I've decided to write a blog post about my recent experience with ticks in New England in hopes that others recognize the symptoms of Lyme and get tested before they feel like I have been.
My story begins the weekend before Halloween. I woke up Saturday morning feeling off. By the time I had breakfast made I was so nauseous that I didn't want to eat it. I also had a strange pressure in my head, like before you get a migraine headache. Wonderful.
As the day progressed, so did the nausea. My stomach started to bloat a little as well. By Saturday night, I was unable to keep food down. I thought I had a 24 hour stomach bug. We had friends over and the timing couldn't have been worse. After losing my dinner, I decided to take a shower to try to feel a little better.
That's when I saw the speck. Right in my belly button. A little black dot. It was a tick. I called my husband in and he was able to get it out, whole and alive. It was hands down one of the smallest ticks I've ever seen. I continued on and by Saturday night at midnight my stomach was so bad that I had my husband run to the gas station for Pepto.
I rode out the illness through Sunday and through Hurricane Sandy on Monday. At this point we were getting concerned. My back was hurting, my knees were hurting and my all-day nausea was making it impossible to eat. Of course we thought I could be pregnant, so we quickly ruled that out.
By Tuesday I still wasn't any better. My husband told me to call the doctor. I agreed and was able to get an appointment for that Friday. As the week went on, my symptoms worsened. Friday couldn't get here soon enough. I was tired and sick and couldn't take care of the kids or the house.
My doctor immediately suggested pregnancy. Why is it that whenever a woman in her child bearing years goes to the doctor for an illness, they assume you're pregnant? Do you really think that thought didn't already cross my mind? Wow, I'm so glad I waited all week for an appointment and then paid my $25 co-pay for my Dr. to play the role of captain obvious. No. I am not pregnant. Lets get serious.
So then she did her usual exam consisting of blood pressure, listening to my lungs, my heart, etc. She took my temperature and had my lie down on the table so she could poke at me. Pretty much everywhere in my abdomen hurt along with most of my lower back, knees, etc.. I told her about the tick and she decided to do a bunch of urine work and have a Lyme test done, though she admitted that she thought Lyme was unlikely given that the tick wasn't engorged so it probably hadn't been on for any length of time.
I waited through the weekend, with increasingly bad symptoms. On Monday, I called for my test results. They had come in that morning, but the doctor hadn't reviewed them so I wasn't allowed to know yet. I called again in the late afternoon before they closed. Still nothing. That night at 6:30 my doctor called me. She was surprised, it was Lyme. She prescribed some antibiotics and had it sent over to my pharmacy.
I got the email from the pharmacy letting me know my prescription was done 4 minutes before they closed. I'd have to wait another night. What a long night it was! At this point my back pain and nausea made it impossible to sleep for more than 10 minutes at a time. Standing was a no-go. Sitting was a no-go. It was awful.
I picked up my prescription first thing on Tuesday and began taking the pills immediately. It took until Thursday to notice an improvement and I woke up again this morning (Friday morning) feeling terrible. I hope it will get better after my next dose. The doctor is supposed to call today or Monday to let me know the results of the more detailed test to determine whether it's a new infection or if I've had it for a while. I'm not sure why that matters, all I know is that I'm glad I insisted on the test.
No comments:
Post a Comment