Posted 7/25/2019 3:26 PM (GMT -5)
I got very sick in 2013 and was diagnosed with mono. After several months not only was I not getting better but was getting significantly worse. I had mono in high school and it definitely was not like what I was experiencing then. I ended up getting diagnosed with Lyme in NY by an infectious disease specialist. I was put on doxy and told to follow up in a few weeks. The same dr ended up prescribing another round of doxy because I was still so
Sick, but I was also going back to
Charlotte at this point so I was going to continue care with my primary care dr in Charlotte. While not exactly Lyme literate, she did whole heartedly believe my symptoms and did the western blot as well as repeating some
Other tests multiple times over the next year and a half. Nothing was helping and at this point I was so depressed and frustrated I essentially gave up on life and tried to
Accept that there would never be a solution to make any of what I was feeling stop. My dr. Treated my symptoms as they occurred and even referred me to a rheumatologist who told me they didn’t believe in Lyme disease. It was extremely depressing and exhausting. However eventually the severity of my symptoms decreased, although always there, but I have been able to cope with them. One of my worst and lingering symptoms has been my vision issues. I didn’t need glasses prior to getting sick and needed my prescription changed 3 times in a year and a half. My vision changes didn’t happen gradually, it went from being fine to not fine almost over night and then continued to get worse pretty quickly. A few months after getting my last prescription I began to have really severe double vision, both with and without my glasses on. It’s not the kind of double vision one would get from drinking, it’s almost as if I see a full image and half of that same image mirrored or I’ll see two distinct copies of what I’m looking at and I won’t know which is the actual object and which isn’t really there. When i tried explaining this to my optometrist she not only completely dismissed
What I was saying but was so rude and made me feel like I was crazy and told me that I didn’t have double vision at all. At that point I kind of gave up pursuing any medical care and tried to deal with the double vision by alternating keeping one eye closed. Eventually though I decided to try to advocate for myself better and try to deal with whatever is happening inside my body. I found a new optometrist who is familiar with Lyme but could also tell during the exam that I couldn’t be making up the double vision. She referred me to a specialist that said I have bilateral paralytic strabismus in both eyes and it doesn’t make sense for that to just appear in someone, especially in my age range. The dr. That I had been seeing in Charlotte who i lived and had tried to help me stopped practicing during the period of time where I completely gave up on life and was no longer actively trying to get help. I continue to go to her office and see a PA now just because that’s where all my records are. However I feel like I really need to find a solution to all of these symptoms I have and treat the core instead of attempting to manage them as they come. I can’t remember what it feels like to not constantly be in pain, amongst other things. But I just don’t know what steps to take or how to find the help I need. I’m in my 20’s and support myself. I do have insurance, but I would never be able to afford paying hundreds of dollars out of pocket on a regular basis for doctors visits if they don’t take insurance. I did discover a dr in Raleigh N.C. that does take my
Insurance but it appears you still have to pay up front and get reimbursed later and that even though my insurance is accepted the website says it can’t guarantee coverage. This is not really feasible for me since Raleigh is several hours away, but I also am not able to come up
With 900+ dollars every time I go to the doctors. I’m really hoping that someone here can help me.