How has it fucked you up? Is it curable? Life threatening? How do they treat it?
Sorry I forgot about this thread. It can affect everyone differently. For me, it was mostly mental...had no memory, forget everything, couldn't concentrate, was in a constant "haze", went from straight A student to failing across the board. I had some physical problems too...like I played soccer and baseball for 10 years, constantly running around and was in excellent shape, but then all of a sudden I couldn't walk up a flight of stairs without getting winded. I would stand up and get light headed, had joint pains, and would feel like I was being randomly stabbed by a needle somewhere on my body. All sorts of weird stuff. Also bear in mind I had 2 other tick borne illnesses at the same time.
Lyme is absolutely life threatening. Untreated, it will turn into chronic Lyme. You can read horror stories of how it can ravage someone's mental and physical faculties. It can also mimic many diseases and is always misdiagnosed as something else. Even the standard blood tests used by regular doctors aren't very accurate (it may have gotten better, but 20 years ago I failed multiple standard western blot tests until I had my blood sent to a special lab. Every single case is different and it can manifest itself differently in everyone. Since blood tests were not always 100% accurate, many doctors will treat symptoms even if the bloodwork says negative. The "bullseye" mark that signals the initial tick bite/infection only presents itself around 1/3 of the time.
For treatment, if caught early, IV can flush it, there are a lot of new medicines available today. I think I had it around 8 years before it was diagnosed, and the spirochetes can form cysts deep in your blood and lay dormant....you can't really 100% cure a chronic lyme infection. I was taking a huge cocktail of antibiotics and other medicines (foot fungus medicine works wonders on Lyme). I was clean for around 7 years but either got reinfected or had a flare up. I was starting to forget stuff, couldnt sleep, had a mental haze over everything. Hard to explain, but I know the early symptoms to look for. Went back on antibiotic cocktail for around 8 months. My doctor said treatment of Lyme had advanced significantly since my last bout over a decade ago. It's not an old disease to begin with...it came about sometime around 1980. Therefore treatment and diagnosis is still changing and evolving over time. This time he had me supplement the medicine with some organic stuff and other vitamins (Lauricidin, oil of Oregano, vitamins B/D), and did 2 week cycles of the medicine instead of just months straight of meds. It cleared up quick and now I feel normal again!
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