Differential Diagnosis - Any Suggestions ?!?

Hello,
I have been poorly for 7 weeks in a variety of ways which all point, in my head at least, to Lyme disease but I am concerned that I am too convinced that it must be Lyme and that this is preventing my GP from diagnosing something else.

So, by way of a fun exercise, maybe somebody on the forum could offer a possible alternative condition ?

Here is my background
Yes, I was bitten by a tick ( on my leg) in an area that is known for infectious ticks...Hampshire UK
I discovered it after it had been attached about 36 hours, and yes, it had started feeding. I removed it badly, crushing the body by mistake.

3 days later I woke with a very sore neck and aching shoulders, and a tender lymph node in the back/side of my neck was swollen.

Flu-like symptoms and fatigue followed for the next 5 or so days , with aches, fever and chills.

The next week the fatigue persisted but the aches subsided. At this time a buzzing cramp came in my calves every time I changed position, paralysing the muscles very briefly until it subsided. This would be 10 to 15 seconds....like a Braxton Hicks, but in my legs. This lasted about 5 days.

After that aches and pains moved from hip to hip and then to my leg. My arm ( just one of them) felt heavy in the muscle when I used it, typing, for example. There were stabbing pains in various muscles also.

When my leg was at its most painful, in the thigh, calf and side of knee a strange buzzing started. I feel an invisible vibration in most of my body, which is most noticeable when I am sitting or laying. Any bit of my body in contact with a surface gently buzzes. I don’t notice it if i am moving about, except for sometimes in my chest or on my mouth if I shut my lips together. When it is at its worst, it feels like it effects my vision also...if that makes sense.

My face has felt occasionally numb down one side, my eye that side waters too, but it has not progressed to Bell’s Palsy, and the sensation goes away after a day. I also have altered sensation on my arms, that is to say they feel like they should be numb, but they aren’t

I have also have had a racing pulse and skipped heartbeats.

I did go to the doctor and had a blood test for lyme at just under 4 weeks post bite. My GP has given me Doxycycline for three weeks based on a clinical diagnosis but he is flummoxed by my symptoms. The test came back negative. I have another test scheduled for Tuesday which will be after nearly 3 weeks of antibiotics, and nearly 7 weeks post bite. In the meantime other blood tests revealed low potassium, which I corrected with watermelon, bananas and coconut water !

I have had a chest x-ray ( doctor’s idea, it worried me!) which was fine, and have a thyroid blood test also scheduled for Tuesday.

Today I woke up in the early hours with a rotten ache around my hip/ lower back. No, ache sticks around for long but I have not been symptom free for nearly two months.

It all seemed like a shoe in for Lyme disease, but I expect the blood test will come back negative and I will be none the wiser. I would like a diagnosis, but mostly I don’t want to be ignoring a different reason for all these ailments because I am blinkered to the possibility of anything but Lyme disease.

Your thoughts will be greatly appreciated!

Post Edited (Bellamy65) : 8/11/2019 7:17:40 AM (GMT-6)

Hi,
Thank you for your quick response and useful information.
I guess if it looks like a duck, and quacks like a duck, it is a duck, can be neatly applied to the clinical diagnosis of Lyme disease. I just didn’t want to be so convinced in my own mind that it must be Lyme, that a different condition all together got over looked.

I am lucky inasmuch as I am in a TIck Aware area, so GPs around here have a bit of an idea about the condition.
Thanks again

You don’t need to test since you had a known tick bite.

But if you want to - there is a lab in Europe specializing in tickborne illness testing

Armin Labs

The tests to get are the ISpot and Elispot.
Just know that there can be false negatives with testing Lyme disease.

I recommend you seek out a lyme Literate dr - because even though it’s not been long since you contracted it - you have quite a few symptoms and may take more than the standard treatment for early lyme.

Noted, thanks!

Thank you!
I am laying here ( night time in England) gently vibrating as leg pain moves deftly from shin to thigh before it becomes hip pain again, and wondering which bit of me will hurt in the morning.

I said to my doctor, who to his credit is being very invested in my diagnosis, I am not making this up, when trying to describe how I was feeling, as I felt like I sounded unbelievable with my odd shopping list of symptoms. That was what lead me to posting here, to see if my « symptom story » hung together credibly, and recognisable as Lyme disease

The vibrations/numbness are common. Sorry but I think you are on the right track.

Have you had b12 checked? It may help to add in methyl b12. Start low and see how you feel. It’s helpful with nerve issues.

You are fairly early with bite so hopefully additional antibiotics will kick it to the curb.

Did you experience night sweats? That along with the sore neck and the flu-like symptoms could indicate that you're suffering from one or multiple vector borne diseases.

Post Edited (insomniaaa) : 8/13/2019 5:07:15 PM (GMT-6)

***update***
So, my second lyme test cane back predictably negative ( and thyroid test as normal). I have finished 3 weeks of Doxycycline and really don’t know where this leaves me. I am talking to the doctor on the phone later but don’t expect any answers.

My persisting symptoms are leg, hip and back aches which come and go, and a gentle, all over, internal vibration and altered sensations in my feet and arms.

One thing I noticed was that, after a rather warm bath this week, because it was so chilly in the house( British summer!), the internal shaking got very fierce and stayed that way so long into the night that I could not sleep until it subsided. This surprised me, as so many people seem to suggest that bathing helps them. That in mind, dies that still sound like Lyme?

Thanks in advance for any replies

When you say the lyme test was negative, do you know if you had any positive bands (you got the western blot test correct)? some are specific for lyme.

I would thoroughly keep investigating and researching the lyme/coinfections angle. Most doctors are flummoxed when it comes to these multisystemic (full grocery list) symptoms, and I've found their main tendency (even in good faith) is to give up on figuring out causality and deadending patients with some idiopathic diagnosis like CFS, fibro, etc (no disrespect to those syndromes meant, but once your stuck in that box it's hard to get them to think beyond that framework). I was deadended with a CFS dx, docs ignored and pushed me away from lyme in spite of specific positive bands on the test. I eventually figured things out on my own with the help of other lyme patients, later confirmed dx with top lyme clinician...

No prob! wishing you good luck getting to the bottom of it. And should be noted, migrating symptoms is a well-noted phenomenon with these chronic infections, especially lyme.