Lyme Disease & Asthma | The Boneyard

Lyme Disease & Asthma

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Has anyone here been diagnosed and treated with Lyme Disease and then developed asthma after?

I'm just asking because I have had two family members develop asthma after they were an adult. Both of them had Lyme Disease and were treated just a few months before developing asthma.
 
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Interesting thing to keep an eye on. I've got several family members that have had Lyme. One had asthma long before hand but I will definitely be interested to see what happens with the others. One was recently diagnosed with chronic lyme and the other was treated long after he began showing symptoms because of misdiagnosis.
 
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Lyme could manifest in really strange ways. My mom had it undiagnosed for a few years it resulted into heart issues that required open-heart surgery. Hope you're family stays healthy and have their side effects be rather mild.
 

dennismenace

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I got asthma in my 50's. I first developed seasonal allergies in my forties, then in my 50's I got bronchitis a few times and once it went past that to asthma. I have to stay on top of allergies and make sure that if it reaches a cough to stay on top of it. Otherwise it progresses. Never had Lyme disease. Best wishes to your family and their health.
 
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My older brother had Lyme and he has mild asthma, occasional bouts of pleurisy and lots of foot pain. He’s in good shape and although he’s 50, he looks 40 tops. Still, Lyme has given him some real problems.
 
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My cousin and I both got ticks on us the same day. My cousin got the big circle and got tested. He had lyme. I felt okay and never had the circle. About seven or eight years later. My feet would swell up and hurt like heck. I could barely use the gas pedal while driving. I would have really bad pain in my wrists and fingers as well. I went to the doctor and they ran several blood tests. They saw pain indicators in my joints but all of the arthritis tests came back negative. Lyme came back negative as well. The doctor gave me the lyme antibiotic anyway. I took that for three weeks and most of the pain went away. Just my wrists still bother me once in awhile. I’m assuming it was Lyme. No asthma though.
 
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My older brother had Lyme and he has mild asthma, occasional bouts of pleurisy and lots of foot pain. He’s in good shape and although he’s 50, he looks 40 tops. Still, Lyme has given him some real problems.

He may already know this if he has been thru the Lyme disease ringer but if he is having foot issues post Lyme treartment have him look into a Lyme co-infection called bartonella.
A common symptom of bartonella is foot issues.
 
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I had Lyme about 10 years ago and it was by far the sickest I have ever been. Think flu and multiply it by 100. No asthma and no after effects however so I consider myself pretty fortunate.
 
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Lyme is a bitch of a disease. It can manifest itself in so many different ways and symptoms come and go. If you've gone years without being diagnosed it can get ugly. Doctors still understand very little about the disease. The good news is that if you eventually get proper treatment most people recover.

If you have it but aren't diagnosed in the acute/early phase then good luck. Testing sucks; it's not reliable. Doctor after doctor will tell you that you don't have the disease. Maybe a "regular" doctor will prescribe you the standard three weeks of antibiotics but that doesn't work long-term for many folks. There is evidence that antibiotics simply cause the bacteria to move from your blood into your tissues and tendons, then it returns to your bloodstream once the antibiotics are out of your system. You'll have to go to Lyme specialists who are not covered by insurance and spend thousands out of pocket. I have a few friends who have wild stories about the disease. One's case is/was so bad she's reasonably famous in the Lyme community. The hell she had to go through for years, my lord. I don't know how she's still sane.

It's a shame that it's become a controversial topic, even in Connecticut. There around thousands and thousands of people suffering and half of the medical community call Lyme-literate doctors frauds and charlatans while providing no help or answers of their own. I get it, doctors can only diagnose what they find. One friend spent two years giving specialists and regular doctors opportunities to find out what was wrong with him (all of the standard Lyme symptoms). He had every test under the sun, plenty of them twice. No one found answers and he eventually had such a poor quality of life that he saw a Lyme-literate doctor because he was out of options. In six months he was nearly back to normal. He still tears up when talking about his experience. The disease can rob you of any semblance of a normal life.
 

MTHusky

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When I lived in CT we used to rent a cottage in Old Lyme for a few weeks each summer, this was 30-40 years ago. Five years after moving to California, all of a sudden I couldn't do the simplest tasks, such a balancing a checkbook, a real problem since the majority of my work entailed analysis of financial statements. In addition, I could no longer handle stress. Went from Dr to Dr b4 I found the only one in SoCa knowledgeable in Lyme, he actually had it. Went out on disability and the company doctor told me that I couldn't have Lyme since it was pretty much non diagnosed in CA at the time. Asked the if he read my chart, said he didn't have to. I lost it, almost coming to blows. Once calmed told him my history re Old Lyme and he actually went pale. No asthma but still can't deal with stress. Lyme sucks!
 
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I had Lyme disease.

I had just finished my chemo and directly after that got radiation therapy. Towards the end of radiation, I noticed a rash. At first, I figured it was just a side effect of the ABVD or radiation.

All of the symptoms I had were side effects you can have from chemo or radiation. Thankfully my oncologist was very good and careful and realized I also had Lyme disease and did not just chalk it up to the cancer treatment. I took some stuff for that for about two weeks.

I remember in the midst of the chemo treatments I would go on walks either on the beach, or in the woods to unwind, so I likely picked up the tick on one of those walks. I lived in Old Lyme at the time.

But man, 2011, health-wise, was quite the gauntlet.

Any long-term side effects I have now, not sure if it is from chemo, cancer, or Lyme, or something else.
 
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Asthma usually results in response to a trigger like cold air, a pet allergy (cats), mildew or mold spores in the air, sometimes heavy exertion, pollen etc. So if it was related to lyme it must be the body now overreacting to a trigger as the lyme altered your immune system. I know that using a powder inhaler twice a day like Advair has almost completely eliminated my need for a rescue inhaler. Had asthma since I was young not related to lyme.
 
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Lyme is a bitch of a disease. It can manifest itself in so many different ways and symptoms come and go. If you've gone years without being diagnosed it can get ugly. Doctors still understand very little about the disease. The good news is that if you eventually get proper treatment most people recover.

If you have it but aren't diagnosed in the acute/early phase then good luck. Testing sucks; it's not reliable. Doctor after doctor will tell you that you don't have the disease. Maybe a "regular" doctor will prescribe you the standard three weeks of antibiotics but that doesn't work long-term for many folks. There is evidence that antibiotics simply cause the bacteria to move from your blood into your tissues and tendons, then it returns to your bloodstream once the antibiotics are out of your system. You'll have to go to Lyme specialists who are not covered by insurance and spend thousands out of pocket. I have a few friends who have wild stories about the disease. One's case is/was so bad she's reasonably famous in the Lyme community. The hell she had to go through for years, my lord. I don't know how she's still sane.

It's a shame that it's become a controversial topic, even in Connecticut. There around thousands and thousands of people suffering and half of the medical community call Lyme-literate doctors frauds and charlatans while providing no help or answers of their own. I get it, doctors can only diagnose what they find. One friend spent two years giving specialists and regular doctors opportunities to find out what was wrong with him (all of the standard Lyme symptoms). He had every test under the sun, plenty of them twice. No one found answers and he eventually had such a poor quality of life that he saw a Lyme-literate doctor because he was out of options. In six months he was nearly back to normal. He still tears up when talking about his experience. The disease can rob you of any semblance of a normal life.
How does one find a Lyme-Literate doctor? Do they advertise or are they found on an online community of sufferers of the disease who recommend the doctor? Like a Boneyard for those who had or have, Lyme Disease?

Terrible that a person would have to suffer for years and not find the correct treatment initially when the symptoms first manifested themselves.
 
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How does one find a Lyme-Literate doctor? Do they advertise or are they found on an online community of sufferers of the disease who recommend the doctor? Like a Boneyard for those who had or have, Lyme Disease?

Terrible that a person would have to suffer for years and not find the correct treatment initially when the symptoms first manifested themselves.

I believe you just Google it but there is probably an official title for such doctors. Try www.lymeconnection.org. Because CT is the origin of Lyme Disease there are far more doctors in this area than in other parts of the country, which makes sense as there are far more cases of the disease around here.

I know Dr. Steven Philips of Wilton is one of the top guys out there. Yale-trained, apparently an absurdly intelligent man. A friend told me the waitlist for an introductory appointment is usually six months. If you look him up online you'll see countless rave reviews, patients stated he saved their life or gave them their old life back.



A key thing with these doctors, and even the CDC describes Lyme Disease this way, is that they make clinical diagnoses because it's so difficult to get a positive blood test in long-suffering patients. Of course, the downside of not having a positive test is that you're spending thousands of dollars out of pocket and taking antibiotics for a long time and wreaking havoc on your insides when it's possible you don't have the disease. These doctors are for people who've come to that point and believe it's worth it to take the risk. Their quality of life is that poor.

This is why Lyme Disease is so controversial. Normal doctors say "I can't treat you for something I can't prove you have," while only relying on blood tests (which only test for antibodies, not for the bacteria). Lyme-literate doctors say "we stand by what the CDC says regarding a clinical diagnosis, plus there are thousands upon thousands of people suffering who can't find any answers. We're going to treat them for Lyme Disease since their symptoms align with those of the disease once we've ruled out other potential causes." Normal doctors think Lyme-literate doctors are irresponsible for prescribing antibiotics haphazardly and that some are frauds taking advantage of suffering people. The big problem is that the core symptoms of Lyme--outside of the rash (which most people don't get) and Bell's Palsy--are similar to a dozen other diseases and ailments which manifest themselves similarly: brain fog, fatigue, poor memory, aches and pains all over, etc.

There are some interesting stories about doctors dealing with crazy patients who yelled and demanded to be treated for Lyme Disease when the tests repeatedly came back negative. I guess some celebrities have talked up Lyme Disease in the last decade and now a ton of people who aren't bursting with energy every single day believe they have Lyme, which of course makes things more challenging for those who are indeed suffering from the disease.
 

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