Possible Lyme disease?

[mrakowski]

I have been suffering with low back pain, knee stiffness, leg weakness, extreme pain in one ankle, bloatiness, etc. for almost two years.  It has been getting steadily worse, and I recenly had it suggested to me that it may be Lyme Disease.  I was in the Dominican Republic about 2 years ago, and was very ill when I came home.  I was eaten alive by the mosquitos there...and was tested for both West Nile and Malaria wfter my return (both were negative)  I am an active person, not overweight.....and lately I feel 90 years old.  No energy, and the pain is wearing me down.....any thoughts??

[JackieCalifornia]

I agree with Wonko's comments.  

It seems from what I have read and heard that regular MDs don't usually know much about tropical medicine, and they VERY seldom know anything about Lyme and its coinfections.

I'd suggest that you located an LLMD (Lyme Literate MD) to evaluate you for Lyme and its coinfections, and also see if s/he is able to look at tropical diseases.  You'd think an infectious disease ("ID") MD who normally handles malaria etc. would be able to deal with Lyme, but the ID docs tend to not believe in Lyme at all, so working from the Lyme end of spectrum of possibilities might be more productive for you.

Best wishes, and let us know how you do.

[wonko]

Of course no one online can tell if you have Lyme, but here are some thoughts:  The problem in diagnosing Lyme disease is that it has very few specific symptoms, and not everyone gets them.  This means a lot of scenarios are consistent with Lyme, but could also be other diseases.  Testing for Lyme disease is also very faulty.  It's therefore important to eliminate other possible causes.  

An all too common experience in Lyme patients is that we get more and more sick, but all of our medical tests come back as either normal or inconclusive.  It can take a long time to find a doctor who will clinically diagnose Lyme (based on history and symptoms) and treat it.

I don't know how prominent Lyme is in the Dominican Republic, but it seems to be turning up in more and more places.