Night-before-last I took the 28th and final dose of Doxycycline to kill the Lyme Disease. It was a relief to be rid of the fever, headaches, sore muscles, and feeling of continual fatigue that had characterized the last three weeks. I couldn’t even read without falling asleep after six or eight pages. I was bored and anxious to get out of the house. Yesterday morning I decided it was time to rejoin the living and start moving around. I also wanted to work on losing those few pounds I’d accumulated mostly sitting in the house for three weeks.
I hopped on the bike, and after a couple short legs to the library and post office, took off on a ride. I immediately knew I was running on half my cylinders. By the time I got half-way around my usual track, I felt like I had to puke, but pressed on, even if at a slower pace and lower gear. I finally had to admit I couldn’t go further, and took a short-cut back home finishing only 6.6 miles. Jean said I was white, and I knew I had crashed. After a couple glasses of water, I laid down and slept for an hour and a half. After a bite of lunch, I felt I needed to lay down again, and slept for another hour and a half. It is hard to imagine that tick could have taken so much out of me.
My hat is off to Doctor Klinger, who diagnosed the problem and immediately prescribed a treatment. If it had gone further, the damage would have only been worse. I’ve read of many cases where Lyme goes undiagnosed, even when a physician is asked to check for it. One girl I read about went ten years without a diagnosis while being mistakenly treated for almost every other disease. With the CDC now admitting that Lyme and similar ailments probably occur more frequently than reported by a factor of ten, 300,000 cases a year rather than 30,000, perhaps diagnosis and research will be more aggressive.
I guess I just need to be more patient with the pace of my comeback. At my age, nothing occurs as fast as it used to.
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