About 10 days ago I was taking a shower after working in the yard all day and I noticed a hard lump on my leg. It was at an old angle, but as best as I could tell it was a purplish color and it felt a bit like marbles underneath. I checked it out on the Internet and by my awesome self-diagnosis skills determined it to be a spider bite. If I felt bad the next day, I was definitely going to the doctor. My wife drew a black circle around the bite with a Sharpie to ensure that we knew if it got bigger.
It never got bigger. I never felt worse. The area softened to its normal state. It was never hot. It never itched. It never hurt. However, the odd coloring never went away.
On Monday, a full 9 days later, I started feeling like I was in a funk. I attributed it to being in the sun all day while we were at the Dover 400. I was basically in a stupor and was useless. I think I even left work later.
That night I suddenly, and I'm not exaggerating, felt weird. My body was getting achy and I wasn't able to sleep. It felt like the onset of the flu. I ended up watching 3 episodes of Fast & Loud between midnight and 3am, which is a really cool show. Check it out.
The next day I called out from work and basically slept all day. Achy body and everything. I called out again the next day, but felt a little better - 42.6% better to be exact. However, I now had a low-grade fever.
This morning I woke up and my chest was really tight and it hurt. I have a chronic cough. And asthma. And reflux. What a wonderful combination! The discharge is lovely. Anyway, today's discharge was slightly bloody. Doctor time.
I rattled off my symptoms to the doctor and she said it looks and sounds like Lyme's disease. They're doing blood-work to confirm. The chest sounded terrible, so they did an X-Ray to confirm pneumonia. That came back negative, so I'm being treated for bronchitis. Ever been on Prednisone? That's like getting a blank check to act bat-shit crazy. Side effects include irritability, nervousness, hyperactivity, dimmed cognitive abilities, frequent urination, and a strong desire to raise taxes and ignore the Constitution. Hey, wait a minute......I might be on to something here.
So - in conclusion, self-diagnosis on the Internet is not always a good thing, if you get anything that looks like this on your leg, then go to the doctor RIGHT AWAY!!!! It's a lot less colorful than it was, but still colorful enough. Hopefully my Obamacare will pay for this.
3 comments:
Oh man, I'm really sorry to hear you've probably got Lyme. That DEFINITELY sounds like what it is based on the symptoms. I've been through that crap TWICE! The 2nd time landed me in the hospital twice in 4 days. Keep on your Dr. about it. A lot of Dr's take the CDC/insurance company stance that once they give you the treatment of antibiotics its wiped out for good which is total BS. There can be, for some people, long lasting symptoms, co-infections, and just plain feeling weird for a long while afterwards. It really screwed my quality of life up for about 3 years. I made it a point to everything I could about it. I also have several coworkers who've had it as well, so very familiar with it. If you need any other info or just want to commiserate I'll give you my direct email. Take care of yourself.
If you actually get a positive Lyme test, you are very lucky. Most sufferers don't get that luxury.
And if they give you antibiotics, make sure it's for at least 12 weeks.
Lyme disease will stay with you forever if you don't get ALL of the buggers in the beginning. They will reproduce and settle in comfortably...and CHRONIC Lyme is no picnic either.
Good luck!
You're very correct Denise. I didn't get a positive on my first Lyme test, they said the results were in the "gray area". They gave me 2 weeks of antibiotics "just in case" and told me I was clear after that. Two years later I had symptoms again, and ended up in the hospital with symptoms that mimicked both heart attack and stroke.
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