tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5694894153899281485.post6718759497135082153..comments2024-03-09T08:14:49.856-08:00Comments on LymeMD: Lyme: battery won't rechargeLyme report: Montgomery County, MDhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11035327980787631502noreply@blogger.comBlogger3125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5694894153899281485.post-59268002607133966552019-01-07T01:22:07.894-08:002019-01-07T01:22:07.894-08:00YoWhatsApp New Themes s fsf<a href="https://yowhatsapp.site/" rel="nofollow">YoWhatsApp New Themes</a> s fsf<br /> vbghgfhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/05807922749528939814noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5694894153899281485.post-64217638894241089122018-02-16T11:34:03.805-08:002018-02-16T11:34:03.805-08:00Disclaimer: I am not a doctor. But my experience ...Disclaimer: I am not a doctor. But my experience and years of reading and communicating with other patients tells me that rheumatologists are poor diagnosers and treaters of Lyme Disease. They invariably defer to their own specialty, I think because they simply don’t know how Lyme can mimic autoimmune disorders, or even trigger them. <br /><br />As a chronic Lyme sufferer, I would lean toward your primary care doctor’s opinion. In real life, Lyme tests are very rarely false positive. The idea that they’re unreliable is true, but that they’re frequently false positive is simply false. I don’t know how they explain that you have Lyme-specific antibodies without having Lyme. <br /><br />P.S. I heard second hand about a guy who got terrible joint pain and swelling in his hands with Lyme. He was misdiagnosed for over a year, and ended up with permanent neuropathy in his hands despite eventual treatment for Lyme.<br /><br />P.P.S. If you do decide to go with the rheumatologist, you should see improvement quickly if that diagnosis is likely correct. If you have no improvement or get worse or get new weird symptoms that are unrelated to arthritis, then that diagnosis is likely wrong. The risk with taking immune suppressants is that you can get worse, even suffering permanent damage. Allowing Lyme to get worse by suppressing the immune system lengthens and complicates treatment. <br /><br />It seems to me that unnecessary antibiotics are of low risk if there’s no infection.. Unnecessary immune suppressants are of high risk if there’s no autoimmune disease..Pearlhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/09576144049302954879noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5694894153899281485.post-82429857104139574682018-02-07T10:03:55.157-08:002018-02-07T10:03:55.157-08:00I love your blog and think it is a great public se...I love your blog and think it is a great public service. I wanted to ask about something in this entry. I've been repeatedly told that Lyme rarely causes pain/swelling in multiple small joints (such as fingers), and that it tends to involve one or two large joints (such as knees). But I notice that the patient you're describing in this entry did have arthritis symptoms in her hands. I wanted to ask whether, in your experience, Lyme can ever cause osteoarthritis in the hands -- as opposed to the kind of inflammatory arthritis that one typically sees in, say, rheumatoid arthritis.<br><br><br />The reason I ask is that I am receiving conflicting advice from my primary care doctor and my rheumatologist regarding joint pain I've recently started experiencing. My primary care doctor strongly believes I have Lyme, based on various test results. My rheumatologist rejects this diagnosis and says that these tests are unreliable. I have various symptoms that my rheumatologist says are classic autoimmune issues -- dry eyes/mouth, fatigue, etc. <br><br><br />In early January, seemingly overnight, I developed pain and swelling in my finger joints (DIP and PIP). The swelling is hard/bony, rather than "boggy" as one would expect in, say, rheumatoid arthritis. A recent ultrasound showed that, in addition to some synovial inflammation in the MCP joints (suggesting <i>inflammatory</i> arthritis), my fingers are showing signs of <i>osteoa</i>rthritis. It seems odd to me that the osteoarthritis would have come on so abruptly and suddenly. I was wondering if Lyme could possibly be an explanation -- or if this is just a result of some separate autoimmune process. Because I'm unsure which it is, I find myself uncertain which doctor's advice to take and which course of treatment to follow.Olivehttps://www.blogger.com/profile/10319886149118999164noreply@blogger.com