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Hi. I was diagnosed with Lyme last week after a month of the worst symptoms I can possibly explain. Weird stabbing pains in my wrists and odd pains in my ankles and legs. Sweats, stiff neck, dizziness (no fever though) and major fatigue. Anxiety, cold hands and feet. about a month and a half ago I noticed chest pain and shortness of breath. My primary care doctor did an EKG and found nothing wrong with my heart.

I was also told last week that I had CMV that was active and EBV. The doc mentioned that the lyme could be false positive, as well as a false positive for EBV; that perhaps CMV was causing all of this and that the tests apparently cross-react (or that I had these long ago or something like that). I have not been anywhere near the woods (I live in the city), and have not been anywhere that I think I could've been exposed to ticks but the IgM test showed lyme. I am on doxycycline anyhow, and after taking it for five days, I'm feeling much better but I'm still having the pains in my arms and legs. The fatigue is leaving however.

Have any of you all had experiences like this that you can share with me? I think I was positive by Western blot. Two bands or something. I have very much appreciated the posts here as they are giving me some comfort. For the last couple of months, I have been in and out of doctors and no one has been able to find anything wrong with me. They said that my chest pains, high pulse rate, etc. were the result of anxiety. Even a normal physical did not suggest that anything was wrong with me other than what they thought were repetitive motion injuries from work and what they called signs of carpal tunnel syndrome and tendinitis. I was also bruising easily but that seems to be subsiding.

It wasn't until I went to a rheumatoid doctor that he checked for these other things and found the lyme. Any feedback that you have would be appreciated.

Thank you so much! I feel good to know that people are getting better.

One of my close friends had this and had she not, I would never have persisted and gone to this other doctor however it looks like CMV and EBV cross react with the test, but I think my symptoms suggest Lyme. Also the fact that I am improving on antibiotics?

Anyway, thank you very much. Hope you are feeling better too...

Welcome misty51!

Sorry for the reason you're here but glad you found us.

PeteZa already covered the bases.

I'm glad you're improving on antibiotics. Please know that ILADS (International Lyme and Associated Diseases Society) recommends treating for 2 months past complete resolution of symptoms. I hope you can get that level of treatment.

My signature tells a story of under-treatment and, here I am, 20+ months after the tick bite and still treating.

We'll be able to show you how to interpret your test results if you post them here.

Best of luck to you moving forward!!

Really? I think the chronic Lyme test was negative for me -- it was the recent one that suggested I had it.

What about yours?

It's possible though. I have had little bits of symptoms over the years, like leg pain and toe arthritis and I'm not that old... I used to hike in the woods a lot.

Lyme D Ab, Quant, IgM 1.99 (high)
Lyme Ab IgG by WB, negative -- one band present, p41, all the others not present
Lyme Ab IgM by WB, positive, two bands, one at p41 and one at p23, none at p39 (says there is cross reactivity with ebv and cmv though)
Lyme Ab WB reflex - 0.98 high

This is very helpful. I will take a look at test. Does it seem like I had this a long time, or is it something that must be recent? It's just so weird because I live in a major city.

This is interesting. Really?

I am (was) a scientist and worked with a lot of mice. Any chance I could've gotten it from them? I am taking time off now because I have felt so badly.

Lab mice are supposed to be really clean and disease-free. Ironically though, my friend who also had it worked with mice.

Misty-Ticks are carried predominately by squirrels on the west coast. Living in a big city doesn't safe guard you from getting bite.

Stanford has done a few studies in the San Francisco Bay Area. They took blankets and ran them through local parks-the type you would take a child to play at-(often near local schools) and county parks. Every blanket came back lots of infected ticks.

You can google the Stanford Lyme studies. There are a couple of them but the last one was Aug 2015

Watch under our skin on hulu....doxy will make more cystic forms 275 % more....you are lucky to have good rhuemy. ..it is pleomorphic and never travels alone. Many assume one has bartonella and babesia erlichia, rmsf,proto,1953,nematodes,mycoplasma, cpn,ebv,cmv...4 of 10 mosquitos carry it ,spiders ,flies,lice, mites etc...read this paper

http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3132871/

welcome sorry you are here ...find llmd fast..treat hard good luck.you are not alone

My doc said there is no such thing as false positives..it like being a little pregnant?....misti...listen that paper is written by wormser who has made the idsa guidlines ...please watch under our skin to see interview with him...your life worth it...abx may not be the answer but 2 weeks doxy aint gunna do it...i saw the spirochettes in my blood had two neg test and one false positive..please dont give up

These are very interesting insights, thank you.

It's crazy how many different opinions there are! Hope you feel better.