Dad just diagnosed w/ acute Lyme

While I am suffering with my Lyme symptoms, my Dad has has eye and joint problems for the last 6 months. They told him it was an HLA-B27 autoimmune disease. After hearing me talk about Lyme, he got a Lyme test. Sure enough, the Western Blot came back positive for acute Lyme according to his doctor.

They prescribed him 2 3 week courses of Doxy. Seeing how it is acute Lyme, will this be enough? The fact that he has been dealing with this for 6 months makes me feel like it might not be enough. His symptoms are:

-Iritis. His vision gets blurry and it happens in both eyes. His eye doctor has been giving him a cortisol based eye drop and that has helped. I told my Dad that these kind of steroid drops would just allow the spirochetes to get a stronger presence, but if he stops them his vision goes blurry. What should he do here?

-Joint pain and swelling. His affected joints look similar to mine, but instead of migrating around, the inflammation sets in and stays for months.

-Weight loss. He has lost 10 pounds in the last couple months and feels like he is losing muscle mass.

He and I live in totally different parts of the country. He is in MD and I'm in SC. Yet we both have Lyme at the same time. Crazy.

He told me about a tick being in his shoulder area and he thought it was a mole, so it was in there for days before he realized what it was. He said it was red but not bulls eye. But as I remember it, this was AFTER his eye inflammation started. He has had plenty of tick bites trough the years. So he could have encountered this at any point.

I also don't know how he can have these symptoms for this long and be considered acute. I guess they found the IGM bands. I would like to know how long the IGM bands stay around after initial infection.

I agree he should see an LLMD. I'm not sure he could follow a detailed 3 x a day herbal protocol, although I'd do my best to talk him trough it if he wanted.

I would encourage you to get him in to a LLMD or call one of the Buhner "associates" that are listed on Buhner Healing Lyme site.

Ankylosing spondylosis is what comes up with I searched for HLA-B27 autoimmune disease. This is a condition that is often misdiagnosed instead of Lyme. Lyme can be the cause of many different arthritic type of diseases, including Ankylosing Spondyliosis and even RA.

And, no, Doxy alone for 3 weeks, or 6 weeks if I understand your post correctly, won't be enough to deal with the chronic infection he has. Lyme causing those kinds of issues is not usually acute, no matter what the tests say. When the test registers an IgM result, it's often misinterpreted as an acute infection, when in fact, it only means that the body is making new antibodies. So it could be an old infection that his body has started fighting only recently, as arthritis symptoms is a late Lyme symptom.

k07, yes I want him to read me whats on the test, I'm betting that he has IGG bands too.

Traveler, they gave him a script for 3 wks Doxy, and another 3 wks refill if he wasn't feeling better yet after the 1st 3 wks. I told him to take all 6 weeks even if he's feeling better. Also, since Doxy increases cyst formation, I really wish they would have combined that with something that kills cyst forms.

Girlie, that quote pretty well explains it. Thank you.

So, his condition is NOT acute, he needs an LLMD or at least something to complement that Doxy, whether that be a cyst killing drug or herbal protocol, is the conclusion I've come to.

Thanks everyone, the helpful people on this board are such a great resource!

Well, I spoke with him and he is afraid to use any herbs because of a heart arrhythmia he has and he was told not to use any herbs or vitamins.

He is just going to use the Doxy and hope for the best. His doctor wants him back in 3 weeks to do another blood test (not sure what kind, maybe PCR or another WB) to see if it is gone. But how is the blood test going to find all the cyst forms hiding in the tissues that the Doxy encouraged?

I would like him to take a different course of treatment but this is his decision. I bet he and I will be discussing this all over again in a few months. He just has to find out for himself I guess :(

PCR test is useless. I was very sick and still my PCR was coming back negative.

So sorry b davis ...consider rife and herbal treatments ..eyes can be a protozoan infection..consider fl1953 and toxoplasmosis. .we found spirochettes in my moms ,and dad blood on microscopy at 1000x

Dad's Western Blot results were:

IgG band 41 pos

IgM band 23 pos
IgM band 41 pos

He says his finger and shoulder pain are getting better. Knee feels worse but he feels that is from hyper extending it while crabbing (he is a waterman). He never herxed. He is going to continue with the Doxy a full 6 weeks regardless of whether his Dr says the first 3 weeks was enough. Hopefully this does the trick for him.

Girlie said...
bdavis - If it was done through Igenex - the results should say both Igenex and CDC positive.

I just re-read your previous posts - was this a second WB done?

No this was his original LabCorp WB which was positive for acute Lyme. It just took a while to get the results out of him. Lightning hit our modem and we had no phone service for a while. The lightning also went through the internet wire from the modem and into my laptop and shocked me. (Unplug internet during storms is what I learned!)

That is a great idea, thanks!