need advice.. sound like lyme?

[rickierockit92]

names rich. here is whats going on .. thanks in advance for any info. i am a 22 year old male. white, no major history of disorders. I do have high blood pressure. currently on meds for it.

symptoms :

- headaches, sometimes morning, afternoon, night. 5-6 or lower out of 10 but pretty constant. (had for past month. mostly everyday. always sensitive to bright lights, but seem to bring headaches on latley. front and sides of head mostly right side)
- rainbow haloes around lights at night, glare, starbursts eye floaters as well. always had floaters but never as much as i do now. have quite a lot.
- sore sore neck. always crackling when move it and once in a while "rainstick feeling in back of neck?skull"
- painful jaws and clicking/popping when opening
- ulnar nerve issues in left hand. numbess, tingling, weakness, arm pain. (now migrating a bit to the right hand as well)
- "wooshing sounds feeling pulse in right ear upon waking up.
- also have a never ending, comes and goes itchy bumpy rash on cheeks of buttocks. (embarrising but whatever)

      8 months ago i was bitten by a tick camping in new hampshire. bit me on the base of my down under (scrotum) funny yes and scary. but true. called doctor in philly where i am from and said to get tested in 2 weeks for lyme. i did.. came back negative. this is two weeks after being bit i was tested. never had a bulls eye appear that i noticed. almost exactly 2 weeks after.. very sore neck and pain in the neck. followed by a headache that was constant. no other symptoms (that i noticed). this was months ago.. complained to my doc and had an MRI of brain. all was normal. stopped worrying about headaches after that and soon went away. now months later. headaches are back. along with some other symptoms as listed above. OCCASIONALLY ... every other month or so since this has happened i have gotten a fever, aches, chills, etc for one night only. then is disappears.  

i do work at a computer mostly all day slunched over and bad posture. i have gained 20-30 pounds in last 10 months. have supposed astigmatism in right eye and was squinting in that eye occasionally. went to eye doctor about all eye problems and couldnt find anything gave me prescription stating eyes were working hard but have not received glasses yet.

tired of my mom always balming sinuses and girlfriend thinking im crazy with my "phantom pains"

ofcourse always worried about somethign serious.. tumors, bleeding, lyme.. but since i was bitten by a tick.. does this sound like lyme to anyone? ..  thanks in advance.

[PMDER1]

if you were bitten by a tick and was aware of it, not many people are aware of tick bites, you can also be infected by insects or infected mamals as well.

[mojogal]

When somebody remembers being bitten and then has symptoms like you have, I immediatley think of Lyme and/or co-infections. Follow Jackie's advice and see a Lyme Dr to be safe. I went 22 years misdiagnosed and have suffered a lot of damage because of it.

[JackieCalifornia]

Welcome to MedHelp Lyme -- sorry to hear your situation, but we're glad to relate our experiences and hope it will give you some ideas on what you might do next.

Lyme is more common than most people realize, and someone who hasn't had Lyme (or known someone close to them who has) will find it hard to understand. It's a complicated illness, and the medical profession is still figuring it out.  

While Lyme seemed like a fairly straightforward infection a couple of decades ago, it has instead turned out to be more complicated than the docs who first studied Lyme counted on.  Those first docs are fairly senior now, but they (and the younger docs they have taught) still follow the original impression that Lyme is rare, hard to get, and easy to cure -- and that a couple weeks of a standard antibiotic (usually doxycycline) will be enough to make that cure.  

As more research has been done, however, more 'progressive' thinkers in the medical field have realized that Lyme bacteria have unusual ways of hiding in the body where the immune system can't easily find the bacteria to kill them, and the usual antibiotics like doxycycline aren't very effective either, once the bacteria are in hiding. That means the bacteria can stay and create havoc permanently.

There are several 'varieties' of MDs who treat Lyme patients, but unfortunately not all of them understand Lyme (tho they think they do -- you'd think infectious disease docs would be top of the heap when it comes to Lyme, but too often they are not clued in at all).  Lyme is a relatively new and quickly spreading infection that has divided the medical community about how rare Lyme is (or not), how hard (or easy) it is to get, and how to treat it.  Among the specialists who often practice in the Lyme field are infectious disease (ID) docs and rheumatologists, among a few others.  ID docs and rheumies are among the specialists who hold the 'hard to get/easy to cure' view of Lyme, but there are individual exceptions who are more open-minded (tho I haven't met any).  My own Lyme doc was an immunologist by training, but most important is the doc's point of view and open mind rather than what field of medicine s/he comes from.  Confusing, eh.

While the big voluntary physician organizations like the Infectious Disease Society of America (IDSA) hold to the 'hard to get/easy to cure' view, docs of any specialty (or no specialty, like general practitioners, or GPs) who are more open-minded often belong to the voluntary organization International Lyme and Associated Diseases Society (ILADS).  (My Lyme doc is a member of ILADS.)  There is no test that I know of for a doc to become an ILADS member, so you have to keep your antennae up for docs who don't quite make sense to you, and then find another if need be.

I can say though that it is definitely worthwhile to find an MD who really does understand how to diagnose Lyme and its co-infections and how to treat it all.  ILADS has a website you might find interesting, especially Dr Burrascano's treatment guidelines; they are written for docs, but it's accessible to and understandable by non-docs -- tho don't let it give you a headache.

(Another thought:  there is a documentary film called 'Under Our Skin' that came out a couple of years ago, and it explains what Lyme is all about, both to patients and to their families.  I saw it when it first came out a couple of years ago, and I thought it goes a little overboard, but overall is better than nothing.  If you search online for      
                              
                         --- under our skin watch online ---

you will find links to do just that.  I remember thinking when I saw it a while back that it would scare people unnecessarily, because it looks like everybody with Lyme gets very, very ill and stay that way, when many of us don't -- so don't freak out if you watch it.  If you're not already as bad off as some of the people in the film, you probably won't be, and cures are not uncommon.  After you've watched it, think about asking your family to watch it too, so they can understand better what you are dealing with.)
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MRIs are not, from what I read, particularly useful to confirm or rule out Lyme disease, tho an MRI may rule out other things.  (That doc you saw may not have even been thinking of Lyme as a possibility for you.)  

It looks like you live near Philadelphia.  I just searched online for    

                    ---    pennsylvania lyme disease association    ---

and got quite a few interesting leads.  I would suggest you contact one or more of these patient-oriented groups and ask for the names of Lyme specialists near you.  
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Remember that not everyone gets the same symptoms, because Lyme can focus on different parts of the body (some get 'brain fog', some get joint pain, etc.), and the several co-infections that the Lyme ticks can bring also change the symptom picture.  Don't be worried if your symptoms don't line up with other things you read about what having Lyme is 'supposed' to be like -- it's all over the board.  

You say you went to an eye doctor:  what kind of doc was it -- an optometrist, or a optician, or an ophthalmologist?  An ophthalmologist is an MD who specializes in eyes, while the other two (optometrist and optician) test for and make glasses and contacts, tho they often are good at spotting other problems.  If you did not see an ophthalmologist (MD), I would do that -- I was surprised to find that they are very clued in to Lyme disease issues, unlike some other kinds of docs.

Does it sound like you have Lyme?  Dunno; maybe.  But to be on the safe side, I would find a Lyme specialist for a work up to see.  Lyme diagnosis is done by the doc taking a history of your symptoms and probably having some blood tests done.  

Lyme bacteria are in the same family as the bacteria that cause syphilis, and that can do serious and permanent damage to your brain and other body systems, so I would do what you are doing:  get it all checked out with a knowledgeable MD, and take it from there.

Let us know how we can help, and also how you do.  Best wishes --

and PS -- anxiety is a common symptom of Lyme disease:  the Lyme bacteria use up (among other things) magnesium in your body, and that can leave you with the jitters.  Try taking good quality magnesium (Mg) that is a variety ending in "-ate" -- such as Mg citrate, orotate, aspartate, malate, etc. -- but *not* one also mixed with calcium because it can interfere with absorption, so I read.  

Sorry for the data overload.  Let us know how you do --