there is a chance that this is lyme. Or this is TMS as described by doctor Sarno? Also, the first part last may looked like Guillain–Barre Syndrom (syndrome) to me with weakness in legs but I never became disabled.
May be somebody has an idea?

[JackieCalifornia]

Well, since you live in an area where Lyme is not uncommon, it wouldn't hurt to pursue the possibility of Lyme to rule it out to the extent possible.

The onset of my Lyme was similar to yours ... fairly rapid and downhill quickly.  I had babesiosis along with Lyme, so it's difficult to know which bug produced which symptom.  I dreaded waking up in the morning, because it felt every day like I'd been thrown out a second story window -- I hurt all over so badly; I couldn't think; I was confused all the time; and I was very anxious.

It took a bunch of MDs and about six months before I got a diagnosis, and then I was so afraid of the treatment that I delayed starting the meds:  that's how confused I was, because that kind of reaction is not 'normal' for me.  There is definitely a psychological component to Lyme+, because these diseases produce brain inflammation.

If I were in your situation, I'd find a Lyme specialist and get a work up.  If you need help finding one, let us know.

Best wishes -- let us know how you do.

[TedKell]

Thank you fro your advice.
I am trying not to take any Meds unless I need them 100%. So, doctor said, I can give you 6 weeks of antibiotics... I said, "do I have Lyme?" He said, he didn't know.
I was very anxious when my legs started to go numb and weak. Especially left one.
My joint pain is not terrible and migratory. I can take it. It comes into my wrists and in 10 minutes it is gone. Little later it comes to my hips and it is gone... I have one Lyme specialist here. But really, ho knows if he is a good Lyme doctor or he is just a guy who writes to magazine but in practice he has no idea. One thing is theory and another is when a live person is next to you and you have to tell him the diagnosis. Well, If you know somebody in SE PA, please let me know. Thank you

[JackieCalifornia]

I'm with you, I try not to take abx unless really needed ... and I am playing a game of dodge ball with the bugs vs the antibiotics right now for reasons too boring to recount.

HOWEVER I would urge you to get evaluated and then if diagnosed with Lyme and/or a coinfection to get treated aggressively.  I am not medically trained, but my opinion is that these are diseases that must be taken seriously.  I have read and been told that some coinfections of Lyme are supposedly curable by one's own immune system, but there are varying medical opinions on that.

Nowhere have I read that Lyme will just go away on its own -- even the CDC doesn't say it goes away on its own.  It is a bacterium, a spirochete (spiral shaped bacterium), just like ... syphilis.  Syphilis seems to 'go away' after the initial infection, but it simply hides in the tissues and does its evil work over years and decades.  Lyme appears to do the same.  Some infections, and some strains of Lyme, may be less nasty, but so little is known at this point that one can't make that determination based on anything verified or verifiable.

We don't post LLMD names here in the open, but I will send you a private message with some leads.  It sounds like your MD is trying hard, and he may be just fine, given that so much is unknown about Lyme and its treatment, but it can't hurt to get a second opinion.

[JackieCalifornia]

Well, I don't have an LLMD name directly, but on a website call It's About Lyme [itsaboutlyme] [dot] com, there is a link on the right side of the page to the Lyme disease assn of  ...  Southeastern Pennsylvania!

It's at www [dot] lymepa [dot] org.  Sometimes 'support' groups are just big whine fests and don't help much, but they can at a minimum put you in touch with local LLMDs.  Check it out.  If it doesn't fly, check some of the other links on the It's About Lyme home page, right hand column.  I don't know any more than that about them, but it's a place to start.  You can also go to ILADS [dot] org, which is the professional organization for LLMDs.  I think there is a referral function there.

So I'm not sending you a priv. message, but this should be a good start.  

http://www.lymepa.org/