could this be lyme?

[justliveyalife]

I have no recollection of a tick or a rash of any sort, but I thought maybe this could possibly be lyme? What do y'all think?

Okay, so...I have had some strange, unexplained symptoms since November:

Muscle aches
Sporatic Joint pain - mostly all joints - most severe in knees
SEVERE fatigue
Aches/feeling of uncomfort all over
Muscle twitching (have had my whole life, but I notice more now)
Sick a lot - i.e. laringytis, UTI, bad cold, gastroenteritis (bad enough to put me in the hospital) ---> sick constantly, back to back illnesses
dry eyes
dry mouth

My ANA was tested in November--was negative (along with rheumatoid factor and other autoimmune things), in December it was 1:640 homogeneous, in February it was negative again. Nobody in my family has an autoimmune disorder. I am taking a NSAID for the joint pain. But, I feel sick all the time. I am constantly sick....and when I'm not sick (like with a cold or UTI) i just feel horrible. I'm severly fatigued and the joint pain is at times not bearable.

Does anybody have any possible ideas?! I can't continue to deal with this while in college. It's too much, I just want answers!!

[patsy10]

Lyme is present almost  everywhere but it is endemic in the New England states, NY, PA. NJ and others.

Did your doctor run a lyme test on you?  The tesing is not very reliable
though so even with a negative test lyme is still possible.

I started with mainstream medicine as wonko described above.  When everything was ruled out and I was so sick I then started researching lyme .  

[justliveyalife]

I hardly ever wake up feeling refreshed. Usually I wake up and literally feel like I have run a marathon in my sleep. My feet hurt extremely bad on my first few steps. I am also very stiff in the morning. I have started forcing myself to wake up earlier, so I can take longer hot showers to try and get not as stiff before walking to class.

And, I definitely pay for things if I do push myself. My daily routine is very much the same each day....I wake up earlier than I would normally have to so I can get ready...stiff for the first few hours (take celebrex at breakfast) by noon I am fatigued, but manageable. Go throughout classes/work...by five I am exhausted. By eight or so I am in a lot of pain (usually take a pain pill if it is really bad--or if I don't have much homework, because they  usually make me fall asleep.) Usually in bed by 10...up again at 8...same cycle again. Some days I get more relief than others. Some days I can't get out of bed. I am just hurting too bad or literally TOO fatigued.

I really can't deal with this and wish that I could get answers! Sorry I am just very frustrated at this point. Before Thanksgiving I was pretty much normal, now I feel like I have the body of a 90 year old lady...only I'm 20!!

[justliveyalife]

My dr doesn't really know what is going on. The major things (i.e. lupus, fibro, etc) she thinks she has ruled out. I have some of the symptoms, but not enough. Could maybe be post viral, but I'm not getting anybetter...like I would if it was post viral...and it's now been over 6 months of these symptoms with not much relief. I'm not sure if Lyme is really common or not where I live. (I live on the east coast.)

[PlateletGal]

Do you wake up feeling refreshed ? Also... if you push yourself, do you pay for it the following day ?

[patsy10]

Welcome.  Your symptoms can be consistent with lyme but they could also be something else.  It sound like you have had some work up.  What does your doctor think?  I think an evaluation for lyme is indicated as so far it sounds like you have not gotten any answers.  Do you live in an area where lyme is common?  You can still have it if not but it is even more likely if you live in an endemic area.

[wonko]

oh yeah, and no, I don't recall a tick bite or bull's eye rash in my life.  Statistics vary with the source, but I've read that anywhere from 10-40% of Lyme patients don't recall the tick bite.

[wonko]

Lyme is tricky because there are so many potential symptoms and so much overlap with other illnesses.  So while nothing on your symptom list is impossible with Lyme, that doesn't help too much in narrowing it down.

Lyme can be sneaky and cause abnormal labs.  I tested positive for Hashimoto's thyroid, but went negative again in a month.  I also had positive but non-specific blood tests, like a high SED rate.  So your varying ANA is also consistent.

My very general advice, which I take from an interview with Pam Weintraub (author of the MUST READ Lyme book, "Cure Unknown," google it and consider reading it!), is that you should go through a proper differential diagnosis using mainstream medicine first.  

If that fails to get you a diagnosis/treatment, then move Lyme way up on your lists of suspects, and consider finding an LLMD ("Lyme literate" physician).  Lots of patients, self included, never really test positive for Lyme, but get better with treatment.  But we go through a lot of...stuff before getting there.

Keep us posted...