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tick-borne diseases

during a fire fight in Vietnam back in 1969 I was laying on the ground firing my weapon and we were under fire as well. I thought I was hit by a bullet and yelled for the medic to come over...after he exposed the area it was determined that i was not struck by shrapnel or a bullet but was in fact bitten by a tick, it caused excrutiating pain at the time, so under fire the medic removed the body of the tick but was unable to remove the head of the tick and as a result it stayed under my skin for a length of time before disappearing some years later...I have suffered from a high white blood count ever since my days in Nam and over the years testing after testing and after seeing different doctors there has been no particulkar reason found for the high wbc..I have been tested for everything from Aids to Zebra with no conclusion,,,,,then tonite after reading an article on Lyme disease I remebered once again the tick bite....I have suffered along with the high wbc also arthritis in the spine ,feet,arms,and just about every part of my body and have over time developed slight neurological problms as well such as slight tremor to hands when outstretched. My skin is in some places like elephant type skin and constantly need lotions to keep from getting dry. Is it possible any or all of these symptoms could be caused by the tick ,which was black in color and quite large ...that was left to go into my blood stream ? thank you so much , Joe B.
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Avatar universal
yeas, I think you should get checked for lyme decease. I have not had the pains, but since I have fallen ill, my skin is kind of hypersensitive to touch. instead my whole body has turned numb.

I tested postitive for lyme, when I sent a blood sample to Laboratorium medecine, in Germany, Koeln (Köln). There they did both the elisa and the western blot test. The ELISA-test in sweden- I come from Seden- only showed bordermark titres of antibodies. But when the german laboratory staff, used the western blot technique instead, I tested positive.

Good luck. I have also started with acupunture oin Sweden. But an other acupuncture poster on this site, said that acupunture helps when there is an inflammation in the soft tissues, but not when the inflammation is in the spinal chord.
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Avatar universal
Patsy10's right, sometimes the tests just don't show anything -- sometimes early on in the infection, and sometimes later on.  An LLMD will rely not only on test results, but also on your history and symptoms.  Too many doctors have forgotten to look at the patient and not just the test results, and LLMDs are wise to look beyond the paper.

Let us know how you do.
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Have you had any antibiotic treatment?  I also believe it's true that nothing would be found in your blood at this point.  My bullseye rash was in the 90's.  I do not test positive for lyme but I improve considerably from antibiotics.  From what I have read, the longer you have it, the less likely you are to test positive.
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Avatar universal
Thank you for your concerning advise, someone had told me and it was a doctor that after so many years everything disappears into your blood stream and that it would be very difficult to detect Lyme or anything else tick borne...but i will give it a shot, thanks Joe
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Avatar universal
I'm almost 60 too, so I know it's harder on the body at this age.

The various kinds of brain scans show different things, and some scans look normal even with a bad neurological Lyme infection, because that particular kind of scan may not pick up the damage that Lyme does.

I encourage you to find a Lyme literate doctor (LLMD) and take all your medical records to him/her for a work up.  Don't give up!  60 is way young.
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every doctor I have been too and beleive me I have seen a lot have attributed everything to old age ...I am now 60, and they were diagnosing me that way at age 50, not fair.....I also dont remember but at age 40, o so they took a cat scan of my brain with contrast and the neuro Dr. i saw found something but again attributed it too old age and said not to worry about it...I am almost positive whatever my problem is it is almost certainly due to something I got in Nam...I was also bitten by 2 scorpions when i was there too.
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Avatar universal
Yes I agree with JackieCalifornia about the Rocephin.  It is the drug of choice for severe lyme.  Interesting it worked for you.

I also had that neck surgery that you did.  I never injured my neck but I developed neck problems with cracking, pain etc..after my bullseye rashes so who knows.  I can tell you though that the surgery made everything worse for me.

Have you had your skin problems checked out by a dermatologist?
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Avatar universal
Sorry to hear about your ailments, and sincere thanks for your service to our country.  

I agree with Patsy10's comment about ticks there (in SE Asia) and here carrying different diseases ... also, there are ticks here carrying things that the tests don't quite catch, so we're all operating somewhat in the dark.

The LLMDs [meaning Lyme-Literate Medical Doctors, who are interested in Lyme and often think 'outside the box' on these issues] have a broad-minded view of what's up with their patients, so if you've been to infectious disease MDs and not gotten any help, you might consider finding an LLMD for a work up.  For example, my LLMD is also a hematologist; others have other specialities, but with an interest in Lyme and other tickborne ailments.

That you reacted well to Rocephin is certainly an interesting data point, and one that might be of interest to an LLMD.  If you need help finding an LLMD, someone here could perhaps suggest a place to find some names.  You're in the Chicago area?
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Avatar universal
acute arthritis is all and the continuing high wbc which ranges from 13,000 to 16,000  , never goes higher, never goes lower...I ahve seen so many doctors and have just about given up on it......one thing i do remember is that i was hospitalized for something else cant remember what but whatever it was for they treated me with rosefrin IV and suddenly my wbc began to go back to normal....but once i was off the rosefrin and went back to the doctor 3 weeks later my wbc was back up again, thanks...i just had surgery to my neck where they replaced a bone with a bar and pins because the spine was pinching my nerves to the arms, all die to arthritis my doctor from Northwestern said
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Avatar universal
Welcome to the forum.  It's hard to know what kind of diseases ticks carry in other countries.    It is also possible you may  have been bitten by a tick here and not even known it.  Either way, your symptoms are concerning.   There is a skin condition present in chronic lyme called  ACA   or acrodermatitis chronica atrophicans.  You can google pictures of it if you would like to see what it looks like.  It can be biopsied too.


Have you had your condition evaluated by a physician?
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