Posted on Apr 6, 2013 in Blog |

I have accepted The Health Activist Writer’s Month Challenge to write daily about my disease. #HAWMC @wegohealth Topic: How long does it take to get a Lyme diagnosis? What are other common misdiagnoses? For me, it took 29 years to get the correct diagnosis. I went through some years of being in good health tempered with other years that weren’t so great. When I turned 40, my immune system weakened and that’s when I started deteriorating significantly. I kept seeing specialists for various disorders. They are very good within their specialties, but no one was looking at the big picture. No one was seeing how I seemed to be having numerous auto-immune disorders. Note to the reader: if you have any auto-immune disorders, please consider being tested for Lyme and co-infections of Lyme. Over the years, some of the diagnoses I received included: stomach ulcers, h.phylori, a tooth killed itself, pancreatic tumors, ideopathic hypersomnia, ideopathic intermittent right temporal waves, Lupus, bursitis, positive antinuclear antibody (ANA) test, viral meningitis, gallstones, incontinence, lipoma on spinal cord, Vitamin D deficiency, possible Epstein-Barr (Herpes complex type 4), Blurred Vision, stomach antrum atrophy, sun sensitivity, dry cough, elevated gastrin levels, peripheral neuropathy, hypo-thyroid, recurrent sinus infections, migraines, rashes. Within ten minutes of asking how long it took others to get a Lyme diagnosis in a Facebook group, we received these replies of how long it took between onset of symptoms and the final Lyme diagnosis: 16+ years; 28 years; 25 yrs; 11 years; 25 years; 28; at least since college 10-15 years; extremely ill since 2007; 7 years; I know the exact date I was bitten, so it’s no mystery to me: 19 1/2 years. That being said, it still took 14 years for a doc to actually listen to me and diagnose it; 28+ years undiagnosed; in the process of being tested for Lyme….was diagnosed with ”fibro” around 7 years ago and now am wondering if it was really fibro! had a baby recently and the symptoms came 10fold after! Other conditions that many Lyme patients have been diagnosed (and treated for) before finally finding the real cause of their symptoms: ALS, anxiety,...

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