The day we returned home from our trip it was late in the evening and I was tired from the long drive so I went to bed for some much needed sleep.  The next morning while in the shower I noticed a welt on my left upper thigh.  After rubbing and scratching at it a while I was surprised to have removed another tick.  I flicked it down the drain and finished my shower.  Within the next forty eight hours I came down with what I thought at the time was the flu.  Slightly higher temperature, nausea, hot and cold chills, upset stomach, and a rash on my thigh.  Never being one to go to the doctor for the flu I waited for it to pass.  After three weeks of not feeling better and now with additional symptoms of stiffness in the neck, wooziness, irritable bladder and bowel function I finally went to see my primary physician.

To make a long story short for the next year I visited my PCP, and four other specialists including urologists, cardio, gastro, and ID doctors as my symptoms multiplied.  I had buckets of blood tests including ELISA, and Western blot, negative for everything from cancer to HIV and Lyme. I had two CT scans, one MRI with and without contrast, and many x-rays.   Also had upper and lower G.I.s, colonoscopy, endoscopy, and many other tests I simply can't remember or pronounce.  I was misdiagnosed with sinus infection, ulcers, TMJ, IBS, and possible Crohn's  disease.  At this time, I was not considering my exposure to ticks as a possible reason for my illness and had not informed my PCP of the exposure.

In my desperate search for answers I started going to medical information web sites and using their symptom checkers.  When I'd list my numerous symptoms, Lyme disease returned as a possible cause. Suddenly I remembered my trip and things started to make sense.  However since I showed sero-negative for Lyme on all my blood tests my PCP was unwilling to prescribe any antibiotics.  I joined a Lyme forum where I met someone in my area that referred me to her Lyme literate doctor.  On my first visit with my LLMD he clinically diagnosed me with chronic Lyme disease.  It had been thirteen months since becoming infected with Lyme and I was in an advanced stage.  He started me on 1000mg of erythromycin, 1000mg of flagyl, and 200mg of doxycycline a day. I have been on this treatment now for six months and am making a great deal of progress although I still have a long way to go. I've tried my best to stay honest with my treatment however I have had to give my stomach a break from time to time and skip a few days.  My LLMD said this was fine as long as I did not quit treatment entirely, that I would need to be on ABX for up to a year or longer.  I know my own ignorance about Lyme disease, along with the majority of the medical community's unwillingness to clinically treat Lyme disease delayed early treatment and caused this to me a much harder fight for remission or recovery.

Brandon Jacobson