Hello everyone!
I've been reading this board for a few months now, and it has been so helpful that I decided to finally just jump in. The info. on New to Lyme has been so much more helpful than any book I've read. Thank you all!
So I'm newly diagnosed with Lyme after tons of other misdiagnosis. You all know that story, I'm sure. My journey all began last July on vacation in Missouri (deep woods and river rafting). It was all a blast until I stepped in a pile (home, nest, army??) of nymph deer ticks. I was barefoot and completely covered up to my waist. My husband and I spent hours trying to pick those tiny things off.....and then to top it off when I went inside to take a shower the pipes burst....leaving me with only a garden hose to try and wash off more ticks. Anyway, vacation went on as usual after that and when we got back home I just forgot about
the whole incident. At that time, Lyme Disease just wasn't anything on my radar. (Ahhhh, hindsight.....if I only knew then what I know now!)
My symptoms began very gradual, at first I was just really tired. And pain which was tolerable at the time.
December 20th I was talking to my husband and all of a sudden I couldn't see him out of my left eye. My peripheral vision was gone and had pain. This is when symptoms came crashing in hard, and new and different symptoms appeared daily. Like most of you, I had the gamut of tests run: CT, MRI, MRA, EEG, EKG, blood work. Everything was fine (except that I was showing some Anti-Smith antibodies which was a Lupus marker, but my ANA was negative). At this point I was begging for a Lyme test! Instead I got 4 inpatient hospital visits where they just thought it was a mental thing. The hospital did a Lyme test which was negative. Luckily I had a friend who told me to make an appointment with her LLMD. The first available appointment they had was June 30th.
My symptoms:
Severe migrating pain especially in the knees and shoulders
Brain fog
Fainting
Flu like feeling in the beginning
Memory loss...just tons of cognitive trouble
Blurry vision
Swollen lymph nodes
So my appointment with my LLMD went great. He was the first person who didn't make me feel like I was nuts. Anyway, he diagnosed me with Lyme, Bartonella, Babesio, and Candida. This was just by a clinical diagnosis but he also wants to run a slew of other tests they Ignenix.
Doctor C. wants to start out with the Candida. He has me reading The Yeast Connection and my RX is Diflucan 100mg twice a day and Nystatin 500,000 unit tablets, 2 tablets 3times a day. Probiotics Along with the no Yeast diet for 10 days.
Now if I understood him correctly, he wants me to call him after I complete my meds (He is expecting a big herx...great!). And then he will repeat the cycle for another 10 days. After that he wrote on his instructions that he will start me on 3 antibiotics. Which ones I don't know but I'm a weakling with antibiotics.....which have worked well for you in the past. Did anyone have any troubles with Diflucan or Nystatin? They seem to be hard on my stomach but here's hoping that'll ease up. Is it normal for a doctor to just start on antifungal meds?
This is all so new to me.....having good days and days where I can't get out of bed. Please, I would appreciate any advice that anyone has to offer. Thank you all so much!
