In Focus

Life decided to throw me yet another curve ball.

As I mentioned last week, I was diagnosed with Lyme Disease. And it’s kicking my butt!

A few weeks ago, I had started experiencing extreme fatigue, to the point I couldn’t get through the day without a nap. And on weekends if I didn’t have to get up, I typically woke up around 9:30 a.m., but lately I can’t move before 11 a.m.

Along with that my knees were killing me...way more than usual anyway. And I had this hard to explain feeling of heaviness and malaise along with a minor headache that just wouldn’t quit, loss of appetite and a weird gut pain.

I knew something was wrong and for once it wasn’t the Crohn’s. It felt different.

I went in to get checked out, and the doctor ran several blood tests and sent me to get my knees x-rayed. As the days passed, and the test results started coming in, everything was looking normal. The tests varied from tick borne disease to a liver panel. Nothing showed up on the tick borne disease, but my liver enzymes were extremely elevated.

Since I am not much of a drinker, I went back to the thought it was something to do with the Crohn’s, more specifically, the medication for Crohn’s that I’m taking. I thought maybe this was a sign I was starting to reject my infusion medication. So the doctor sent me off to my GI doctor.

My x-ray showed arthritis in both knees—and I am not one bit surprised—and I’m back to physical therapy.

The GI doctor ordered more blood tests along with some different tests, such as testing for antibodies against my medication, and another tick and liver panel. The liver enzymes increased even more and something came up on the tick panel this time. The Lyme test, while it didn’t say positive or negative, it said “equivocal” whatever that is supposed to mean.

I went to my GI appointment, had my liver scanned and finally got some answers. My liver is healthy. I am not rejecting my Crohn’s medication, but tested positive for Lyme Disease.

I’d much rather deal with my body rejecting my medication rather then Lyme.

And so I was sent home with orders to rest, hydrate and take doxycycline twice a day for 10 days, then wait two weeks and test again.

And, of course, the doctor asked if I had a tick bite? At first I didn’t recall anything. Then it dawned on me that I may have had a tick bite and didn’t realize that is what it was.

I get ingrown hairs on my legs from time to time. I recall one on the back of my left leg, below the knee that was insanely infected, and I recall thinking it looked a bit like a bullseye, but didn’t think too much about it with how infected the area was. It eventually healed up and even left a scar.

But my frazzled mind just didn’t put it together in time that it was a bite of some kind, let alone a freaking disease riddled tick. I never saw a tick. I still haven’t seen one all summer.

Our animals are treated with flea and tick prevention so I didn’t think it came from them. We did have issues with deer coming into the backyard eating our garden goodies.

My best guess is I got it in my own backyard while tending the gardens.

I just hope we caught this early enough to eradicate it. I really don’t want to fight another debilitating disease, on top of the Crohn’s, for the rest of my life. Here’s hoping...I’m keeping my fingers crossed.