Lyme Disease Leftovers

I was diagnosed with Lyme Disease in September of 2008.  The disease’s characteristic rash had developed on my leg, and I ignored it for several weeks thinking it was a spider bite that would eventually go away.  During that time, I was also beginning to feel a lot of fatigue.   Old injuries made themselves known again: a swollen ankle from an old sprain during a high school basketball game and jaw pain (picture me flying over a bike's handlebars and the chin is the first point of contact with the ground—I ate yogurt & apple sauce for a week).  The swelling and general discomfort I explained away too, thinking them a response to the stress of my new job.  In no way was I connecting the dots, despite having heard about the disease throughout my childhood in WI (where deer ticks abound!).

Thankfully I have an observant husband, then fiancé, who demanded I go to the doctor and—Lo & Behold—Lyme Disease!  Text book case with three weeks of antibiotics, taken 3x a day. Cured, right?

History repeats itself . . . .

Since 2008, my knees feel like they belong to a 50 y/o woman and there are times when I’m lying in bed and my entire body aches, preventing sleep.  My energy is low, despite yoga and including more “super foods” in my diet.  I’ve changed jobs so there is less stress, and yet, why can’t I shake this?

After receiving a Lyme Disease article emailed from a friend, I decided to revisit the research around Lyme Disease (thank you, work, for access to Up To Date).  To my surprise, I might be another textbook case for Post Lyme Disease Syndrome.  Symptoms include malaise/fatigue, chronic joint pain (usually in the knees (this arthritis wears away cartilage, too—which if you’ve heard/seen me go up and down stairs…)), and fibromyalgia.  Other articles suggest that people who develop the syndrome have immune systems that respond differently to the bacteria than others who have been bitten and are cured after their initial round of antibiotics.  These unlucky folks have what is called “immune dysregulation.”  

I love Wikipedia’s definition for immune dysregulation: Immune dysregulation is an unrestrained or unregulated immune response.  An inappropriately robust, or weak immune response.  

Inappropriately robust, indeed.  I have a mother with an autoimmune disease (MS), so why should I be any different?  Apparently our systems run in different crowds than others.

So is there a silver lining?  Yes—antiinflammatory therapy, and in most cases, the arthritis will spontaneously resolve itself 5 years after the diagnosis.

Fall can't come soon enough.