That's for sure!! I first got Lymes with a bulls eye rash about 23yrs ago. I was treated with oral antibiotics for 2 weeks. Felt better. Then 2-3 yrs. later I came down with it again! Health department said they're not sure if I got bit again or if I was under treated or if it reactivated. I went for IV therapy for 3 weeks at the hospital. Fast forward about 17-20yrs. My Lymes came back with a vengence. No rash. I just got off a PICC line of IV antibiotics for 28 days and NOT feeling any better! My infectious disease doctor says all the parasites are dead and my neurologist says he's not so sure of that and I may need another round of treatment. Last month I went to a specialist neurologist that only handles neurpathies that comes from Lymes. He gave me more EMGs and it came out abnormal. Now I'm going for a Lumbar Puncture to make sure there's no lymes in my brain.
For 3 VERY LONG SICK YEARS in and out of hospitals I begged all my doctors to Please give me a lymes test and they all said no. Finally after crying to my rhuematologist he sent me for the test. I received a note in the mail stating the test came out positive.
My RA Factor is up to 156 and my ANA finally went low positive. My rhuematologist wants to put me onto Plaquenil. Yuk! Nasty med! Makes hair fall out and your vision goes bad but glasses would do the trick.
I've been diagnosed with RA but I don't have it. I do have inflammatory arthritis but they can't put a name to it.
If I accepted the RA diagnose from my first rhuematologist 3yrs ago, I would never have been tested for Lymes and would have been on Methotrexate(which is a chemo drug),Plaquenil and Enbrel(which takes your immune system away). Saying that....BE YOU'RE OWN ADVOCATE and make sure you feel confortable with your doctor. If you have to go to many doctors to get more opinions, then do it!
BTW, are you being treated for your lyme and if so are you being treated with mainstream medicine? I HIGHLY recommend a LLMD. (lyme Literate Doctor) Mainstream medicine seem NOT to be very imformed/educated when it comes to Lyme and the treatment most times. They are taught Hard to Get/Easy to cure! Couldn't be farther from the truth!
I have hypothyroidism and just have been Dx'ed with Lyme. I was tested for RA Factor and was neg. I just happened to go hypo and began having FMS symptoms. I was serve could barely walk and the pain was awful. As my thyroid levels were adjusted over months I got relief. FMS is just a name doctors throw out there when they don't know what else to "Call" it. I personally believe it is a idiotic term.
I am 80% better but now treating the Lyme with abx's. I am pretty much pain free now and healing. Both Lyme and hypo can cause FMS symptoms as they call it. I thank God for my hypo spell" I may not of ever realized I was infected with Lyme.
It appears to be a recent infection I'll know more this week.
I was sent to an endo recently after having been told I was Hyper. Right early to this in the year I started experiencing terrible joint pain in both knees, hips, shoulders and then elbows. I was tested and had a positive RA factor. So i would be interested to see how this all ties together as well.
"Does this mean that Hashimoto's can cause fibromyalgia? "
- to the best of my knowledge , no one knows for sure, no one has proved it. No one says it isn't a cause either.
The cause of fibromyalgia is not known to this day.
Some theory's are that in some cases it is a rare and very serious form of thyroid disease.
They don't even know for sure what causes thyroid antibodies yet.
Does this mean that Hashimoto's can cause fibromyalgia?
There is no one actual antibody that is associated directly with fibromyalgia. So I dont believe it technically counts, its a matter of opinion really. Most other autoimune diseases have a certain antibody used as an identifier.
Fibromyalgia is a term made by the medical community for a condition with unknown causes. There is not one organ that is commonly associated with antibodies, however many fibro patients have Hashimoto antibodies; so they have Hashimoto disease along with the termed Fibro symptoms. Most symtoms are the same, only much more severe in Fibro. The major difference by medical definition is fibros need to be sensitive to the touch in a number of areas of the body. There is a Fibro board on MedHelp as well.
Does fibromyalgia count as one of those autoimmune diseases?
RA - rhuemotoid authritis factor and Hashimoto are both Autoimmune antibody diseases.
Autoimmune disease are commonly found in groups of three in persons that have them.