SA and Lyme?

[Namlehse]

So recently I was diagnosed with quite a few health problems that would make your average 70 year old cringe. Around two to three weeks ago, I was finally diagnosed with Lyme (Rocky Mountain, Borrelia Burgdorferi), after over a decade of being told I had nothing wrong with me.

Lymphocytic meningitis (Started as Idiopathic Intracranial Hypertension, or Sudo-Tumor) was one of the more recent symptoms, however the first would be the Rheumatoid Arthritis I was diagnosed with several years ago. The first of these is a neurological issue derived from the Borrelia bacteria. The more I read about it, the more I wonder if it's helping to cause my SA to be as bad as it is. I know the sky is the limit to what it can and has caused so why not SA? So far I have more issue than National Geographic and it's all been cause by the Lyme, so why not SA too?

Has anyone else seen anything Lyme/SA related?

Thanks!

[DreamDiver]

Has anyone else seen anything Lyme/SA related?!

Namlehse, I'm sorry for your troubles. I hope you will find some answers and relief soon. There are not many people who have been confirmed with chronic Lyme disease. At this point, most people are likely going to say, 'The data simply aren't in'. There are not likely very many people who have both sleep apnea and confirmed chronic Lyme disease to make the judgement of whether impairment from Lyme Disease can be a root or contributing cause to SA. There is a lot of controversy as to what constitutes Lyme disease even within the established western medical community.

If you were tested using standard 'Insurance-Industry-Accepted' AMA Lyme panels (first test to screen, second deeper test to confirm) and not the alternative controversial Lyme panels, it's unlikely that your Lyme caused your SA because you caught the infection within the last two weeks and are currently taking strong antibiotics to get rid of it. If you suspect chronic Lyme, the medical community itself cannot agree upon whether it actually exists or might be yet another manifestation of something in the same symptomology spectrum of CFS, FM, and ALS. There are some highly controversial methods for 'curing' CL, but they are about as successful as the palliatives currently used for CFS, FM and ALS.

You may remember at one point the group of doctors being sued by the state of Massachusetts some years ago. Doctors on a board for infectious disease were accused of so-tightly narrowing the test specifics for Lyme that almost nobody could get a positive, while at the same time attempting to create a vaccine to inoculate everyone against Lyme. They had to stop the vaccination program because too many people where ending up with chronic lyme symptoms, just from getting vaccinated. It was thought that they narrowed the number of markers to an impossible few so they could look like wonder-geniuses and get huge kick-backs from the sale of the vaccine when they 'saved the day.' Except they didn't, and a lot of people got damaged, and the accepted test is still probably a bad test, even though it is accepted as the insurance-industry standard even today.

Borellia is a spirochete, closely related to syphilis. They have the same corkscrew habit of twisting their way through collagen, cartilage and neural matter. The end results are the same, even though the vector is a tick and not sexual contact. What the test creators (the aforementioned doctors) failed to do, according to some, was allow that perhaps other species or closely-related varieties of Borellia might also cause similar damage using similar species of tick as the vector. The theory is that if you limit the test to the markers for one variety of Lyme that exists solely in a few counties in Massachusetts, there is a good possibility that other varieties of Borelia are not properly recognized by the current industry standard two-step panels. In other words, there might be a million people out there with some form of Borrelia damaging their insides, but since they show no symptoms now and the tests show 'negative', they won't be diagnosed with Lyme. We'll only know in about 20 or 30 years as people slowly lose their minds to the effects of the spirochete. So much for progess, eh?

To that end, I can only guess that you've received the alternative test panel and a visual confirmation from one of the more controversial 'Lyme' doctors after months or years of pain and frustration with the standard medical community. Unfortunately, the controversy behind this kind of testing still leads to the possibility that you have yet again been misdiagnosed for Lyme.

I wonder sometimes whether drug companies suppress research that could lead to actual cures because palliatives offer too lucrative a source of continual income. If you cure someone with a single pill, you can't keep 'them' coming back for more of your very expensive drugs.

If you found a doctor you trust, and you are feeling better using the course he or she suggests, please, by all means keep it up. Real doctors are hard to find today. Most of them are clock watchers with a golf bag.

[Namlehse]

To that end, I can only guess that you've received the alternative test panel and a visual confirmation from one of the more controversial 'Lyme' doctors after months or years of pain and frustration with the standard medical community. Unfortunately, the controversy behind this kind of testing still leads to the possibility that you have yet again been misdiagnosed for Lyme.

I wonder sometimes whether drug companies suppress research that could lead to actual cures because palliatives offer too lucrative a source of continual income. If you cure someone with a single pill, you can't keep 'them' coming back for more of your very expensive drugs.

If you found a doctor you trust, and you are feeling better using the course he or she suggests, please, by all means keep it up. Real doctors are hard to find today. Most of them are clock watchers with a golf bag.

A new PCP actually discovered it using the methods of a controversial Lyme doctor. I've been learning a lot lately, most of what you said he's told me. I didn't know about the vaccinations however. As for the test, I test positive for both the normal Lyme as well as Rocky Mountain Spotted Fever, with a third involving a retest of spinal fluid from one of my spinal taps to reduce pressure when they thought I was suffering from IIH.

With my medical history in hand, I've shown symptoms for around a decade, only recently did it start causing the major issues however. I've been through more doctors than I care to count, in less than a month with this one I seem to be on the correct path.

As for treatment, he says it could be years.. if I'm lucky. The only test being one of the controversial tests you speak of.

Thanks for the reply, hopefully I'll find something in my reading.

[chunkyfrog]

There are members on this forum who are brilliant at locating test data.
Perhaps one will show up today.
I am always amazed at what they find.
As for the Lyme causing your apnea; there are posts indicating one individual who believed that had happened,
but some documentation is probably being looked for now--just to rule out rumor.
Not really sure how knowing would help, though. Treatment would probably be the same.
I'm sorry for your pain; but the technology has a ways to go yet.
I suppose there are forums on Lyme disease, but look no further for the best apnea forum--you have found it.

[BlackSpinner]

So recently I was diagnosed with quite a few health problems that would make your average 70 year old cringe. Around two to three weeks ago, I was finally diagnosed with Lyme (Rocky Mountain, Borrelia Burgdorferi), after over a decade of being told I had nothing wrong with me.

Lymphocytic meningitis (Started as Idiopathic Intracranial Hypertension, or Sudo-Tumor) was one of the more recent symptoms, however the first would be the Rheumatoid Arthritis I was diagnosed with several years ago. The first of these is a neurological issue derived from the Borrelia bacteria. The more I read about it, the more I wonder if it's helping to cause my SA to be as bad as it is. I know the sky is the limit to what it can and has caused so why not SA? So far I have more issue than National Geographic and it's all been cause by the Lyme, so why not SA too?

Has anyone else seen anything Lyme/SA related?

Thanks!

If makes you able to accept OSA and embrace your cpap then sure, why not.

[Namlehse]

If makes you able to accept OSA and embrace your cpap then sure, why not.

That I've done, I've spent around a month on it now, I can't see myself going a night without it. As bad as I feel on a normal day, I feel like walking death without it! lol

[ThirdOutOfFive]

Welcome to the "Diagnosis of the Month Club." Sorry we both have to be here.

I was diagnosed with OSA 6 months ago. It was really hard getting used to this (in my opinion rather bizarre) therapy. I have fibromyalgia, atrial tachycardia, diabetes and chronic depression. My reaction to the OSA dx was, "NOW WHAT!" Fibro makes sleeping a nightly struggle, and PAPpy didn't help at first. But now I am accustomed to the machine, and I do believe that I feel better in the mornings. Given that I used to wake up in a fog thicker than pea soup, feeling better is very good progress.

When I get tired of my burdens, I imagine my Dad telling me to do what I have to do. That was his standard reply when I asked how his generation got through WWII. "Snoots, we just did what we had to do." Dad was as steady as the Rock of Gibraltar. Wish I could be more like him. . . .

Hang in there. If you work at it, PAPpy will get easier and you will feel better.