If you've known me for a long time, you know that I've pretty much had medical problems since literally the day I was born. The last ten to fifteen years in particular have been difficult with lots of strange and crazy things happening with my body. Since 1995, I have had 9 surgeries, most of them unrelated and for the most part not serious. I've just always felt that Heavenly Father thinks I learn important things through being sick. It's been the story of my life. In 1995 I had a kidney removed, and since then it's seemed like my immune system just hasn't wanted to work right. I know that they're not directly related, but it's been since about then that I've had all kinds of strange things going on, and it seems like I've been constantly sick with colds, flus and other bugs.
Over the last four to five years, however, I've been to multiple different doctors for a whole laundry list of symptoms. I've had recurring bouts (usually lasting about 6-8 weeks) with arthritis, fevers, chills, night sweats, muscle aches, extreme fatigue, nausea, vertigo, headaches, sore throats and other strange symptoms. I also have hardly any immune system to speak of, and I seem to get anything that's going around.
In addition to all the different doctors, I've been in to the ER for severe abdominal pain several times a year for the past four years as well. The doctors always run lots of tests. Blood panels, ultra sounds, MRI's and CT scans. I've been tested for everything imaginable, and even sent up to the Huntsman Cancer Hospital to have my liver scanned using advanced equipment...that was a little scary. After all the tests, it always ends up with them sending me home with the same thing: a prescription of pain meds and no diagnosis.
During this whole process, one of the most frustrating things for me has been the unwillingness of the doctors to look at my entire health history to try to figure out what is going on. I've been having most of these symptoms on a recurring basis for years, with each recurrence getting a little worse, and with new symptoms appearing. To me, it all seemed somehow related, and yet none of the doctors I saw, (NONE OF THEM), were interested in discussing what happened six months ago, let alone six years ago.
Over the last four months in particular, my symptoms have seemed to be escalating. In late September of last year I noticed that my arthritis was getting worse and the fatigue was coming back. By mid-October I was having severe abdominal pain again and was nauseated constantly to the point of being unable to keep food down. Since then I've been to six specialists, the whole time making no progress towards an explanation, while continuing to get worse and worse. I've gotten to the point where 3-4 days a week I am in bed the entire day because I literally don't have the strength to get up, and I am in constant pain. I have also started having fevers again, usually in the evening, usually 2-3 times a week.
In mid December, I was quickly getting to the end of my rope. After having seen all the different specialists, an additional round of tests including exploratory abdominal surgery and a complete GI work-up (this included a colonoscopy and endoscopy...yeah, that was fun) the doctors were still baffled. As my symptoms (all of them) continued to get worse, the doctors recommended regular lidocane shots in my abdomen to deaden the nerves that they thought were causing the pain. What....? What about my other symptoms?
During all of this, a friend of mine that I literally hadn't talked to in at least 10 years contacted me on Facebook and asked about what was going on, since she had seen so many people commenting on my health. After a brief conversation about things, she suggested I look into Lyme disease as a possibility, and consider being tested for it. I'll admit that my first reaction was to brush the idea off. Everyone has opinions and suggestions, especially in a situation like this. I had heard of Lyme, but had no idea what it was or what it did.
However far-off I thought the suggestion was, I agreed to read some links to articles that she emailed me. As I read through the first article, I couldn't believe what I was reading. It seemed as though the article could have been written about ME. All the symptoms I was having, everything I had been tested for, all the things I've been "diagnosed" with over the last ten years were in that article. I continued to read the other information and felt even more strongly that in the very least I did need to be tested for Lyme.
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