Saturday, September 26, 2015

What is Lyme Disease?

Many of you have asked what Lyme disease is. 

I'll tell you what it's not. 

  • It's not contagious. 
  • It's not cheap to treat. 
  • It's not the worst thing that could happen to you. 

It is however, a living hell. I've had the disease for 8 months and I have no energy to do pretty much anything.

Here is my back story: 

I initially was bitten by a tick when I was like 12 or 13 while living in the suburbs of Chicago. I had the standard bulls eye rash (half dollar size) on my left arm and went to the urgent care to confirm the rash and receive antibiotics to treat the bite. After I completed my treatment, the rash went away and I carried on throughout my life assuming that I was cured.

Last summer I received another rash that looked similar to a bulls eye but was not confirmed as one. The doctor told me he thought it was ringworm from a lake near my house in Houston. He gave me a cream to treat the rash and it went away within a few days. 

From that time, I noticed my energy and immune system started to drop significantly but I chalked it up to my final semester of college in which I was finishing my student teaching and finishing the remaining courses. I mean, who sleeps during their last semester as a senior in college anyways right?? Well, I graduated from University of Houston in December 2014 with my bachelors in elementary education. After graduating, I decided I was going to take some time off to regroup and make sure my health was strong enough to return to work full time in August.

After waiting 3 months to see my internist, I told her some of the symptoms I had been noticing throughout the last few months. She initially ruled out fibromyalgia, but ran blood tests for glutathione, rocky mountain spotted fever, and Lyme (CD-57) based on the prior tick bite more than 10 years ago. 

I was diagnosed with Lyme disease at the end of January 2015 and immediately started rounds of antibiotics to try and treat the 6 bands of Lyme running throughout my body. During that time, the antibiotics wiped what was left of my immune system out and I slept literally around the clock as well as having multiple doctor appointments to run blood, prescribe more medicine, and see where the disease was attacking my body the most. 

At the same time, I was studying for my certification test to become a teacher. Currently I am not certified to teach full time because I missed the test by 2 points (I know, dying right now.) But it actually is a blessing because I am able to sub for the district I student taught for and I just got done with a 4 week sub job where I was working full time and my body almost gave out in that 4 weeks. So right now I know I can't work full time but I'm okay with that right now.

Many people have asked what some of my symptoms are now that I'm down to 2 bands (proof antibiotics do work even if they knock you out).

Some of the symptoms I have on a daily basis include:

  • Consistent headaches
  • Nerve twitches (my muscles will twitch at random when I am relaxed)
  • Chest pain
  • Brain fog (I'll sometimes forget what I was talking about or get my words jumbled as I'm reading out loud)
  • Muscle weakness
  • Overall fatigue
  • Nerve pain
  • Weight gain
Phew! If you've gotten this far through my story, I commend you! Gold stars all around.

So there's part of my story. I'll share more as life goes on but this gives you a jumping off point to the evils Lyme disease creates.

1 comment:

  1. Thank you for sharing Jessica. Lyme disease seems to be so misunderstood and your info is very helpful.

    You have been in our prayers and we hope that you begin to feel better soon, that your energy will return, and that you will be able to start teaching full time again. We love you.

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