Limey

I saw my other doctor this week for some new insight on what's going on with me. I've always trusted her as the more "older and wiser" of my fleet, yet I'd become complacent with my newer doc who insisted that I need to heal and "we'll see how it goes". After 6 weeks of not healing I'd finally had enough.

After reviewing the past 4 months my other doc had no explanation for why I was bionic this winter for 10 weeks then hit the deck and haven't been able to recover. With 4 months of a strict diet under my belt and the cargo of supplements I've been taking she was quite sure that my guts are fine and not the source of my pathetic energy levels. Her only thought was that the candida could have come back so we could try nuking that with more antibiotics. But then we talked about the cyclical nature of my fatigue (6 weeks on, 6 weeks off, etc) and a light bulb went off over her head. She started rattling off stories of Lyme's disease and its evil brethren who morph into different forms in the host and can lay dormant or flare up when conditions are ripe. They are rarely diagnosed, yet suspected of causing a number of fatigue-related and debilitating ailments like fibromyalgia, MS, ALS, and lupus. They're often called the "great imitators", the co-infectors that lay quietly behind more well-known infections while doing the majority of the damage. She talked about researchers in Palo Alto who are studying these stealth infections and trying to devise better (or any) testing protocol. This same doc actually tested me for Lyme's 3 years ago when this whole party started, but she now says that test was in no way conclusive (NOW you tell me.....).

I've never had the quintessential symptoms of Lyme's like the rash or painful joints or being bedridden for months on end, but there are about 50 classic symptoms and like any monkey, I nail a number of them on the head. Plus I have enough unresolved issues that it warrants investigation (and 2 years of tromping around New England in grad school is all too suspicious). Besides, the only way I've functioned the past 3 years was from intravenous vitamin doping so who knows how I'd be otherwise. A potential diagnosis like this has left me with some anxiety because this isn't an overnight recovery. It generally takes years of antibiotics to reduce the prevalence of the bacteria, which would eventually shut down and lay dormant, if at all. I also have no idea what the testing procedures would involve either. I read something about a spinal tap. Ouch?

I'm going to check out a Lyme's specialist and see where this leads. I'd rather have all the facts and know one way or the other. Not knowing and wondering if you're crazy is the worst part.