Jessica is a 33 year old Lyme patient living in California. She is infected with Lyme Disease and Anoplasma. She probably has Babesia and Bartonella too.
Jessica suffers from muscle and joint pain. She also has numbness, tingling and burning mainly in her arms and legs, but those things can be felt in other places on her body including her face. She often has a rapid heart rate and can be over 200 beats per minute. She suffers from heart palpitations, dizziness/lightheaded, ringing in her ears, muscle spasms, twitching and fatigue. Jessica experiences temperature issues almost always feel cold, but has hot flashes. She has shortness of breath, ADD symptoms. The most scary issue involve her heart though the pain, dizziness and feeling lightheaded are bothersome too.
Jessica experienced her only known tick bite over 20 years ago. She's experienced severe stomach problems (Irritable Bowel Syndrome) and the fatigue started 15 to 20 years ago. The last 15 years or so, she's experienced most of the symptoms. The dizziness really started in around 10 years ago. Jessica felt weak in the knees and her fatigue increased along with insomnia.
Jessica was diagnosed with ADD seven years ago and began medications for it in the last two years, but she's had symptoms of ADD since elementary school. She began to get short of breath, having the heart palpitations and heart racing about 5 years ago. She's also been diagnosed with Asthma and inappropriate sinus tachycardia after a treadmill stress test showed that her heart rate went as high as 272. She was put on Beta Blockers. Jessica had a scary episode of severe muscle pain that left her with no strength in her arms to such extent that she couldn't even squeeze toothpaste out the tube. She had ongoing episodes of weakness, tingling and burning. She was told that this was anxiety, depression and possible Fibromyalgia.
Jessica saw a chriopractor/nutritionist who suggested that it could be Lyme Disease. Lab Corp testing was negative, but at this point she had read enough to know to try to find a Lyme Literate Doctor. She found one in San Diego and tested IGeneX positive and officially diagnosed April 28, 2010. Jessica decided to find a new Primary Care doctor after the last one saw the positive test and said she didn't have Lyme or any other serious condition. Her new doctor is well versed in treating Lyme and agreed to help her. Though due to the denial of disability, she had to see a third doctor ... and Infectious Disease Doctor. She actually agreed with the diagnosis and was concerned over the heart issues. She feels Jessica has Lyme Carditis. Since Jessica's most severe symptoms started 5 to 7 years ago, she's seen three family practice doctors, 2 cardiologist, 1 GP/Cardiologist, 1 Neurolgist, 1 Psychiastrist, Multiple ER and Urgent Care doctors prior to being diagnosed with Lyme Disease.
Jessica's LLMD felt she was too sick to start medications right away so Jessica began with supplements and added medication later. She is currently on Doxy, Mepron, Biaxin, Plquenil, artemisinin, teasel root, similax, transfer factor mulyi-immune, tinidazole, nystatin, magnesium, and a handful of other supplements and herbal tinctures. Jessica is supposed to be adding Levaquin for just 30 days. Once this is completed, she'll have a chest port put in for IV Rocephin for a minimum of six months.
None of Jessica's family has been tested, but she does have two daughters (ages 4 and 7) that need to be tested. Her biggest prayer request is that her disability gets approved and that her daughters don't have Lyme.
2 days ago
I love your blog and would like to have my daughter featured sometime. Also, I would love to see updates on the people you posted about last year. I hope they are all doing better!
ReplyDelete