November 18, 2004
My Search for a Treatment
I spent another 3 years - from mid 2001 until May 20, 2004 - plodding along - from one test to another, from one idea to the next. I never really got better and we never really found an answer to my persistent ill health. I recently found in my great stack of medical test results, a Lyme test done by the Sonoma County Health Department, January 2001 - negative.
Given my atypical patterns leading nowhere, my doctor decided we'd try an Igenex Western Blot Lyme test just 5 months ago. Igenex is the leading lab in the U.S. for Lyme testing. It came back positive...
Honestly - I have learned not to be too hopeful - I wonder if this is really the problem. I hardly dare to believe it. After all the doctors and all the searching and all the diagnoses that I thought were finally the end of the search. Could this be a false finding? Is this "IT"? Am I finally there? Can I stop searching for an answer? Do I have something to fight? Pinch me. Am I dreaming? A chronic infection? just what Dr. G. had guessed from my first visit with him. We just didn't know which one - especially with all the tests coming back negative. An infection - caused by a bacteria and spread by ticks, mites, fleas and mosquitoes. I've only been sick a few times in my life before being clobbered by Lyme, and I really never imagined I'd spend years of my life battling a mysterious illness.
No more mystery? I'm still not convinced. There is one test - not approved by the FDA (who cares?). But they look directly at the cells and if they find Lyme, they take a picture of it . My doctor doesn't have 100% faith in its accuracy but I'm sort of tantalized but that picture idea. Of course I just want to know - is it - or is not Lyme?
Posted by Laureen on November 18, 2004 1:20 PM
Comments
Hi mommy! I'm just catching up on all your posts. After so many entries I was hoping you'd have been miraculously healed by now, but realistically I know that's not quite possible. It seems that the stage you are at at this point in time is so delicate. A balance between healing or worsening. Its frightening to realize that one missed spirochete could trigger the disease again. How do you stay hopeful? I know that you are dabbling in Eastern medicine, as well as Western. How has that been going?
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TITLE: Eventually – Another Answer
AUTHOR: Laureen
DATE: 11/2/2004 03:49:15 PM
Posted by: Ms Bees Knees at November 15, 2004 3:15 PM
Hmm. That is odd actually. Could it have been a false positive?
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TITLE: “They can cure you – right?”
AUTHOR: Laureen
DATE: 11/9/2004 11:52:06 AM
Posted by: Ms Bees Knees at November 16, 2004 11:27 AM
According to the CDC's Lyme Page:Q. How is Lyme disease treated?A. According to treatment experts, antibiotic treatment for 3-4 weeks with doxycycline or amoxicillin is generally effective in early disease. Cefuroxime axetil or erythromycin can be used for persons allergic to penicillin or who cannot take tetracyclines. Later disease, particularly with objective neurologic manifestations, may require treatment with intravenous ceftriaxone or penicillin for 4 weeks or more, depending on disease severity. In later disease, treatment failures may occur and retreatment may be necessary. (The Medical Letter, Vol. 42 (Issue 1077), May 1, 2000)I realize you have an aversion to antibiotics, but 4 weeks just doesn't seem that long? What do you think?
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TITLE: Symptoms and the Big Question
AUTHOR: Laureen
DATE: 11/16/2004 10:31:57 AM
Posted by: Ms Bees Knees at November 19, 2004 9:29 AM