Doctor said he thought it was probably a few things: carrying around my 2 year old for one, and I had been riding my bike a lot (since I can't run anymore). He thought that hunched position was upsetting the muscles in my lower back - causing constant spasm, and a lot of inflammation.

He didn't order my first mri a neurologist did, when I told him about what the first MRI showed - he looked at me in shock and asked to see the report and the imaging. Interested to hear his theory after he reviews the first one.

You've given me some hope. I don't have spine issues, I don't think anyways, but I do have abdominal pain and gastric issues. All these issues started about 2 months before my Lyme diagnosis. I initially thought all my problems came from my gut problems.

There has been a part of me hoping that the Lyme and/or co-infections are causing my problems, cause then that means I can overcome them. My gut problems went away for a short time but then came back as I was starting my abx and have fluctuated since then. Like every thing else, I have good days an bad days and have good parts of the day and bad parts of the day.

I have an endoscopy first thing Monday morning and I am hoping beyond hope they don't find anything terrible.

How long have you been on your treatment Delmar? Maybe we just need to be patient and fight this thing.

Happy for you!!

Wow! That is unbelievable.
Gives me hope...my MRI showed some mild degeneration/arthritis in my thoracic spine and I also have minor scoliosis...which my husband or I had ever noticed until after I had symptoms of lyme.
I was also diagnosed with frozen shoulder prior to the lyme diagnosis...and my left shoulder blade was flat - didn't "jut out" like the one on my right side.
But since I've started lyme treatment, my shoulder blade is coming back to normal, slowly, but surely.

It definitely is a crazy disease...and I sometimes think I'm going crazy becuz of it...!!

So, do you think the first mri showed something that looked like arthritis of the spine that was caused by lyme?
Or do you think that it was arthritis, but the body managed to heal the arthritis? Can that happen?

I know it can happen with scoliosis...although Dr.s will tell you it can't. My son had muscle inbalance on his upper back from carrying a very heavy packsack on one side and it resulted in pulling his spine to one side.
With chiro (upper cervical - maniupulation of the atlas only) and physio to get both sides balanced - his scoliosis completely resolved in about 6 months. We also did daily exercises. We did catch it early and solved the problem before his major growth spurt...so we were lucky.

I'm having a lot of upper body - including back issues...so I will hope for the best with my situation!!

To answer your first question, I honestly have no clue, my first MRI report said exactly this, "mild degenerative facet arthrosis of the..." Cervical, thoracic, and lumbar spine. My LLMD said that radiologists have no way of knowing if its Lyme arthritis or degenerative arthritis, however the joints of the spine are not the "typical" joints under attack - but that doesn't mean they can't be. My second MRI said this: "facet joints are intact, alignment is normal, Negative MR of thoracic (insert Lumbar - said the same) spine."

I've had several chiropractors tell me slight degrees of scoliosis can absolutely be functional, and can and do correct if that is the cause.

In my case, I had a disease process (that I wasn't aware of) that was causing connective tissue issues, as well as carrying my son mainly on my left hip. I've done a lot of exercises, and try to remember to carry my son on the right side or in front. Anyway, I had 10 degrees in my lumbar spine, 7 in my thoracic, and 10 in my cervical. Which is now straight. Actually I'm not sure about my cervical, as the recent MRI was only of my thoracic and lumbar.

As for my protocol.... I was on 600 mg twice a day of Zithromax for 4 months, Ceftin 500 mg for 6 weeks (with the Zithro), now Doxy for the last month. I've been on cats claw and red root since the beginning, doing YL raindrops once a week for the last 8 weeks - those are essential oils placed along the spine - actually this makes the most sense as to why my spine has healed... Now that I'm thinking about it.
I'm also doing IV glutathione and PC. I'm taking tons of vitamins and supplements - like everyone else here.

Not that this has anything to do with my arthritis' disappearing act, but here's what I'm doing going forward: I started an herbal protocol 2 weeks ago - spoke with an herbalist last Friday who advised me further on that. I'm also working with an integrative MD who has me on iv glutathione and PC, and next week I'm starting a protocol with him that looks like this: M: Argentyn, T: PC & Glutathione, W: 25Gram Myers/vit C, TH: Argentyn, F: PC & Glutathione doing this for 8-10 weeks will then reevaluate.

I'll post if I see anymore progress.

I think I'll give the abx another 2 months-ish. I see me LLMD tomorrow, but then I'm switching 100% of my care to my integrative doc. who said he may treat me for awhile longer on abx, pulsing and switching them up... But he prefers to go as natural as possible. I honestly think the "natural" stuff has helped me more than the abx.

I did see a lot of improvements around the time I switched to doxy... But I switched to the doxy around the same time I added quite a few more herbs.... So tough to say.

Ready to be done with this thing for good though.

Delmar - what are the YL raindrops and where do you get them? And, if you don't mind, would you share how you use them?

I wouldn't mind trying them for my spine...hey, can't hurt, right?

It can be hard to keep up with all the things we have to do all the time!!! But we suffer if we don't.

I do hope that your progress continues!!

Although I have some liver pain/pressure - which most of us have experienced - I'm much improved, thank you! The herxing has really slowed down, which means I'm finally reached the right combination of detoxing methods in my routines!! Woo hoo!! Giggle!

I've had 2 1/2 good days so far!! I'm on a roll!!! Now to see if I can keep it going! LOL!

I surely hope that your improvements and you continue to feel more healthy!!!