My Story

My Lyme diagnosis was discovered from an x-ray believe it or not. Let me explain, I practice martial arts, I inadvertently kicked my partners knee with my big toe while sparring. The next day I was in so much pain I went to urgent care for X-rays to see if I had broken the toe. Luckily the toe wasn’t broken, but the doctor told me I had arthritis.

My annual physical happened to be the following week, so I told my primary about the arthritis and she ordered some bloodwork for further investigation. This is when the Lyme was discovered.

So the usual doxycycline regiment was started and I went on with my life. I really didn’t have any other symptoms besides the joint pain in my toe, until I got my Lyme diagnosis. Or at least I hadn’t realized that they were symptoms. I think that I was just so used to them being there I didn’t realize what they were until I was told that they could be caused by the Lyme. Fatigue, muscle soreness, joint pain, night sweats, brain fog, tremors, to name a few. I live a very physical lifestyle, including my profession so I just attributed it all to that.

I was referred to The Stram Center for Integrative Medicine in Delmar, NY. Their doctors specialize in Lyme disease and their many co infections, which after further testing was discovered that I also have Babesia and Bartonella. My first antibiotic regiment consisted of 5 different antibiotics. Which in conjunction with a radical diet change knocked my symptoms down and I was feeling much better. My kidney function however started to tank, so they took me off all antibiotics to remedy this. After a couple months I am now on another less aggressive regiment and am starting to feel better again.

Traditional medical practices hardly treat Lyme for what it is, seek out specialists and be your own advocate. It was a complete lifestyle change, at least in my case.