Anyone been tested/treated for lymes disease?

Posted , 5 users are following.

hi,

I recently saw a private endocrinologist and just wanted to share some information which may help others with underactive thyroid. 

As well as recommending carrying out thyroid and cortisol related tests, he also suggested that I rule out lymes disease as a potential cause of chronic fatigue (as, like most other patients, my thyroid blood test results have always came back as "normal"). The endo told me that lymes is a difficult condition to diagnose and the tests often come back inconclusive, but he advised taking certain antibiotics for a month and if I have lymes disease, this should get rid of it. He said don't expect anything to come of it, but he really helped one of his patients who did happen to have lymes as well as underactive thyroid.

My GP was thrilled that the endo was looking at the whole picture, and not just the thyroid. He also said that he had previously treated someone for lymes and was definitely something worth ruling out.

has anyone else been tested for lymes or giving antibiotics for this? Curious to know other people's experiences and wanted to share in case it helps someone else

0 likes, 10 replies

10 Replies

  • Posted

    That is great that the endo is looking at everything!!! I recently learned that when Lyme shows up as painful joints it's quite often the knees, which I never knew until my hubby had a knee problem and the doc had him tested just in case, it was not Lyme its and old injury and hereditary for him.  It is long overdue that doctors consider Lyme and test and treat for it.  
    • Posted

      Hi,

      That's interesting to hear about the knee problems as I have painful knees too. I was diagnosed with Me/ chronic fatigue syndrome and I now think it could be something else causing the fatigue and pain.

      Yes my endo said "I don't know how helpful your GP is but some don't believe lymes disease exists and won't treat it!!". Luckily my Gp has successfully treated another patient for lymes, but I cant believe in this day and age that medical professionals can get away without treating people properly just because they are daft enough not to believe a condition exists!!

    • Posted

       Thus why we have to be our own advocates.  My old gp never told me about my thyroid labs.  So now I'm requesting my full medical record including his notes all labs etc.  I want to see what else he missed, didn't tell me or decided on himself!!!! My new gp luckily took the time to go back in my record and review it and had the knowledge to question it.  Yet he will not bad mouth the old doc he will say things like "well moving forward this is what we can do" which is professional but I'd still like someone to say the old gp "was wrong" to not inform me and monitor me properly instead of leaving me on and antidepressant for over a decade.
  • Edited

    Hi:

    It is me, Nurse Shelly, and I live in the USA. I know 2 people who have gotten Lyme Disease.

    The first is a male, he was in his teens, from Pennsylvania,  lives near a wooded area, a tick bite/bore into him, and then he got a second tick bite/bore, and this one gave him a worse and more severe problem of chronic fatigue and he went for special treatments and can hardly do much on a daily basis. No thyroid problems.

    The second is a women, who live in New York State and she got a problem with fatigue and on top of that a complication of Lyme disease is severe allergies to Meat, Chicken, Turkey. The allergies do not every go away!  She lives near a wooded area and you should wear repellent to be in her backyard.

    Some of the treatments help, but many have a lasting fatigue and it does not go away!  It is worth testing for and ruling out.

    Regards, Shelly

    • Posted

      Hi shelly,

      That's interesting to hear. The first person you spoke about- what specialist treatment did he have? All I was told was that I would be given antibiotics. Yes you're right definitely worth ruling out as medical professionals tend to blame all symptoms on thyroid if you are known to have thyroid problems and rarely consider other causes

      Caz

    • Posted

      Hello Caz:

      The male who got 2 tick bites/bores at different times in his life, he is under age 30, went to Florida, USA for immune system therapy to combat the fatigue and joint problems. It is experimental and he is still not well. He endured about a month of IV treatments. It was the second tick bite that was worse, and they say if you get a tick bite again, it makes things even worse, so that is true!

      On the first bite/bore from the TICK he had the antibiotics and was able to finish 2 years of college, but the second one made it worse and his joints became so sore. He could hardly walk.

      He is unable to work now. It is very sad, as now his joints are like arthritis.

      Shelly

    • Posted

      Hi Caz:

      This was back in 2013, and I forgot to add to the previous post this. He had IV therapy at a clinic specializing in Lyme disease in Florida, USA.  He had antibiotics given IV stronger ones, multivitamins given in the IV, he had to eat a proper balanced diet that the facilty wanted him to eat. It was about a month long.

      Shelly

  • Posted

    This is extremely interesting to me because I just recently learned that I have hypothyroidism I'm only a 33 year old female and just recently had total knee reconstruction due to an injury at work while which my job requires a lot of walking but after surgery learned my knee condition was hereditary and that the pains I've dealt with growing up we're not growing pains as I thought as a child but soon they say I should have surgery on my other none injured knee as well ! I'm just learning of my thyroid condition as a result of this goiter that I have needs surgery to be removed because it's at 6 cm I'm kinda freaked out by everything exspecially I've looked very young my whole life up until last year my skin has gotten very dry I have aged because of the thyroid problem I had to fight with my doctor for a long time to even get referred to and Endo but when I did my results were definitely shocking I was low on B-12 and other levels were off I just never heard of this testing for Lymes disease and should I have my doctor test for it ? Sincerely Jenn
    • Posted

      Hi jenn

      I would say it's worth testing for if you are still symptomatic and suffering with fatigue and painful joints. Im told not all doctors believe in it (strange!) but it is difficult to test for so they usually give you a months course of antibiotics - just started mine yesterday.

  • Posted

    Its also expensive probably another reason docs don't do it!!! I'm glad so far my doc doesn't seem to have a problem testing and checking things for either myself or my husband it seems

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