Saturday, April 18, 2009

Ups & Downs of Lyme

I wish I had something eloquent to say to describe the cyclical nature of Borrelia. Amazing how one tiny bacteria can affect your body in so many different ways. This past month I have found myself documenting any symptoms that have arisen with great intensity. The variety of symptoms I have discovered are amazing. I have a word document with list of symptoms. If I had a symptom in the day, I would simply put a Y (as in Yes). If I didn't have it, I wouldn't put anything at all. Occasionally, I put R for Reason. IE: If I didn't get into bed until 1am and got up the next day at 5am, there would be a REASON for fatigue & exhaustion.

So here we go: April 1st to 18th:

I have had FOUR days of itching (probably all Candida related)
I have had TWO days of confusion and difficulty thinking*
I have had ONE day of difficulty reading
I have had FOUR days of eye difficulty (floaters, blurry vision, double vision)
I have had SIX days of fatigue and stamina difficulty **
I have had THREE days of forgetfulness and uh .. what was I saying? (snort)
I have had THREE full days of headache pains.
I have had THREE days of joint pain or swelling
I have had ONE day of lightheadedness
I have had TWO days of moodiness/depression
I have had THREE days of bumps on my PICC line area (total of 5 bumps)
I have had THREE days of sleep disorder (too little or too much)
I have had TWO days of sore throat
I have had ONE day of Stiff Neck, Joint
I have had ONE day of Swollen Glands (Neck specifically)
I have had FOUR days of tingling, numbness, burning sensations
I have had TWO days of twitching.

While those look daunting and scary ... look at these:

I have had FOUR WHOLE DAYS of No symptoms at all.
I have had THREE WHOLE DAYS of only ONE symptom.
I have had FOUR WHOLE DAYS of only TWO symptoms.

That is a total of ELEVEN out of EIGHTEEN days where there were two or fewer symptoms.

That means only SEVEN of EIGHTEEN days had 3 or more symptoms.
Today I have 9 symptoms. This is disheartening.

Itching, Sore Throat, Joint Pain & Swelling, Fatigue, Headache, Depression (who wouldn't be depressed after realizing there are all thse things going on in one day?), swollen glands, tingling body and I slept too much. There are things that are going on that I didn't even document. This stinks. I will survive though. Always do. Just a little depressing today.


*(and those were really bad days .. I didn't count small events of confusion)
** two of those days had reasons

1 comment:

monkey girl said...

Oh, I can relate. My lyme symptoms seem to run my life, never know what kind of day it's going to be, till I wake up.

So much for planning a life.