Monkey Girl's Biography

Monkey Girl (who wants to remain anonymous) is a 41 year old Lyme patient who lives in Washington State. She most likely got Lyme in Singapore where she lived for a few years or in the Northern California area where she grew up.

MG tested positive for Lyme Disease, Babesia and Bartonella in March of 2008.  MG's Lyme doctor did not test her for any other co-infections since the treatments for them are the same.  Ten years ago, MG began having gastro difficulties including diarrhea and horrible stomach & intestinal pains.  The first round of doctor's MG went to tested for all types of Digestive Disorders.

By the time MG was 30 years old, she had already had a sigmoidoscopy, colonoscopy, CT scans, endless blood work, etc…the only to be labeled with an IBS (Irritable Bowel Syndrome)diagnosis.  Since they never did find out the problem, she feels this is a non-diagnosis.  MG would begin to break out in severe hives from head to toe as her "attacks" progressed.  She would be sitting on the toilet for hours in pain.  MG's blood pressure would drop so quickly that she would pass out while on the toilet.  She was hospitalized during at least 4 to 5 of these attacks.  She spent one of the attacks in the hospital for 5 days because the doctors couldn't control her pain.

A new more distrubing symptom was added to her list of symptoms each and every year.  The doctors thought she had IBS and hives, labeling it as possible autoimmune hives. Then severe fatique started settling in, joint pain in her hands, wrists and shoulders soon followed.

By the time MG moved to Washington, she was a complete mess.  Her thryoid began growing nodules at an alarming rate and completely stopped functioning in 2007.  She had two surgeries to remove her sick thyroid at the end of 2007 and had 2 biopsies that showed pre-cancerous cell change.  The thryoid problems distracted her doctors into thinking her thyroid had been the problem all along.  Even MG believed this for a while.  However, six motnhs after her surgery ... the fatigue and joint pain was unbearable.

Still having bouts of hives, MG was referred to an Infectious Disease Specialist in Seattle.  The specialist was convinced for six months that MG had Mastocytosis and she had a bone marrow biopsy.  The diagnosis was plausible as the symptoms she was having fit it 100%.  However, her bone marrow biopsy came back negative.  The Infection Disease Specialist sent MG on her way with no explanation.  The Oncologist did note that there were some irregularities, but didn't know what they meant.

Of course all of this caused MG to be depressed and overwhelmed. She was sure they would never get to the answers of her medical problems.   The doctors began implying that her problems were all psychosomatic and that all she needed were anti-depressants.  This caused her to be even more depressed because she couldn't believe that all her pain and physical problems would go away with an anti-depressant each day.

MG said, "It became, in my mind, ‘the chicken or the egg argument’ which came first the illness or the depression.  To me, I was only depressed because of my illness…but the doctors didn’t see it that way."

After finally hooking up with a Homeopathic Doctor in late 2007/ Early 2008 because she wasn't getting anywhere.  She sent in tests for Lupus, MS, Rheumatoid Arthritis, and even MG was thinking that Autoimmune Disease had to be the answer.  What else could it be she thought.

Fortunately, MG had a close friend in California that kept pestering her to get a Lyme Disease test.  She kept telling her that it couldn't possibly be Lyme because she doesn't remember ever having a tick bite.  She conventiently forgot all of the ticks she had taken off their dogs or all the ticks that she & her brother used to get going camping in the Santa Cruz Mountains.  Her selective memory was kicking in.

After all of her tests returned negative, the ND doctor was stuck.  However, MG's blood work did show high inflammatory levels and she also had a continous fever between 100 and 101.5 for going on 3 to 4 years.  For what it's worth, this never seemed to bother her regular doctors even though she told them she had a fever every time she went into the doctor's office.

At this time, the ND consulted a colleague who also suggested a test for Lyme.  At this point, they decided to test just to eliminate it from the list of possibilities.  Fortunately, the ND knew to contact IgeneX Labs in California to inquire as to which tests to order.  Three weeks later, the ND called to tell MG that she tested positive for Lyme Disease.  Four weeks later, the test came back positive for Babesia and Bartonella.  She was referred to a LLMD in Seattle.  She was completely overwhelmed.  It took a couple of months for the diagnosis to sink in.

MG's husband was treated for Bartonella solely based on her Lyme doctor's advice.  Early reports are showing that Bartonella (and probably other co-infections) can be sexually transmitted.  The LLMD's worry was that with all the treatment that her husband would keep re-infecting me.  Her husband doesn't show any signs of Lyme or co-infections. 

MG has not had her daughters tested yet.  They are not showing signs of sickness and it's a sensitive area of discussion.  Since they aren't sure when or where MG contracted Lyme, she can't be sure 100% and they are not ready to put them through the stress of testing since they both have a fear of needles.