Does this sound like Lyme?

[Cassiehack]

So I have been posting about this for a while, but I will post again. In August I started having tingling in my hands with   every inhale. This progressed to being a constant thing and then began in my feet and would sometimes go up my leg. This varies in severity and is usually not painful but VERY annoying. Most recently this has become very noticeable in my lips and I get random stabbing pain in my eyes,face and tongue. My mouth also feels weird. Kinda numb and tingly like when you eat MSG. This seemed to start at the same time as a virus back in August. Sometimes it feels like my neck/spine is trembling. I have had blood tests for thyroid, diabetes, and vitamin deficiencies, all normal. I am waiting on an MRI in December and also the results of evoked potentials. Any one have these symptoms? Insights? I am 23 and female.

[Jamie283]

Thanks Jackie, I am very early in my treatment. 200 mg of doxy a day.  Clinically diagnosed.   Waiting for final blood work.   Dr didn't want to loose another week.   Regardless of my journey.  After reading about lymes disease and seeing how it can effect people.  I have already asked a new friend who suffered with this disease fo over a year and now is involved in a lymes foundation to sign me up.   I'm in the landscape business in ny and our industry needs to know more to protect our workers. I hate to hear about people suffering from something when there's a good chance they can be spared.   I have all the symptoms in my peripheral nerves.   First week both legs same exact feeling of numbness, tingling and slight muscle twitches. Then the next week in my arms. Both the exact same.   Just started to hit the face when I went to the emergency room.  They did some blood work, monitored the heart, MRI and cat scan of head, sonogram of veins in legs as we'll ALL NEGATIVE.   That week two neurologist, more blood all stds. Negative, RA negative, lymes negative,  both neurologist said symptoms would go away.  Next week.  RA Dr,  nice.  Thorough, did more blood work.  But said it would work its way out.   I had been reading about lymes and started asking about good doctors in my area. (Long Island).  I feel I found one in my area.   Went to him 2days after the RA dr.   The PA saw me and felt that in her experience I was 99@ infected.   But would take more blood and look for certain bands.   I'm on doxy now, this is my 4th day. And it's hard to tell how effective it has been.   Symptoms seem same or less.    

[JackieCalifornia]

and PS

Some Lyme patients do well and may prefer herbal approaches, perhaps combined with antibiotics.

Rife machine use is also out there, but I don't hear much about it.

Lyme is still a developing field, so do your homework and find a doc whose philosophy of diagnosis and treatment fits with your own preferences.

My only preference was to get well, and I went for the antibiotics.  It worked beautifully for me.  I have also read posts here recently about herbal treatments working well, and there seems to be more information about that these days than a few years ago.

Lyme is still a developing field, so there are many ways to approach diagnosis and treatment.  Doesn't make it easy when you're so sick, but be brave and ask for help from family and friends.  If something doesn't make sense to you, then question it.  Someday Lyme will be all figured out, but till then, there are several approaches, and not everyone will agree on what is 'best.'

Someday this will all be figured out; till then, let's keep helping each other to find ways of treatment and cure that make sense to each of us.  

[JackieCalifornia]

There is no one set program for treating Lyme and any co-infections -- different docs have different approaches, and this is an area of medicine that is still being figured out.  Result:  many different meds are used.

I was treated something like 7 years ago, and that's a looong time in the medical world, so much continues to change.  In addition, I had some reactions to some of the meds, which reactions were peculiar to me, so everyone is different, and given how long ago this was, the whole supposedly 'standard' treatment approach is sure to have changed over time ... because there is really no standard approach.  Lyme is on the cutting edge of medicine and its mysteries are still being unraveled.

The most important thing is to have a knowledgeable doc who knows what is likely to be most effective, and then to change things up as needed in the doc's experience and judgment.  

***To my understanding, there is NO 'standard' treatment for Lyme.***

... but fwiw, here is what I took, over a period of about a year:

--- First:  for babesia, I was treated with
  ---- Mepron (generic:  atovaquone) and
  ---- Zithromax (generic:  azithromycin)

--- Then:  for Lyme, I was treated with
  ---- Biaxin (generic:  clarithromycin) and
  ----Omnicef (generic:  cefdinir)

  ----these were changed to:
      ----  Zithromax (generic:  azithromycin) and
      ----  Flagyl (generic:  metronidazole)

BOTTOM LINE:  there is NO 'standard' Lyme treatment, and do not try to self-medicate.  Lyme is a serious ailment and must be diagnosed and treated by a competent MD.

Sorry to lecture, but there are lots of people who don't want to deal with docs, and that way lies trouble -- Lyme treatment is *not* a do-it-yourself project ordered from the internet.

[Jamie283]

Jackie what meds worked for you? I know I read somewhere?

[mojogal]

These days when something is hard to diagnose, I would go and check out Lyme as an explanation. Lyme is becoming more and more prevelant. As Jackie explained, it. Is hard to get a diagnosis unless you see an LLMD.
Like so many others, I was misdiagnosed for over 20 years and by that time the Lyme and co-infections had done so much damage. I am glad you are being persistent.

[JackieCalifornia]

PS  An MRI is not particularly useful in diagnosing or ruling out Lyme disease or its co-infections, but having the test rules out other possibilities.  Can't hurt to be sure nothing else is going on, but if the MRI comes back negative, don't stop looking for answers.  We're here -- keep us posted!