Just started antibiotics - have questions

I was bitten by a tick in April. My Dr. is treating me for Lyme with Doxyciline while he waits for test results. My Western blot was negative, but I had a positive ANA bloodtest. My white blood cell count is normal, Urinalysis - normal, kidney and liver function - normal, adrenal and hormone tests were both normal. My symptoms were swollen, stiff neck, rapid heart rate, shoulder tendonitis, aches, fatigue, jaw pain, muscle pain and stiffness, swollen glands, sore throat, disrupted sleep, etc. I've been on antibiotics for 8 days and feel miserable - dizzy, headaches, achey. My neck has felt swollen since May, sometimes mildly, sometimes very swollen (right now), which causes me to feel dizzy and have a bad headache. My question - Since I'm being treated based on symptoms only, I'm concerned that maybe I don't have Lyme and that it's cancer, since a swollen neck can be a symptom of cancer. Does anybody else with Lyme have a swollen neck? Do you usually have a positive ANA with Lyme? I'm hoping we come up with something clearer from the tests. Thanks for your help!

Canyon, I am not a medical professional but would think that because the neck is sometimes mildly swollen and other times more so, that it may be inflammation more than cancer. Lyme and its co-infections are well known to cause inflammation. If your concern about the swollen neck has you worried, then perhaps you should speak to your primary doctor or an ENT doctor about getting an MRI of your neck.

During my Lyme illness I have suffered from neck and throat pains and went to get it diagnosed. I found that I have some calcium deposits in some of the neck bone and <50% of calcium deposits in my right neck artery. I also found that my thyroid is being impacted by Lyme and was causing my thyroid gland to feel swollen and sore on occasion.

As for feeling dizzy and the headaches; those are symptoms of herxing, which is a good thing because if you are infected, it means that the antibiotics are doing their job. If it gets too uncomfortable, you may want to talk to your doctor about lowering the dose until your body gets used to the medication. Usually, the first two weeks are the worse (at least they were for me) then you begin to feel better slowly.

Do a search here and on the internet about how to detox your body to minimize the herxing . It will make you feel much better.

Hi Canyon and welcome to the forum!

May I ask which lab you were tested at?  The reason I ask is that local labs usually give a negative result and there are reasons for this:

When Quest, Labcorp, local labs etc. make there lyme probes they used rabbit antigens from 2 strains of Lyme.

IgeneX.com uses samples from human lyme patients from all over the United States and Europe and from patients who had early, middle and late stage lyme. Also, when a western blot is done there is an acidic gel that is used to separate out the bands. Most labs use a 10% gel. IgeneX uses a 12.5% gel so they get better separation of the bands.

Also, lyme is really a clinical diagnosis though when I was sick, I wanted the lab results. 

As far as swollen glands, I used to suffer from them and trust me, it's not a sign of cancer.  What it probably is are an overload of toxins.

Have you read the Sticky Thread on top of this forum called "New to Lyme?  Start Here!" as there are great detoxing instructions on the first page (have to scroll down a bit).

Learn about detoxing and how that can benefit you and lesson the herxes which are not good for you.

I hope this helps!

Denise