I'm writing this about my husband, after a year of sickness and frustration he's been dealing with. Early last spring he found a DEAD deer tick attached to the inside of his arm. It was tiny, we thought it was a baby, and we googled deer tick images and that's exactly what it was. It wasn't like the other ticks we would more often see. There was also redness around it. We thought, "Hah, that's weird. Probably should keep an eye on that."
In hindsight, the stupidest thing we did was not saving that tick.
Shortly after he started feeling achy and kind of sick. He immediately suspected lyme disease and went to the dr. and told him everything. They put him on 3 weeks of doxycyclene. (not sure about my spelling on that!) The one Lyme Disease test they ran came back negative, so they really didn't take it seriously, but gave him the antibiotics anyway. We read that it has to be treated at least a month, but the dr didn't think so. He took them and got better. Not too long after the meds were done, the symptoms slowly started to come back. His knees, elbows, fingers, everything was stiff and hurt to move. It slowly got worse. The doctor ran tests on him, couldn't find anything wrong, and little to no inflammation was detected. Dr sent him to a infectious disease doctor who also didn't find anything wrong. They're thinking fibromyalgia or sleep apnea and want to do a bunch more tests in that direction.
Meanwhile, my husband who's always been a very intelligent thinker and highly motivated, is now having trouble concentrating and complains of being "foggy" in his head and can't think of the words he wants to use. He has no energy and is getting grumpy and depressed that no one has been able to help as he continues to deteriorate. This is so NOT like him at all. (he's in his mid 30s) While the pain doesn't so much bother him, the constant fog he's in is really starting to get to him. It makes it hard for him to do his work and drive. When we read about Lyme Disease, it fits him so completely it's crazy. After seeing a few different local doctors over the last year, he's gotten nowhere. He sometimes feels a off balance and his vision is sometimes affected, though not severely.
We're at the point where we are considering traveling anywhere we need to go to get a Lyme Disease specialist who can treat him, or rule out for definite that he does not have it. The one test he had early on came up negative, but that is common with many Lyme tests I understand, and his symptoms persist.
Does anyone have ideas, suggestions, anything??? We're getting desperate here. I'm worried my husband may never get back to his old self again.
Thank goodness we got guineas after this happened last year, and we've seen very few even though tick season this year has been awful. I worry this could happen to my kids or myself too, so I'm always watching out for them!
Thanks in advance for any ideas.
In hindsight, the stupidest thing we did was not saving that tick.
Shortly after he started feeling achy and kind of sick. He immediately suspected lyme disease and went to the dr. and told him everything. They put him on 3 weeks of doxycyclene. (not sure about my spelling on that!) The one Lyme Disease test they ran came back negative, so they really didn't take it seriously, but gave him the antibiotics anyway. We read that it has to be treated at least a month, but the dr didn't think so. He took them and got better. Not too long after the meds were done, the symptoms slowly started to come back. His knees, elbows, fingers, everything was stiff and hurt to move. It slowly got worse. The doctor ran tests on him, couldn't find anything wrong, and little to no inflammation was detected. Dr sent him to a infectious disease doctor who also didn't find anything wrong. They're thinking fibromyalgia or sleep apnea and want to do a bunch more tests in that direction.
Meanwhile, my husband who's always been a very intelligent thinker and highly motivated, is now having trouble concentrating and complains of being "foggy" in his head and can't think of the words he wants to use. He has no energy and is getting grumpy and depressed that no one has been able to help as he continues to deteriorate. This is so NOT like him at all. (he's in his mid 30s) While the pain doesn't so much bother him, the constant fog he's in is really starting to get to him. It makes it hard for him to do his work and drive. When we read about Lyme Disease, it fits him so completely it's crazy. After seeing a few different local doctors over the last year, he's gotten nowhere. He sometimes feels a off balance and his vision is sometimes affected, though not severely.
We're at the point where we are considering traveling anywhere we need to go to get a Lyme Disease specialist who can treat him, or rule out for definite that he does not have it. The one test he had early on came up negative, but that is common with many Lyme tests I understand, and his symptoms persist.
Does anyone have ideas, suggestions, anything??? We're getting desperate here. I'm worried my husband may never get back to his old self again.
Thank goodness we got guineas after this happened last year, and we've seen very few even though tick season this year has been awful. I worry this could happen to my kids or myself too, so I'm always watching out for them!
Thanks in advance for any ideas.
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