Friday, February 26, 2010

When life hands you Lyme, make Lymeaide?

This is a quick post seeing as it's late and I should be trying to sleep (speaking of sleep, supposedly you're not supposed to take Ambien on a nightly basis?  Why do I have to hear these things on Chelsea Lately and not from my dumb doctor?).  Anyway, I saw a Lyme specialist a couple of weeks ago who sent a bunch of bloodwork to the Igenex lab in California.  I have no idea why they had to send it out to California, but they did and the tests got sent to my email yesterday...

Positive.

So, I have Lyme disease.  Maybe on top of CFS, maybe in place of CFS, not totally sure.  Because I've been sick for 2 1/2 years and Lyme only just showed up in my bloodwork, but it's a tricksy little disease so I'm not really sure.  I only have the Bburgdorferi strand and none of the co-infections (according to this bloodwork), so that's a good thing, I think.  Really, I could barely understand the letter she sent me; it was all in doctor talk.  But I'm glad to actually get some informative blood work back, instead of the usual, "Hmm, are you sure you're sick?" (Yeah, yeah I think I am.  Thanks though.)

Also, some people have asked me how I contracted Lyme disease.  This is a simple equation:

My backyard*:



PLUS my big fat indoor-outdoor cat:

"Please, Robyn, let me outside so I can catch MORE disease-ridden ticks with my luxurious fur!"

EQUALS me with Lyme disease.

Glad we straightened that out.

~Robyn

*This picture may have been doctored to make the deer appear they were digging paths to my house.  In reality, the deer are way lazier than this, and generally chose to only take paths that my dad had already snowblown.  Good-for-nothin' deer.

13 comments:

  1. I'm glad you finally got an answer!! At least that takes some of the frustration out of the equation! Now just to work on getting you better :)

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  2. Glad you found another piece to the puzzle... I hope this leads to more effective treatments for you!

    Love the deer pic, doctored or not. :) And your cat is adorable!

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  3. Hi welcome to the Mad Bad World of Lyme. I too was diagnosed with ME/CFS but found it to be lyme and on long term antibiotics I have my health back and my life.

    I do hope treatment is as successful for you as it was for me.

    Do check out my blog http://lookingatlyme.blogspot.com/
    You will find lots of useful links.

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  4. Lyme disease was probably one of the triggering factors of my CFS. Among others.
    I got an antibiotics cure, I had been sick for maybe 2 year by then. And the antibiotics didn't help at all. I've been sick for 7 years now, just with CFS though. Hehe "just" x)

    Love the kitty pictures, gotta both love and hate that tick carrying long lush fur.

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  5. Thanks for the sweet comments and support, guys. :) I won't be back at the doctor for several weeks, but I'll let you know how that goes when it happens! Thanks Annie and Laurel-- I'm glad to have some answers too! Joanne-- I'll be checking out your blog today, thanks for the help! MaritaBliss-- good to hear from you! I had no idea you had CFS, so thank you for sharing that with me. I love your blog, and it's nice to meet an internet friend who shares both of my life's greatest influences-- sickness and style, haha.

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  6. I am sorry that you have Lyme, but hopefully treatment will help your symptoms! Also I can imagine it's validating to have "proof of being sick" when dealing with the rest of the world!

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  7. So glad you've got an answer. This gives you the chance to move forward! I have to say, I am LOVING the deer pictures and the kitty is adorable - probably a simply wonderful cuddler.

    Have a good weekend.

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  8. It is great to have a clear diagnosis, and awful to have that shocking illness. I am sure you will make the best Lymenaide! Cheers!

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  9. It's strange to say congratulations for a Lyme diagnosis, but congratulations. You already knew you were sick, so it's good to know why, or at least part of the reason why.

    Here's hoping this leads to effective treatments. At least there *are* treatments for Lyme.

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  10. Robyn: I try not to write to much about it. Which feels good and sort bad too. Because I do have it, and sometimes is pretty bad, but I just feel it's a disease that nobody understands. And I guess I've accepted that nobody does, so I feel that if I can't make people understand (which I can't) much of what I say about CFS will come out as looking pretty negative, and I don't want people to think I'm a whiny negative person. Which I'm not.
    But then again, it's so helpful to read other people experience of our situation!

    Btw, love the tile of your blog, gotta love that "How are you?" hehe.
    And yes, looking good is my way of feeling a bit better about the cards life have dealt me :) hihi.

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  11. Hay! To get the side photos I have I just turned pictures I liked into circles on photoshop and then "add a gadget" "picture" and then uploaded those photos. Hope that helps.

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  12. Cats cats cats cats cats cats cats!

    We're gonna get along juuuuuust fine.

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