high serum copper levels

I have never posted on this site before,but all of you seem to be very informed so I thought I would give it a shot. I do not have MS, although it was suspected for quite awhile.  Last week an infectious disease doc diagnosed me with Lyme (positive blood & csf fluid), but now I found out that my serum copper levels are high-250(normal range70-150).  I do not have any hepatic symptoms. My ceruoplasm levels were normal, and I do not eat a copper rich diet.  Does anyone have any ideas?  I go back to the doc on Tues, but I wanted a heads up.  Thank you!

[sllowe]

Hi Sheba,

Welcome-Welcome!

I unfortunately, do not know much about the copper levels, but wanted to say hello to you and hope you find some comfort here.  Good luck at your Dr. appt. tomorrow.  Please come back and share w/us what the high levels mean if you don't mind.  We are an eager to learn bunch!

How are you feeling, and how are they treating your lymes? Hope you get well soon.

-Shelly

[sheba968]

Thanks for your response! I will report back tomorrow if I find anything out.  As for the treatment of the Lyme, have not started yet, hopefully tomorrow. I have no idea what he plans to do.  I have a lot of neurological problems as well as arthritis (I am 30), I just hope he knows what he is doing.  He was pretty angry at the other doc's for letting it get this far and for ignoring for Lyme tests.(They told me it was not Lyme, but an auto-immune disorder that was giving me the positive Lyme tests, and I was subsequently tested for every auto immune disease under the sun-all neg.)  Hopefully I will start to feel better.  
  I have noticed that this forum is unique to all of the others, and even though I do not have MS, would like to keep in contact.  I think I could learn a lot.  Thanks!

[Quixotic1]

Just a quickie here.  An elevated serum copper doesn't mean much with the normal ceruloplasm.  Serum copper can be elevated in several common conditions, one of which is infection.  Others are inflammatory conditions and pregnancy.

Congratualtions on the Lyme diagnosis!  We would love to have you here!  We have no requirement that you have to have a specific diagnosis!  We have 2 or 3 with Lyme and a bunch of others.  The symptoms are so similar we have a lot in common.  Don't just stay in touch, feel free to participate freely.  Tell us your story of trying to get a diagnosis.  An important part of the workup for MS is ruling out (or in) the mimics, so we need people around to remid everyone that "Everything that looks like MS is not neccessarily MS."

But, I am curious.  How are we unique?  'Cause we're funny and special?

Quix  :))

[sheba968]

Hi!

To answer your question about how all of you are unique-there seems to be a lot of personality on this board!  I was reviewing past discussions and not only learned some things,but thought you all brought up a lot of valid points/debates.  Not to knock some of the other sites, but a lot of the responses are non specific and generic sounding (especially from some of the docs.)

As far as myself goes, it is a long story.  When several different neurologists dismissed the idea of Lyme right off the bat, quite frankly, so did I. I figured they knew what they were talking about.  I started intense research and considered several different things (as did the docs) including MS, antiphospholipid syndrome (I have had 3 miscarriages in the past), a vitamin B-12 deficiency, thyroid, and the list goes on and on and on. After months of testing all I had was an abnormal MRI of the brain, (showing a couple of lesions, but they did not find any onilogical bands in the csf fluid), an MRI of the neck and back that didn't reveal any lesions, just a whole lot of arthritis, C-reactive protein levels that were high, Vitamin D levels very deficient, Vitamin B-12 low, (methymalonic acid was ok), a nodule on my thyroid, an enlarged spleen, and last but not least the Lyme Tests.  

Upon neurological examination I was found to have clonus of the ankles, hyper reflexes of the lower extremities, the Babinski sign is present, and I have a positive Rhomberg. I am told when I walk it is strange, my toes seem to be "feeling for the floor", and on the last visit the neuro found something wrong with the disk in my eye and said it explained the periodical loss of vision that I experience in my right eye, although I am not exactly sure what he was talking about. (Getting  info out out of him is like pulling teeth!)
My symptoms include horrible headaches(my right eye will occasionally sink in and droop following a headache.) The right side of my face was going numb for months but has since subsided,weakness in my legs,as well as numbness in my legs and feet.  The most upsetting for me has been my right arm.  In April it in went numb, and has not been the same since.  The muscle has atrophied, the joints in my fingers,elbow,and shoulder cause me a lot of grief. I can't use  this arm as I once did. Other joints have started flaring up as well, and I developed L'Hermitte's  sign. I have also had  Diarrhea and heat intolerance for quite a few months.  
I decided to start researching Lyme Disease, when I still had no diagnosis. I was surprised to find how little I knew about it, and how many symptoms I had.  I was supposed to go to the Cleveland Clinic at one point, but my lousy insurance company decided they were not going to pay for it at the last second.  The only good thing was I got copies of all my medical records because of this, and thats when I realized I had  been CDC positive on my Lyme tests. (They were through Quest Diagnostics) So, I called the Health Department, and spoke to the head of Epidemiology, (who by the way was supposed to have a copy of my lab work-and did not ever receive them), and after a very long conversation with her, she convinced me to see this infectious disease doc, as she felt I most likely had Lyme. So, that is how I got here.  Bottom line, so many doctors are ignorant about Lyme.  My Primary  doc just admitted to me yesterday that he knows diddly about this disease.  I have been addicted to the internet lately, trying to learn as much as I can.  Problem is, there is so much info out there, I am not sure what to believe.  I guess I just take it one day at a time!