Drastic skin changes typical in Lyme or some other cause to blame?

[IndigoRiley]

I have aged noticeably since i got sick. <My skin has gotten sooo THIN and deep wrinkles all within 2-3yrs. I am just wondering if this is normal? I put up a pic on my profile, and i was wondering if u guys could take a look at it(again, on my profile).its the most recent one with my breast(nipple blacked out/covered, dont worry!)(and how bad my skin looks). Can anyone relate?
    U would not even believe how bad it looks. If someone looked at the pic, not my face in it they would guess I was in my 60's 70's I kid u not! do u think that has anything to do with lyme? or maybe something else, or just aging from the stress? Please check it out and tell me what u think. sorry if this is inappropriate in any way bc it's my chest(but again, nipple is NOT exposed so same as if i were wearing a bathing suit) but I just dont understand why my skin has become this way within such a short time! It's not right!

[JackieCalifornia]

If it's any consolation, I now look at photos of myself around the time my treatment was finishing, and I was looking fairly warn out ... I had dark eye circles like you mention, and my hair changed texture somewhat from mostly straight to wavy, like it was when I was a kid.  My hair has stayed wavy, but is back to being full and healthy, and I don't look warn out like I was when I was sick.

It takes a while, but the body goes through a war when fighting Lyme etc., and the good news is that the infections are treatable and go away, as does the thrashing the body takes during the battle within.  This too will pass.  Hang on!!

[BrokenArrow25]

My skin has gotten incredibly thin (especially on my hands) since I started antibiotics 4 months ago. It's drastic and surprising. I also have dark circles under my eyes that I never did before! I'm 32 and have always been fit and active. None of the thinning started until antibiotic use. I take 4 simultaneously.

[JackieCalifornia]

To aurora, indigo and sunny --

What do your docs say about the cause(s) of your skin conditions?

Sometimes docs focus on one area of the body (like skin, or joints, etc.) but they forget that it's all hooked together at some level, through our 'friend' Mr Lyme.

[sunnylau]

yes,my sking changed a lot since i got ill
dry,thin, itchy and very sensitive when never has a problem before
i wasn't allergic to anything and now i have rashes all the time and can;t use my epilady anymore because gave me red dots like bleeding

[AuroraFree]

Hi,
I'm so sorry you are going thru this. I'm having the same issue. Skin so horribly thin now. This started within  6-7 months of getting Lyme/Babesia and being on abx. I've since been on an herbal protocol.

Have you found anything that has worked? I've started taking collagen I and III and will start with bamboo tea as it has a high silica content, which is needed for collagen.

Also, I started taking vitamin k-2 for elastin.

I would luv to pool our resources and defeat this thing.

[IndigoRiley]

Thankyou cave that was very very informative and helpful!

[IndigoRiley]

And I know it may not look "that bad"  and since my husband loves me no matter what thankfully I don't need to worry so much about how that looks, but its the drastic change in such a short time, and the fact that I am only 27 that alarmed me. I also have swollen lymph nodes everywhere..they are horrible. My masseuse was like "umm something is not right in your neck, Ive never felt someone with that many swollen lymph nodes before". My dr thought I might have leukemia in 2010 bc my white count was 16,000(I wasn't sick with flu or anything at the time just general feeling of being unwell) and all my lymph nodes were so swollen(esp in my groin), blood work for white count came back normal the next blood test and the oncologist said it didn't seem like cancer to her.

[IndigoRiley]

Yeah, definitely way more focused on the infection, I just wondered if this could be related(although if it is, then getting treated will help it along with everything else) I have stopped caring about my looks..I am too exhausted to give a hoot. I used to maintain my looks and worry about them but now, I just want to FEEL good and I don't care NEARLY as much about my looks as I once did.

[IndigoRiley]

OMG yes u just described my skin perfectly! How crazy we are sooo much alike with pretty much everything! Yes I used to look soo young for my age (as u can see in the pic on the right) I was proud of my skin and the way I looked, and now I look sooo visibly aged. Like u said, skin in thin, STRECHY, wrinkly, and I just turned 27..it also came on SOOO fast! I didn't know skin could change so drastically in such a short period of time!

[leilajax]

I think besides the thyroid issues and lymph nodes this was our biggest thing in common.  My skin is very loose, thin, and was dry (don't know if the doxy or the change in seasons remedied that).  Always petite I used to ( as in 2 years ago) look much younger than my age.  Now, I am visibly aged.  My skin is wrinkly and so pliable.  If I were a super hero I'd be that super stretchy guy.  My skin just covers me like bread dough.  It is gross and I hate it!!!!  That being said, I'd wear my wrinkled skin at the ripe age of 34 with pride to get a smidgen of my brain back:(

[Kewpist]

I would too. I got bit in 2013. I just found out a week ago. I didn't realize what the bite was. My brains, my skin, and my physical fitness and agility... All gone.

[JackieCalifornia]

I looked at your photos online just now, and while I know it's very distressing to you, it doesn't look that bad to me .... skin is resilient, so focus on getting the rest of you well, and I'll bet the skin comes back like it used to be too.

[JackieCalifornia]

All the more reason to get to a doc.  Try not to worry about your skin, tho, and focus on getting rid of the infection.

[IndigoRiley]

I have one child..she will be 6 in July. The picture on the right is post baby. I popped right back in to shape after I had her and my breasts were fine, my skin was fine, i didnt even work out(I have naturally fast metabolism..soimetimes at least..my weight fluctuates). the skin thing happened all within about 8-10 months. It happened soo fast! I dont get it! the skin on my face is so thin now too, and aged.

[IndigoRiley]

I updated my "privacy" for the photos...so theyre on there now!

[JackieCalifornia]

In a word, cave:  awesome.  Don't know how you found that one online, but bravo!

[cave76]

Serendipity is alive and well. I was browsing another site about Lyme (that is more a science-drop than a patient-centric one such as MedHelp.

There were several abstracts/articles about some other dermatological aspects of Lyme, other than the classic bulls-eye.
Several addressed idiopathic atrophoderma of Pasini and Pierini (IAPP).

This was just after I'd read trying's post about her striations and which didn't ring a bell with me at all.

[Idiopathic atrophoderma of Pasini and Pierini (IAPP)]

"IAPP is an abortive, primarily atrophic variant of morphea. The clinical appearance of IAPP may be variable according to the stage of dermal atrophy and distribution of the lesions."

http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/8113457

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Some other names to run by your dermatologist, if you go to one. But your llmd might have more interest in it. (Sometimes we patients educate our doctors!)

Morphea
Linear scleraderma
Atrophoderma of Pasini and Pierini
dermal atrophy

" localized morphea, guttate morphea, nodular morphea, subcutaneous morphea, linear scleroderma, and atrophoderma of Pierini and Pasini [1]."
http://dermatology-s10.cdlib.org/94/NYU/Mar2002/9.html
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[cave76]

I found the photo but the lighting wasn't too good. I did see what seemed to be 'wrinkles' or 'lines' on the skin.

I can't begin to guess what is causing that, though. Have you ever had a baby or been pregnant?  (sorry for the personal question. Don't answer if too personal.)

Are the 'wrinkles' just on the breast or in other places?

You might try going to a dermatologist to see if you can get an answer from one. It has me stumped and I can't remember reading of that from Lyme, but Lyme can do some pretty strange things.
Let us know if you find an answer, please, and I hope you do find an answer that has a 'cure'.

[youvegottobekidding]

On your profile under photos it says "no photos".

I can tell you that some of the so-called European strains of Lyme (which are actually rife in the USA too) give you abnormally thin skin. It tends to be particulary on hands and feet but can be everywhere, so that could possibly be a cause.

[JackieCalifornia]

Not sure!  Lyme is a real stress-maker, tho, so maybe yes.

See if anyone else has had this ... but in the meantime, try not to worry over it, because more stress isn't what your immune system needs.  I used to have a little chat with my poor ole body sometimes, like right before I went to sleep, commiserating with it and saying I was doing my best to get us both well and to hang in there.  It made me feel better to at least TRY!  

Mind/body thing.