Strange Medical Malady! Has This Ever Happened To You?

reply to post by Byrd


Just logged in and was catching up on all the helpful suggestions. The tick bite strikes home, because I am presently being treated for peripheral neuropathy due to Lyme's disease. I didn't want to throw all that out there at once, for risk of sounding like a hypochondriac. But I bear four scars from tick bites I got in 1995.
And to answer the mods question, no, the blood clot question, never came into play. I was able to check into some links left by Badge01 and Defcon, this morning, and the after effects of Lyme's disease could be the bad guy here. Will have to see if I can get my dr to hear me again on this. He's pretty much turned a deaf ear to me.
Since most of you are so knowledgeable, I guess I should lay out the whole picture, and then fair assessments can be made. As smart a group as we have here, I wouldn't doubt that we might have some drs in the bunch. here are present diagnosis's and mind you that I was a healthy individual before tick bites; degenerative disc and bone disease, osteoarthritis, peripheral edema, vertigo, atherosclerotic heart disease, COPD, poly-peripheral neuropathy, and IBS.

[edit on 8/30/2007 by janasstar]

[edit on 8/30/2007 by janasstar]

At the risk of rambling, just wanted to say that you guys have helped to stabilize my mental well-being. When you're in non-stop pain, your mind can play some awful tricks on you.

[edit on 8/30/2007 by janasstar]

Please hang in there and DON'T feel that you can't take medication purely because its addicting - there have been studies that show people who have acute chronic pain actually have a strange symbiotic relationship with painkillers, and in fact its HARDER for them to become addicted than it is for someone without (say someone who's hurt their arm bike-riding and it'll heal in a few weeks). Tramadol is a good substitute for codeine or morphine, has very few side-effects (might make you feel sick, it did for me, so it helps to take some paracetamol with it, also increases its pain relieving properties, not sure why the paracetamol helps tho alas), causes less constipation, etc than any other opiate with about the same clinical effect. Its worth a try.

I suffer from chronic pain syndrom myself and never have a day where I get below a 7, some days my pain is so off the chart I pass out, and no amount of morphine will help. Talk to your doctor about amitryptyline too - its a tricyclic anti-depressant, but it works on neurological pain for some reason (again, doctors don't know why), and it helps me both mentally and physically.

You are certainly not alone in your pain, and I've always said that we either deal with the pain, or it deals with us - I'm glad you're still here and if you ever wish to talk, please just U2U me, though due to my illness, I spend a fair amount of the day in bed, I leave the computer on next to me and can voice-type pretty well.

I can't say anything anyone else has other than definitely try more doctors, several of the very first ones I went to were all "its nothing go away", to eventually finding a doctor (a pain specialist) who gave me some great advice and a good tablet regiment. You could also try muscle relaxants if its a trapped or damaged nerve, the Ami will reduce nerve pain and the relaxant will reduce the muscle tightness - has anyone tried this on you? Neither are addictive (the Ami is an anti-depressant and stopping them suddenly can cause side-effects that people assume are withdrawal symptoms - yes they are, but not from the tablets, your body stops making serotonin when you take external sources, so you stop, you literally have none) and you should definitely give them a try. Both may need a week to get into the system well enough to see improvements however.

Please consider the pain medication, I hate to think of anyone suffering when there IS something they can take. It's your choice, but it does show just how much your doctor can't be assed if he hasn't repeatedly recommened and given you the consideration of painkillers. If it is un undefinable problem you may be on them for life however that does not make it an addiction, nor does it make you weak or less of a person than anyone else. Failing that, I don't know where you are in the world, but they could try local anaesthetic injections, Lidocaine cream, gas-air (home delivery system, like you get at the dentists) and many other things before you should have to sit there without anything.

I'd LOVE to see some of the people who have considered themselves to be tough through life give birth or something that has a 7-10 on the pain scale without meds.

Clot, trapped 'something' or lymphatic issues, possibly relating to the tic bite are also my guesses. Have they drained your lymph node in that arm to check for any nasties or poisons in it that it's 'containing' to that side of your body? Worth a shot to have a doctor run a full profile on your lymph fluid.

PS: I AM a doctor, but of business, not medicine (I trained to be one for a couple of years but my illness made me change professions alas, I was going to be a forensic pathologist)

Jana - so sorry for what you are going through. While I only read the first page of posts I was struck by you mentioning a tick bite. As I went to page 4 of this thread I noticed others picked up on that too.
My first thought was Lyme's or something equivalent to Lymes.

Until you can get a definitve on your symptoms have you considered a holistic approach for your pain? At this point you have nothing to lose and it can't hurt trying. I would start with a lymphatic detox and get that swelling down.

reply to post by ejsaunders


God bless you Elliot, thank you for your compassion and your helpful suggestions. My ex was a Navy doctor, and he also mentioned that I was unlikely to become addicted to painkillers if I was in chronic pain. I guess the reason I am so scared is because alcoholism runs in my family, and I am genetically predisposed to it or anything else addictive.
My dr at present has put me on neurontin, and in the beginning it did seem like it took the edge off. But now it's back up to the same high level intensity.
It seems that my dr is unwilling to look at anything new regarding this. I live in a small town and have run through all of available drs. The one I have is the best available. He has done more than most. When you live on disability income, it's hard to venture out of town, seeking other drs. Especially with the price of gas. Thanks Elliot. I would like to consider you friend.
I would like to add here that this illness robbed me of a 14-year blissfully happy marriage. I don't blame my ex for his inability to tolerate living with it. He should be in here :-) . Without argument, I turned everything over to him, and just took my personal belongings. I think everything works out for the best. I still have faith that there will be an answer to this. The tick bite and Lyme's disease theory does seem to have top billing here, and I'm just about prone to agree. Just don't know what I can do about it.

[edit on 8/31/2007 by janasstar]

[edit on 8/31/2007 by janasstar]

reply to post by DDay


Hello, and thanx for your suggestions. No, I am sorry to say that I am not really up on holistic remedies. Although I do believe that sometimes natural cures, such as herbal and the like, are best. Unfortunately, my budget won't hold up to anything like this. Being on disability, my medical insurance and prescriptions are paid for, but they don't give you much of a livable income aside from that. So, I am mostly dependent on what the dr dispenses. It will be paid for. But, thanx

Jana - I'm not necessarily talking about herbs. You have access to the internet and this could be life saving for you. Teach yourself meditation of the healing kind. Work from within and heal yourself.
I'm not a nut randoming throwing these things out there. Sometimes conventional methods as I am sure you understand sometimes don't work and synthetic medications can actually do more harm than good to our bodies and further break down the communication internally. So help yourself, teach yourself to being well. I am providing a few links below for your consideration.

www.modavox.com...

Branden Cohen is the host. Give a listen it has some really good information.

Also

www.crystalinks.com...

Go to the meditation section. She also has youtube videos that you can go along with her on.

I won't inundate you now but if you are interested in more please let me know. God Bless!

reply to post by DDay


Thank you for clarifying that for me. Sounds like it's definitely worth a try.Especially if it's free! :-)

I have to ask Jana, is the avatar you?

reply to post by DDay

Yes it is, and when you have the time, I would like to hear more on holistic healing. I am ready to get well. I have no quality of life as it stands. jana

Just for FYI, I don't look quite like that at the moment, had a professional makeover done to lift my spirits. My sister is a Roffler-trained stylist and makeup artist. So, family is free :-)



[edit on 9/1/2007 by janasstar]

I have the time you just tell me what you need from me. I don't want to bombard you with info and leave it at that. You are going to need to invest time into this and from the sound of it, you are ready to do just that.
Sometimes modern medicine while has it's place can only assist so much and temporarily. The body isn't made to handle synthetic drugs for an unspecified period of time. When God made us he made our bodies capable of healing ourselves but we have been led away from our internal knowing and have put our faith into other people opinions. Again it has it's place but when all else fails it does not mean we are failed or our bodies are defunct it means we need to look in another place and take charge of ourselves.

I mention your avatar because from the first look at it, I thought it was beautiful and not in a weird way. I'm female and married 12 yrs. But the picture is almost haunting in a way.

reply to post by DDay


Thank you for the compliment, and I know what you're saying. I'm hetero, and I've found certain women to be beautiful or captivating in some way. And yes, it is part of my spirituality to believe that the body can heal it's self. But I seem to have forgotten that somewhere along the way. I guess I have let pain override a lot of my faculties. So, I realize that I need some training in this area. I realize that we cannot do it back and forth in this thread, so I guess we should u2u, and swap e-mails, if that's ok?

That would be fine. I am sending you a U2U now.

reply to post by DDay


As per your suggestion, I tried the breathing and meditating exercises you suggested. I had several astonishing results and will outline them briefly. The first being: I am not entirely sure if this one was while I was in meditation or had fallen asleep and was perhaps dreaming; but I had a profile image of you encouraging me to breathe and concentrate. When I signed on just now, I found a u2u from you saying you sent energy to me last night. I wanted to post this, in the event it may be of some help to others. I hope it's okay with the mods.
Also, when I awoke, my pain scale was in 6-7 range vs. 8-10 range. I cut back on my neurontin intake today to see what overall results will be. Can always take later if necessary. I have never had much results with meditation b4, so i just gave up on it as an answer. But last night, I just imagined myself in the Lord's arms and that He was healing me from the inside out. I know this isn't everyone's 'cup of tea,' but is a source of comfort to me. I am ready to move forward, as it seems that something here is beneficial.

I'm here Jana, got your U2U and email.
I think too that this should continue on in the thread as many people here gave good suggestions and possible causes for your condition. I do believe there was one or two on here that also suffer from constant pain.

Posting any results you do get will only benefit others. While I do not expect this to be instanteous you will begin to feel a change in your body and hopefully we will be able to reverse the effects of 4 long years for you.

reply to post by DDay


I see you have signed off, but when you sign back in; I'd be interested to know if you think, the instance I spoke of was meditative or dreaming. I'm new to this experience and full of questions. Like I say, I never got anywhere with meditation before, and frankly, I was a lil leery of it unless it lead to meditation upon the Lord. But I think if I do it the proper way, I should be okay.

I don't know how long the mods will keep this thread going with just the two of us as it's kind of moving away from the original thread. But to answer your question, I think it was more on the meditative process than it was dreaming. It's a very fine line when you are meditating before going to sleep as you are giving your mind suggestions that you take with you during sleep.

Ask away...

reply to post by DDay


yes, I was thinking the same thing about the thread becoming stagnant. Seems with the help of most of the post-ers, I'm satisfied that it has something to do with the tick bites. Maybe after we get a little more of this under way with some forseeable results, we could open a thread on this subject, to help others. OKay?

I'm going to take the opportunity of this post to thank all of those who have contributed. You've all been beneficial in helping me find my answers. For those that couldn't see the u2u's I communicated, I was diagnosed and treated for Lyme's disease in 1995. But from what I have read since, the treatment I received, wasn't nearly enough. And my present condition , as well as some of my other maladies, have never been linked with Lyme's disease. One dr thought about it, but ran test, and said I didn't have Lyme's. But since you folks had me do some homework, I see that most test results do come back false. Hopefully I can go back to my doc, armed with new insight, and get him to look at things with fresh perspective.
At this point, it's okay with me if mods want to close this thread and preserve space for more important things. I've beat this dead horse enough.

[edit on 9/2/2007 by janasstar]

Hey Jana,sorry to hit the close of another thread.To answer your question
yes it does sound like something that happened to me 4 years ago!
Long story short,while working as an industrial painter I awoke one
morning to pain without explaination,blew it off for awhile until it was
to a point I just wasn't able to take it any more!Having a high threshold
for pain it was hard to take,yes it was fall to your knee's crying out loud
pain,having been a burn survivor,and near amputation of my left arm
I got use to pain not this though,anyway went to see a sports doctor
for it(it was my left shoulder)had x-rays,MRI,a battery of tests and
nothing,next he suggested sugery,by the way this was workman's comp
I said no he gave a shot of cortisone and sent me home,a wek later as
I was tying my boots my shoulder snapped like a piece of wood,and has
been great ever since,I'm not sure what it was a holistic practitioner said
it sounded like frozen shoulder to him,by the were you sleeping with your
arm over your head?I hope this helps,keep up the good fight!

www.medicinenet.com...

Originally posted by firstamerican
Hey Jana,sorry to hit the close of another thread.To answer your question
yes it does sound like something that happened to me 4 years ago!
Long story short,while working as an industrial painter I awoke one
morning to pain without explaination,blew it off for awhile until it was
to a point I just wasn't able to take it any more!Having a high threshold
for pain it was hard to take,yes it was fall to your knee's crying out loud
pain,having been a burn survivor,and near amputation of my left arm
I got use to pain not this though,anyway went to see a sports doctor
for it(it was my left shoulder)had x-rays,MRI,a battery of tests and
nothing,next he suggested sugery,by the way this was workman's comp
I said no he gave a shot of cortisone and sent me home,a wek later as
I was tying my boots my shoulder snapped like a piece of wood,and has
been great ever since,I'm not sure what it was a holistic practitioner said
it sounded like frozen shoulder to him,by the were you sleeping with your
arm over your head?I hope this helps,keep up the good fight!

www.medicinenet.com...

I know this will be a long quote in the eyes of the mods, but you said so many things here, that sound synonymous to my story. In answer to your direct question; I can't recall if I had my arm over my head at anytime during the nap.
Like you, I was a born survivor, ninth child out of ten. Both parents deserted home for long periods of time and left us to our own resources. So, you grow up fast. I too have a high tolerance for pain.
I have become quite adjusted to the neuropathy pain, the degenerative bone disease pain, and the disc disease pain. I can live with those. But this other has me envisioning getting a chain-saw and cutting my arm off or buying a gun and ending it all. I even begged one of my drs to amputate it. He said it probably wouldn't do any good, because my nerves would still feel it.
You mentioned frozen shoulder impingement. I did experience that for a time, but that was brought on after the fact. Mainly because I was reluctant to move my arm because of pain. Now I have to do rotating exercises daily, to keep it from happening again.
Most of the viewers here, seem to think it was related to tick bites, ie, lymes disease that I acquired in 1995. Someone suggested maybe blood clots. These are distinct possibilities that I will bring to dr's attention, next visit.
Thank you for your time in contributing. I'm still open to anything anyone can submit.
[When I was a child of age five, I was already disillusioned with life, so I walked over to my grandpa's house and asked him to take me to church. He wasn't a church-goer, but he reluctantly agreed to take me. It was nearly a 2- mile walk from his home.
Once there, the pastor told the story of a man named Elijah, who wanted to leave this earth, but didn't want to die to do it. So, God sent a chariot of fire for him. This really got my attention! After I got home, I rushed down into the woods across from our home, lay down on my back and looked up into the heavens and said, "God, I'm like Elijah, I don't like it here, but I'm scared to die. Would you send that chariot of fire for me?" Well, the chariot never came, but I no longer fear death, either. I don't think I'll do anything else to try to bring it on myself. But at this point, I would welcome it as a means to an end.]

[edit on 9/4/2007 by janasstar]