Lyme kills

February 2007. A 46 year old female walked into my office for a "Lyme consult." I did not know at of our meeting-- she had recently been found in the middle of a road trying to end her life. Luckily, she was picked up by a police cruiser and subsequently admitted to a psychiatric facility. I did not know, until today, that a past treating physician, a rheumatologist, had called her an "f...ing moron." This patient/human being, has had a long and bumpy ride, but no longer entertains thoughts of suicide. She was sick of being sick. She had been sick for one half of her life, since age 24. She had suffered with total body pain. She had been diagnosed with "seronegative" rheumatoid arthritis. Gold shots, prednisone and other "remedies" offered no respite from her misery. She had swollen lymph node. Her joints and muscles hurt--really hurt. She was told she had "a weak immune system." She had numerous neurological complaints. There was progressive loss of memory and global cognitive function for over 15 years. Most troubling of all was severe, unrelenting abdominal pain. This was her worst symptom. Numerous specialist had been unable to identify the source of the trouble.

Prioritising, the first thing I did was examine her belly. She had right upper quadrant tenderness and a positive Murphy's sign. Gastroenterologists and surgeons insisted there was nothing wrong with her gallbladder. Sonograms and HIDA scans had been abnormal. I sent her for another HIDA CCK test: normal. I told her she had a bad gallbladder--I didn't care what the tests said. Two surgeons refused to operate. A third ( a close friend) reluctantly agreed. Her gallbladder was bad--chronically infected. Her pain was gone! Now she thought I was a genius. No. I have just seen chronic cholecystitis in many Lyme patients. And her physical exam was classic for cholecystitis. I followed a rule one of mentors taught me back in medical school: treat the patient not the lab. I quess most doctors today had a different mentor.

She was seropositive for Babesia at the outset. The Labcorp Western Blot showed no bands. Her Igenex test negative although IgM bands were "inderterminate" at the 39, 41 and 93 positions.
Treat the patient. Rocephin. She Herxed. We went around the block--numerous times. Gradually, after much Mepron, a mix of oral antibiotics and two courses of Rocephin she was significantly better.

We(she) struggled with serious nicotine addiction: 3 packs per day. She ended up with a severe lung infection. I prescribed Levaquin and Cleocin. The Herx brought her to the hospital. It looked like a cavitary mass or abscess. This was February 2009. The surgeons were sure she had a tumor. The biopsies showed no cancer and no microbes would grow in the lab. Faint colonies were seen only to disappear. The surgeons still wanted to operate. Two PET scans later-- no cancer. She had a miracle response to Ivanz. I have written about this before. The pulmonologist gave her months to live(she tells me), severe COPD. I don't think so. She is not short of breath even with moderate excertion. Maybe he is just trying to scare her.

Today I saw her. She is depressed because she retired from her job (voluntarily). She cleans houses part-time! Her pain is mangaged with modest help from "our friends". Good days and bad days. The bad ones aren't that bad. She is nervous: another PET scan. She wants to quit smoking--just can't do it.

I never knew about the suicide attempt--until today.