Symptoms Time Line

[worriedparent20653]

Hi everyone.  I found several ticks on me around the 4th of July weekend in Maryland.  I started feeling sick right away with a slight fever and body aches.  Went to the Doc on the 7th and they said it was way to quick for lyme to start to infect me if was just viral and a coincidence.  I felt better a few days later, but have started noticing slight headaches and lightheaded feeling.  My question to anyone that will answer is when you were infected was it a very gradual change and hard to notice until it was too late or was it rapid and obvious to you that something was wrong.

[JackieCalifornia]

fwiw,  anxiety is a symptom of Lyme.  The 'official' name for Lyme is neuroborreliosis, meaning borrelia is the family of bacteria, and neuro for the nerve/brain system.  Infection and inflammation of the nerves and brain, tho it seems to affect different people different ways, some more in the muscles, some more in the brain, some both.

You're not alone in feeling as you are.  

Your employer may have disability insurance that would cover you if need time off.  I don't know how difficult it is to get certified and then re-certified periodically by the carrier as being unable to work.

You hang in there, and let us know how you do.

[worriedparent20653]

Thanks, everyone for your support.  I have another appointment on Thursday where I plan to talk to them again and have asked for a physical since I am 32 and never had one.  I have also started to research a LLMD and have two I am interested in.  The highly recommend one doesn't accept any insurance which I would think means he must be very good.  The other is in my network but not as highly recommended.  My wife thinks I have become a hypochondriac because of my fears, but I started trying to purchase long term disability for protection against he worst.  My job is mentally demanding and if I lose my mental sharpness I won't be kept working for long.  I broke down crying yesterday fearing the worst as I have two young children and a wife the depend on me.  As far as the symptoms go last night I felt about 95% and ate my first meal in about 5 days.  Today I feel light headed and the small amount of food I ate goes through me within about an hour.  My joints feel good but the headaches, light headed, and diarrhea concern me.  On the bright side at this rate I will fit into the jeans I wore in high school.

[JackieCalifornia]

jlynn64 --

Big points to you for insisting on treatment, and extra points to your doc for listening to you!  Glad you're feeling better in the lips department.

Have you asked your doc to test for coinfections?  I'm not sure nonLLMDs are totally up on coinfections, but based on symptoms, an LLMD can guess pretty well what additional tests need to be done.  Each coinfection also may need different treatment from Lyme.

[jlynn64]

I started showing symptoms within 3 days, I would have blown them off but i actually felt my tick bite me and thanks to this forum it prompted me to see a doc who also said it's too early for symptoms but put me on doxy for 4 wks because I insisted on it.
I truly believe I have a co-infection and that may or may not be why my symptoms came on suddenly.  Everyone is different, and like Jackie said- trust yourself and what your body is telling you. Time is very important!

P.S. Just wanted to share: I woke up this morning and the numbness in my lips is gone!
Now if only the wierd numby crawly feelings across the middle of my back would go away I would feel almost normal!

[JackieCalifornia]

Everyone is different, both in their personal physical reaction and in what infections they may have.  This produces a confusing clinical picture, esp for docs who have a fixed idea of exactly what Lyme should look like and how it should present.  

There is also the question of co-infections, which are diseases carried by the same ticks as Lyme.  These diseases need different testing and (usually) different treatment.

I suspect that some people with strong immune systems can get infected but the symptoms are kept at a low level until something bad happens that is a major stressor on the body (an accident, a re-infection, another disease), and then the immune system falters and the illness becomes apparent.  I've seen this happen to people I know, and while I can't prove it, it is a reasonable explanation for experiences I have heard from others.

That is to say:  the onset is hard and fast for some, depending on what coinfections the current tick carried, and depending on the pre-existing condition of the patient and what other medical conditions (including an existing but quiet Lyme infection) they may have.

Therefore I wouldn't try too hard to decide whether a gradual change in condition or a rapid change in condition is diagnostic of Lyme or no Lyme or coinfections.  There are too many variables to allow relative terms like 'fast' and 'slow' to be the decider.

And there is too much the medical profession doesn't know.  Perhaps the thing they know the least about is how little they actually know about Lyme. A lack of humility in the face of Mother Nature is not a good thing.

This is all a long way of saying:  trust yourself and how you feel, and keep trying to get your MD (or find a new one) to take you seriously.  Time is important, because an entrenched infection is all the harder to get rid of.  Press ahead on all fronts, rather that go to one MD and pursue their approach for 6 months and then start all over.  Time is important.  In your situation, I'd keep seeing the current MD while looking for and consulting with a Lyme specialist.  Let us know how you do.

Remember that no one here is medically trained, to my knowledge, so you can't rely on us for medical advice, but tactical advice we can do.