My Journey With Lyme

My journey with Lyme began a little over a month ago - quite recent compared to some horror stories which I've heard about.  It all began with a tick, as Lyme journeys are wont to do, which is ironic when you consider the fact that I am a serious creepy-crawlyphobe.  I'd give it a real scientific name, but it's not as simple as arachnophobia or insectophobia, so let's just leave that at that.

At any rate, the irony is, I was dressed to fend off the unwanted beasties.  My socks were long and tight on my calves; my pants were elastic at the ankles. I had my shirt tucked into my pants, and long sleeves on.
 I was sure nothing would be able to get to me. I also had instituted a routine whereby we would check ourselves after our walks in the woods.  And we did. The day of the evening that I found the tick on me, I had done the requisite body-search, and thought that I was safe, particularly given my mode of attire that day.  Still, during the search, I neglected to move aside the straps of my nursing cami and simply slept, as I always do, in said nursing cami.  Later on that night, after waking to nurse the baby, I noticed that my shoulder felt as though the strap were digging into me, so I moved it to one side, to relieve the pressure.  That is when I noticed the dark spot!  I calmly put the Bear to bed (and believe me when I say that it took every ounce of willpower not be freaking out and clawing at my arm in a mindless attempt to remove it from my torso!) and woke up Jeff, ("Jeff ... Jeff! There's a tick on me ... get it off!") After a bit of a struggle, he managed to get the tick and then, several very tense, tear-filled, nauseating minutes later, the head, out.  Let me just say, those little tick removing doo-dads that they sell? They SUCK!!  

Still, the tick was out and while I admit to being more than a little traumatized, I eventually did go back to sleep.  My arm was sore for a couple of days, but then, Jeff had dug out a small chunk of my flesh, so I figured that was par for the course.  What happened next, in hindsight I realize was the onset of the Lyme, but you have to understand a few things about me.

First, I have very sensitive skin and I have a super hyper histamine reaction to any kind of insect bite.  So, when the tick bite and area around it started to itch, I pretty much ignored it as my own "normal" hyper-reaction.  A week later, it was still itchy, but since I had a big scab where the chunk of flesh was carved out, I chalked it up to the "healing" itch that everyone talks about.  

Second, if I don't have the flu, I tend to push through any fatigue, body-aches, pains and what-have-you just to get things done.  I have an 18 month old toddler who has still not slept through the night since that one time the first week after he was born.  I'm exhausted most of the time!  Which means that my memory and thought-processes are sometimes scattered on a regular basis. So, again, here were a couple more signs that I ignored due to lack of knowledge.

Third, I have asthma that gets exacerbated by any types of allergens, along with stress or over-exertion.  I noticed that I was needing to use my rescue inhaler a lot more often than I had been, but I reasoned that there must be something in the air - possibly the new puppy we got - that was setting me off. (I didn't know that shortness of breath and difficulty breathing can also be a symptom of Lyme.) Yet one more thing that should have set off alarm bells.

I think you can see where this is going.

By the second week after the tick bite, I was really starting to wonder how much longer my body was going to "hyper-react".  It was a serious itch! Of course, I scratched.  My impulse control needs work sometimes.  Since I couldn't get a good look at what was going on because of the combination of bite location and poor vision in my left eye, I asked Jeff, "Does this look normal to you?" His response, and the look on his face terrified me,  "That looks like a bulls-eye to me.  Call the doctor first thing Monday morning."  So, for the remainder of Saturday night and all through Sunday, I was a nervous wreck and I did just as he'd said, and called my PCP the very first thing that Monday morning.  I was told to come to the office as soon as possible that morning, which I did.  My PCP was booked so I ended up seeing a nurse practitioner who prescribed two weeks of Amoxicillin (500mg/3x a day) and a blood test.  The blood test came back negative and for a split second, I was relieved, until the nurse practitioner told me that that didn't mean I didn't have Lyme; the symptoms I'd been having combined with the rash meant I needed to finish that course of antibiotics, which I am currently still taking.

Here's what I've learned:  

1. Tick removing doo-dads often do more harm than good.  NEVER twist a tick.  The head will often pop off and get stuck in you.  This stresses the tick and causes it to release more of its bacteria-laden saliva into your body!
2. The proper way to get a tick out is to use an excellent pair of sharp tweezers as close to the skin as possible and to slowly and firmly PULL STRAIGHT OUT!
3. NEVER put anything (not Vaseline, not Vick's Vapo-Rub, not a lit match-head, NOTHING) on a tick to make it let go.  That just stresses the tick and causes it to release more of its bacteria-laden saliva into your body! (Are you beginning to see a trend yet?)
4. Blood tests don't mean squat!  The Lyme titer may very well come back negative, and in many cases actually does come back negative if it's done very early in the disease because your body has not had time to form anti-bodies against it. 
5. There are other blood tests, but your doctor may not even order them if your titer is negative, so go in ready to stand up for yourself. 
6. You are not likely to get the antibiotics you need to actually get rid of the spirochetes.  It's possible - but not likely.  Most doctors under-treat.  Insist on proper treatment.
7. There are herbs that can actually cure Lyme and the co-infections which often result from it and I've been put in contact with a good number of very knowledgeable people that have had remarkable success with herbs as well as flower essences.  
8. This is going to be a long process.

So, my plan is to document exactly how this whole thing plays out and to learn as much as I can about curing this disease so that I can, hopefully, help others who end up with it.  After all, if I can't pull something positive out of this experience, then I believe I must not be paying attention.  So, stay tuned ...