I've been searching for 7 years to find the correct diagnosis for my painful shoulder/neck and hip. It's a long story, but one that I've heard many Lyme patients echo. Basically, you begin with "something wrong" and then another weird something wrong...and another....with every symptom sending you in a different direction.
Oh and yes, I was tested many many times for Lyme. ELISA test, Western Blot....again and again negative. BUT, those symptoms didn't LIE!
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| oh what a tangled web we weave.... |
The way my Naturopathic Dr (Stephanie Stark ND of Blue Oak Clinic In Tucson AZ) figured out what was going on with me was by doing blood testing which showed that I had high levels of inflammation. I then was tested for HLA results (honestly don't understand what these are yet...so look for a post on HLA testing in the near future)
What I'm starting to understand is that not all inflammation is equal- the remedies used for say a swollen/twisted ankle simply don't work on a swollen/Lyme ankle. (or shoulder, in my case)>
This chronic inflammation causes horrible pain....(you know, the pain that has sent me thru surgery, and 5 MRI's, four acupuncturists, three Physical therapists, two cranial sacralists, and a partridge in a pear tree......
so I'm trying to learn what I can do to make it less intense. (Unfortunately, popping an ibuprofen won't do much other than eventually hurt my kidneys....)
My exhaustion and pain are keeping me from doing much work in my studio (other than filling orders) and I've not been thinking much about my creative process, so the tone of this blog is taking a turn. No longer about creativity and metalsmithing stuff....it's becoming a source point for healthcare information for chronic Lyme, CIRS (chronic Inflammatory response syndrome) and Mold Toxicity.
three things that my Drs are convinced that are the root of my problems.
At this point on I will be using this blog mostly to post links to information I am collecting for my understanding of this confusing and unfairly controversial diagnosis.
this is a link to today's reading... about Lyme and chronic inflammation:
http://www.tiredoflyme.com/inflammation.html
I hope this is helpful! Now I'm off to do more research...Maureen
November 2017:
Update on my shoulder pain!
I found a shoulder specialist who (after many tests and injections) agreed to try a laparoscopic exploratory surgery on my shoulder- just as a definitive diagnosis; to really see exactly what was going on. He was really skeptical that he'd find anything- but he knew I'd been in pain for years so it would at least give me the knowledge of what to expect: a lifetime of continued pain and medication or possible healing.
Well.... I'm thrilled to say that he found that my bicep tendon was severely torn ("to sheds") which he then fixed...so I'm now -FINALLY- on the mend.
YAY!!!!!
How this happened is another big story- stemming from my neck surgery eight years ago. I'm not going into this now for good reasons but it might be the prelude to a legal fight.
Yup.
But today I focus on good news.....the knowledge that my shoulder is FINALLY GOING TO HEAL!
