Regular readers know that Dymphna and I have had an interesting time these past few months. Early in March I developed macular degeneration in my left eye, for which I am now being treated (to very positive effect). We’ve also had entertaining weather-related incidents, such as tornado watches (twice), and the loss of electrical power, phone and/or internet (three times so far).
The most recent speed bump for me was a bad case of the flu — at least that’s what I thought it was at first. I had a high fever and typical flu symptoms (headache, joint aches, etc.) that waxed and waned throughout last weekend. After that pattern had continued for about five days, I called our family practitioner early last week. She wanted me to come in and see her, because the symptoms sounded like those for Lyme disease. She checked me out, took blood for the antigen tests, and told me to call her if the fever recurred. Which it did, early the following morning. She went ahead and put me on antibiotics (doxycycline, which sounds to me like a working girl on a bicycle) even though the blood results hadn’t come back yet. I’ve been taking the pills since Wednesday night.
The results came in on Friday, and were negative. However, Lyme often shows false negatives, for a variety of reasons. Doctors tend to treat it based on its symptomatology, since to leave it untreated can have some ghastly consequences — permanent crippling arthritis, neurological damage, and death, just to mention a few.
My symptoms have remained more or less like those of the flu, with a quotidian fever recurring in an irregular pattern. The highest has been 101.8°F (38.8°C), but in the past few days it has settled down to 100°F (37.8°C) or less. The worst part is the headache, which wraps around my head like a cap, with a tail down the back of my neck.
During my good periods (I’m writing this during one) I feel OK, with no fever or other symptoms except general weakness and lethargy. I can function more or less normally, writing, editing, etc. During my medium periods — low fever, headache, exhaustion — I can just barely manage to put together the news feed and post brief items. During the worst times — ferocious chills, high fever, bad aches — I just lie in bed and moan, or drift along in a “twilight sleep” having fever dreams.
Typically the fever comes on in the middle of the night and lasts until the late morning or early afternoon. The pattern varies somewhat from day to day, but I plan my limited activities around that rough schedule.
* * * * * * * * * * * * * * *
In the process of learning about Lyme disease, I found out that there is a European variant of the same disease. The North American version is caused by a bacterium called Borrelia burgdorferi, whereas the European version is mostly caused by Borrelia afzelii and Borrelia garinii, two similar species.
One of our Swedish readers sent me an account of Lyme disease in her part of Sweden:
Lyme disease (in Sweden called “Borrelia”) is very serious, and you need treatment with antibiotics as soon as possible. Otherwise you can get permanent symptoms. It’s good that you are on antibiotics now.
Ticks are little monsters, very common on the Swedish island where I’m staying most of the time. I don’t take a step in my garden or in the woods without wearing high boots.
My advice is that you take it very easy, don’t make any efforts and absolutely not work! Your readers of Gates of Vienna will understand and wait for your blog posts until you are completely recovered.
The tick that causes Lyme in these parts is the Deer Tick, Ixodes scapularis. For some reason, most people get bitten by the nymphs of the species, which are almost microscopic. They are commonly known as “seed ticks” around here. Some years we are really plagued by them, but this year Dymphna and I have had only one bite apiece so far.
The adult deer tick may be seen in the above photograph on the lower right of Franklin Roosevelt’s cheek.
I am expecting the symptoms to continue to moderate over the next few days as the effects of the antibiotics take hold more fully. For the time being, however, I must remain a member of the Invalid Corps.
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The title of this essay was inspired by a song that was popular on the Yankee side during the War of Northern Aggression.
When I was a kid, the Civil War Centennial was in full swing. In honor of the occasion, my father bought our family a boxed set of Civil War Songs in the Columbia Masterworks series. This magnificent production, with a men’s chorus and full orchestra, was not only on vinyl, but on the old hard vinyl that would snap if you tried to bend it. As a result, the records were tough, and able to stand repeated playings by a ten-year-old without significant scratching.
I loved those songs, and played them over and over. My mother was a Southerner, and my daddy was a Yankee, so I listened to the songs of both sides with equal devotion. “The Invalid Corps”, which came to my mind when I started writing this post, was one of my favorites. I was fortunate this morning to be able to find the Columbia Masterworks version of it on YouTube:
And the lyrics:
The Invalid Corps
I wanted much to go to war,
And went to be examined;
The surgeon looked me o’er and o’er,
My back and chest he hammered.
Said he, You’re not the man for me,
Your lungs are much affected,
And likewise both your eyes are cock’d,
And otherwise defected.Chorus:
So, now I’m with the invalids,
And cannot go and fight, sir!
The doctor told me so, you know,
Of course it must be right, sir!While I was there a host of chaps
For reasons were exempted,
Old “pursy”, he was laid aside,
To pass he had attempted.
The doctor said, I do not like
Your corporosity, sir!
You’ll “breed a famine” in the camp
Wherever you might be, sir!Chorus
There came a fellow, mighty tall,
A “knock-kneed overgrowner”,
The Doctor said, I ain’t got time
To take and look you over.
Next came along a little chap,
Who was ‘bout two foot nothing,
The Doctor said, You’d better go
And tell your marm you’re coming!Chorus
Some had the ticerdolerreou*,
Some what they call “brown critters”,
And some were “lank and lazy” too,
Some were too “fond of bitters”.
Some had “cork legs” and some “one eye”,
With backs deformed and crooked,
I’ll bet you’d laugh’d till you had cried,
To see how “cute” they looked.Chorus
“Lank”, maybe. “Lazy”, definitely.
As for “cute” — you’ll have to ask Dymphna.
| * | Properly tic douloureux, the common 19th-century term for trigeminal neuralgia. |
My sincere commiserations Baron.
It would seem that you are going to be on the antibiotics for up to six weeks, so I recommend that you must focus on replenishing a healthy gut flora when treatment is completed and supplement with probiotics and prebiotics during the treatment.
I strongly suggest that you follow Dr. Art Ayers’ guidelines on optimising your gut bacteria.
http://coolinginflammation.blogspot.co.uk/
Wishing you a speedy recovery and the best of health in the future.
Ben.
Wonderful recording!
I hope you recover soon. There is a war going on out there. And at the moment, the Muslims are in advantage.
Marten
PS: The Swedish “Borrelia” is not that dangerous. But it is very common.
I live in NYC and deer don’t enter the city often, so I very rarely encounter Lyme disease. I do see people come down with these non-specific symptoms and usually attribute them to a virus. It is not that uncommon to have fever due to a flu virus for 1 week. Furthermore, I have seen people with this pattern of symptoms recently and they haven’t ventured into areas where they are likely to encounter Lyme, so I haven’t given them antibiotics.
Still, if you live in a wooded area where deer roam, this is high Lyme season. Another thing to keep in mind, is that primary Lyme is overwhelmingly seen with a round rash lesion – Erythema Migrans. If you had this skin lesion, then no further testing would be needed prior to starting you on antibiotics. Please don’t take them for 6 weeks, the proper treatment is doxy. for 2 weeks. If you have persistent symptoms for over a month and the serologies are negative, it is not Lyme. Don’t listen to people who recommend 6 months or year long antibiotics for chronic Lyme. These are charlatans.
Vinny —
I appreciate your advice.
I’m on a 10 day program of doxycycline.
My symptoms are NOT non-specific; they are quite specific. They vary only in the period of their recurrence and the intensity of the fever.
Each bout begins with severe chills and uncontrollable shivering, so that if I drink from a glass, it rattles against my teeth. There is usually no fever at this point.
The fever comes on after I manage to warm up, and zooms to its maximum fairly quickly. I take the ibuprofen or acetominophen at that point, which reduces but does not eliminate the symptoms.
The other symptoms are:
Massive headache, particularly fierce where the neck joins the skull.
Muscle aches.
Joint aches.
General neuralgia symptoms (I’ve had viral neuralgia before, and they’re like that).
Slight inflammation of the upper trachea.
Moderate sinus congestion.
A slowing-down of cognitive processes, a sort of lethargy of thinking, or brain-fog.
The above symptoms are always present, but vary in intensity in correlation with the severity of the fever.
Summary: Very much like a bad bout of 24-hour flu, but recurring every 24-36 hours.
If this were the 1800’s I would have diagnosed you with malaria. This was the most common illness causing such symptoms during the warm months. Typhus caused similar recurrent fevers during the cold months, and was more likely to be associated with a rash. The fever, myalgias, and headache are what I call non-specific as any infection or inflammatory illness can cause these symptoms. The nasal symptoms would lead more towards you being infected with either some rhinovirus or a flu virus.
Initial Lyme often won’t give positive serologies as these tests depend on your immune system to manufacture the antibodies to fight off the invading organism. This process takes at least several weeks, but after a month of symptoms there should be something in your blood indicating that you encountered this organism. Again, CDC definition of early Lyme is usually centered around the presence of a classic bulls-eye rash, but some people don’t develop it; something like 20 percent have no classic rash lesion.
If you take the antibiotics and you feel better 24-48, hours later you have committed yourself to finishing the 10 day course. However, it is entirely possible that the symptoms will have improved during that 48 hours because the viral illness has run its course and the antibiotics had no effect there. I always tell people that the common cold is the easiest thing to develop a cure for: give me 2 weeks and my treatment is guaranteed to work.
Getting back to why you will need to finish the course of antibiotics once you have started, it would be dangerous to interrupt potential effective treatment of a susceptible organism and risk developing a resistant organism. Also partially treated Lyme has a descent chance of progressing to latent Lyme that will include cardiac, rheumatologic , and neurological sequellae, and that is a much more complicated animal to treat.
Finally if you find yourself treating this thing for 2 weeks, and the symptoms persist, and your serologies remain negative… it is very unlikely that you are dealing with Lyme.
I do hope you had a spinal tap to rule out meningitis.
http://www.webmd.com/brain/meningococcal-meningitis-symptoms-causes-treatments-and-vaccines
I would insist on one if it continues.
That is more common that Lyme disease and more fatal.
The doxycycline is going to destroy all the good bacteria in your GI tract along
with any bad bugs so be prepared. Stomach cramps, diarrhea, nausea , sometimes
the cure is worse than the illness.
So sorry to hear this. Fibro on one side; Lyme on the other: what will Satan come up with next to tear down one of the last effective barriers to contagion? Just came back from an extensive stay in Germany. On a long train trip, the wagon was filled with Somali women in black whatchmacallits, unbelievably noisy extended Turkish families with hyperactive toddlers, and Arab youtes invariably accompanied by a sexy blonde. Other than the animatronic Barbies, the five Germans or so who were in my car– all upper middle years, dressed modestly and tastefully and reading high-IQ content like opera librettos, were all buried in their pages, pretending that what was happening around them was not happening. How many could have awakened if they read GoV? How many fewer will awaken if you are forced to cease publishing?
Thank you, Takuan. I expect to recover from this (just as I am recovering from the macular degeneration) and continue to do this job. Who wants to retire?
If it’s Lyme, they caught it early enough. If it’s a virus, it will run its course.
Baron:
Good luck with whatever’s ailin’ you.
Just had to comment about the Civil War record. My dad is from Georgia and my mom from Pennsylvania. We had a similar album at home when I was a kid, Tennessee Ernie Ford’s Songs of the Civil War, a two album set, one with Rebel Songs and one with Yankee.
I’ve always thought the South had the best tunes.
Be sure to check out Zilla of the Resistance – she has a lot of knowledge about tick-related diseases.
I knew there was a reason why I hate bugs!
I really, really, really DO NOT LIKE BUGS.
I hope the antibiotics completely solve the problem, but if not, Google Salt and Vitamin C. That’s a popular folk remedy for Lyme. I feel a bit impertinent, recommending a treatment I haven’t personally tried, since I’ve never had Lyme, but I once researched it for someone else, and the salt and C cure has a great reputation in the alternative Lyme community.
Best wishes for a full and speedy recovery.
Lymes is very common now. Ive had it three times. Luckily two of the three presented with the typical “bulls-eye” rash. First time did not and I had it for a while. Feel like total [expletive] until treatment. Starting to get like the flu. Something you come down with every now and then. Hopefully we don’t start getting anti-biotic resistant strains. The very definition of hell would be Lymes that can’t be cured.