Can Lyme stay dorment in a body for over 60 years???

I was told by my LLMD that yes, Lyme disease can lay dormant for over a decade and come back out when we are stressed, have been through something traumatic, etc.

It's completely possible. Your body may have kept the infection(s) in check without completely eradicating it. A period of stress, or even the natural aging process, could open the door for the infection to overwhelm your immune system. I believe that something similar happened to me. I think that I've had bartonella for over 10 years. I also have Lyme and babesia, but I'm not sure when I was infected with those. After about 3 months of high stress (losing a lot of sleep, eating fast food because of a lack of time, etc.), I became extremely ill.

Have you been tested for any of the co-infections of Lyme? It can be hard to get rid of Lyme if you have other tick-borne infections as well.

Stress can be physical or mental in nature. For me, the big problem is losing sleep. If I'm busy and lose sleep, I will become more ill, even if I'm not feeling "stressed out" or unhappy.

Age is also a factor with our immune systems. As our bodies age, our immune systems decline. It may be helpful for you to look into ways to boost your immune system naturally. I'm on Transfer Factor Multi-Immune from Researched Nutritionals. (I have no association with the company.) It is supposed to boost my immune system. Proper exercise and diet will help boost the immune system as well. Green and black tea are also supposed to help. I'd recommend real tea leaves rather than the bagged tea. Proper antioxidants, like Vitamin C, will help. Lyme itself attacks the immune system. Anything that you can do to boost your immune system should help, not only with Lyme, but with any other infections you may be exposed to.

Another thing to consider is your comparative lack of stress as a trigger. I have read about something called something like Warrior's Immune syndrome, in that while the pressure is on, you feel good, because your immune system is in hyper drive, and once things calm down, you get laid low. I had Lyme for 25 year before it completely got the better of me, and it needed the help of Ehrlichia to do it.

Consider consulting a lyme literate doctor.

I believe burning or pains in the feet are caused by one of Lyme disease's co-infections "bartonella" as was the case with my son.

I want to thank every one for sharing their information with me. It's been awhile since I've posted on this forum and thought I'd offer an update. I'm feeling lousy and perhaps the Lyme has come back with a vengeance. My initial body shakes or tremors that I posted earlier is getting progressively worse. I truly felt that the mega doses of IV antibiotics while taking Lexapro and Doxocyclyn was the cause of my shakes. Research of Lexapro indicated a rather extensive list of negative side effects including body tremors. I weaned off the Lexapro over a six week period, however the shakes did not ease up and still continue on a daily basis.

These shakes are now at the point where it effects my speech with slurred words, stuttering and impaired walking where I appear to have a palsy effect. I've been to one doctor after another and had CAT scans of my abdomen, chest and brain. Fortunately all these results were good. Medical diagnosis was there is nothing wrong with me. I've been to a Neurologist was again was told nothing wrong. It was suggested that I see a Psychiatrist for evaluation. Again I was told there is nothing physiologically wrong with me. He prescribed Xanax to control my shakes. I'm now developing a dependency on Xanax where my daily dose has increased to up to 3mg a day by taking .5mg pieces at a time. The Zannax does control the shakes, but puts me into a mental fog and I sleep for 2 - 3 hours in the afternoon. The Xanax is also causing a wide range of mood swings going from anger over nothing to depression. Not a psychotic depression but depressed as to not being able to get any relief from the shakes. I'm not one to abuse drugs, but I feel like a dog chasing his tail. I wouldn't need the Xanax if I could control the shakes and I need the Xanax to keep the shakes in check. The .5mg Xanax only lasts for approx. 2 hours before it wears off and the shakes are back again.

Two weeks ago my primary doc suggested that I go back on the Lexapro 10mg a day, which I did. Still no relief from the shakes. I had also visited another physician who is an internist and prescribed Amitriptyline 10mg 2X a day to be taken with the Lexapro. I don't see one iota of improvement as the shakes are getting worse and I have no apatite or energy. My short term memory is getting to the point where I'm having difficulty in remembering a thought. I now carry a pad in my pocket to write things down before I forget it. I'm becoming very concerned. As much as I was under the impression that the large doses of IV antibiotics had caused a possible short circuit in my nervous system I feel that I have to see the infectious disease doctor for a follow up evaluation.

Thanks again CajunGrl for your input. I thought it was just me that I'm somewhat freaking out between the shakes and being in a mental stupor. What dose of Klonopin were you prescribed? And do you know how long it take for Klonopin to calm the shakes down. From what I understand it takes 4 - 5 weeks before the Lexapro can become effective.

I use the .5mb Xanax under my tongue and it works within 15 minutes. I haven't done any research on Klonopin but at this point I'll try just about anything. A question comes to mind if Klonopin can be used with Xanax until the shakes can be brought under control?

I have an appointment with the infectious disease doctor for next Tues. as so far I'm having a very difficult time in getting into the Christmas spirit.

Thanks so much for your very quick reply and input. I can't tell you how much I appreciate your information. I live in SW Florida and the seasonal residents (Snow Birds) are down from the North and I can only assume that the local doctor's office is swamped with patients. I'm not a chronic complainer where I call a doctor for a cold or sniffles but as I had these shakes now for over 8 months, the doctor's don't return my call. If I said I was totally frustrated that would be an understatement. I can only make an assumption that the doctors just don't have an answer for me as to the cause of the shakes. I feel like I've been walking a razor blade for the past couple of weeks as the shakes are getting progressively worse. I will definitely look into the Klonopin for some relief.

After re-reading the previous posts I feel that the Lyme has come back in full fury. My appointment with the infectious disease doctor is scheduled for next Tuesday and he probably will get a full blood workup.

Dazed, it sounds to me like your nervous system is out of whack caused by the lyme/coinfections. I too was shaking and trembling, inside and out, with a tight jaw, tight neck, etc. Every doctor told me it was anxiety. Well yeah but why now? At this point in my life. It turned out as I got diagnosed but treated improperly, the lyme got worse and caused neuropathies, burning and tingling of different parts of my body. The more research I have done it appears to me anyway that the more damage the disease does before being treated properly the more damage you will have. I have lesions on my brain which I believe to be the cause of the neuropathies. While Xanax does help with the anxiety, I am using neurontin to calm the burning feeling in my face etc. Perhaps they will order further testing on you. Are you having headaches, vision problems, numbness in fingers, face, etc? Best of luck to you.

Dazeoff,

Another thing that came to mind was your thyroid. Lyme Disease can affect your entire endocrine system as well. You may want to have it checked. When mine was low, I had whole body shakes.

I'm totally amazed at the support this forum provides and for this I'm truly grateful. For the past week and a half I've been going through unbelivable body changes as a result of the continued shakes that had have excallated to the point of being exdtremely debilitating. Needless to say each day has been a new experience with my attempt to cope. I've come to the point to recognize that my daily dosing of Xanax is not helping and that I've developed a dependancy on this drug, which has only been a band aid and keeping me in a mental fog that's also created 180 degrees of mood swings which is very much out of character for my personality. For the past 8 months since the shakes began I've done what ever my medical professionals have suggested, i.e. CAT scans, medical tests, neurological consultation and even a visit to physhcrisist, who only prescribed more Xanax. Three days ago I attempted to contact my primary as the shakes were so bad that I could just about function. I've been seeing this doctor for over 16 years and was told "There is nothing more that I can do for you, go see a different psysharisist." Well I might have been born at night, but it wasn't last night. His reaction to my issues totally took me back to absolute disbelief. I know as a general rule people don't change doctor's if they are dissatisfied, however I refuse to accept his lack of understanding and pathetic approach to patient care. Within 24 hours I had an appointment with an internest to actually gave me the impression of compasion to his patients needs. Ergo, I will be changing doctors. This new doctor spent over 45 minutes with the initial consultation and also indicated the dangers of continued use of Xanax. CagunGrl had suggested the possibility of sub

Hang in there, Bill. It's a bumpy road, but we are here to help.

I would strongly suggest that you find a good LLMD to treat you. They understand the complexities that almost always come with Lyme, as well as all of the co-infections - Babasia, Bartonella, Rocky Mountain Spotted Fever, Ehrlichia & others - as well as viruses that seem to pray on some of us Lymies, like EBV, cytomegalovirus and others.

The fact that these shakes started when you started daily IV therapy means that the abx were working & that you had a overload of toxins in your body. This most likely was what is known as a Jarisch-Herxheimer reaction, or a herx.

Have you ever detoxed? Detoxing is covered in the thread at the top of the forum titled "New to Lyme? Start here". Dry skin brushing is incredibly helpful to help your skin to eliminate more toxins. I personally like the Epsom salt and hydrogen peroxide soaks as well.

Keep on posting here as you work through all of this ,we know how mixed up things can get when you first find out you have Lyme.

Hope this helps some.