There are three stages of Lyme disease. If you are experiencing the symptoms in the late stage, that means you have already passed through the first two stages of early localized and early disseminated Lyme disease.
During the early localized phase, you may have had a rash associated with the bite given by the infected tick. Symptoms following the bite may have included chills, fever, headaches, fatigue, stiff neck, muscle soreness, and possibly swollen lymph nodes.
If you did not receive the right treatment at the onset, you quickly moved into the next stage. During the early disseminated phase, the Lyme infection started spreading through your body.
Symptoms in the second stage include all of the signs from the early localized stage, only worse. You may also experience vision problems, pain or weakness in your limbs, heart palpitations, and facial paralysis such as bells palsy.
If left untreated, stage two will turn into late stage Lyme disease.
If you are in stage three, or the late disseminated stage, you have been struggling with symptoms for a long while and without treatment specific to Lyme disease.
The symptoms of late stage Lyme disease are genuine and can interfere with daily functioning.
Symptoms of Late Stage Lyme Disease
Your suffering has moved from an occasional inflammation flare-up to chronic pain in your muscles, tendons, and joints. You may have been diagnosed with some form of arthritis. Your headaches have become severe. You may even experience dizziness or vertigo.
Additional symptoms include a stiff neck, sleep disorders like insomnia, and numbness in your outer extremities. You may also lack the ability to focus, and paying attention when having conversations has become difficult. Your fatigue is so bad you sometimes do not want to attempt getting out of bed.
The worse symptom may be that you have tried to get the right help, but doctors have failed to give you an accurate diagnosis. Because of this, you may feel like you are “crazy,” or your friends and family may not believe you are in pain.
You may be wondering how you were able to reach late stage Lyme disease without proper treatment.
The Non-Treatment of Lyme Disease
No doctor wants a patient to suffer. But doctors can only make a diagnosis for Lyme disease using a few nondefinitive methods. The first tool a primary doctor will use to test for Lyme is called the ELISA or the Western Blot blood test. Some doctors may use both, which is highly suggested.
Unfortunately, these test results produce false negatives much of the time. If the Lyme antibodies are not active when you get tested, your results can be negative for Lyme disease.
Your doctor may still choose to treat you for Lyme disease. Treatment will include a round of antibiotics for a week or two. Antibiotics work for many people who are treated soon after they have been infected. It is not a guarantee, however.
Finally, you may have reached late stage Lyme disease because your symptoms were misdiagnosed as another disorder. All three Lyme disease stages present common symptoms for other conditions, from mental health disorders to muscular sclerosis to fibromyalgia.
No matter how you got to late stage Lyme disease, it’s essential you know you are not crazy, your pain is real, and it is not too late to treat your symptoms and give you back an active lifestyle.
Below are tips for getting the right treatment.
Get An Accurate Diagnosis
To get an accurate diagnosis, you must first find the right doctor specializing in Lyme disease. Do the research and look for a doctor who has extensive knowledge, licensure and certification, and a high success rate working with patients.
This doctor may not be in the United States. One of the most well-renowned infectious diseases clinics is Lyme Mexico.
You may be thinking you can’t travel to Mexico for help, but you can. You can spend the same amount of time and money visiting multiple doctors near your home without results. Or, you can meet with a top expert in Lyme disease and receive the treatment that gives you back the life you deserve.
Lyme literate doctors have modern and more aggressive treatments to help heal your Lyme disease. Lyme specialists not only know about more aggressive treatments, but they also provide them in their clinics on an outpatient basis.
Therapeutic Apheresis
Treating your blood is key to eliminating Lyme disease. Lyme specialists can do this with therapeutic apheresis.
Therapeutic apheresis is a process in which your infected blood and plasma are removed from your system and replaced with healthy non-infected blood, usually from a donor.
Anti-Viral and Anti-Parasitic Protocols
Anti-viral protocols attack the viral infection within your body caused by Lyme disease or other infections making it hard to treat Lyme. The anti-viral agents attack the virus and prevent it from multiplying, allowing other treatments to be more effective.
Anti-parasitic protocols eliminate the parasites associated with Lyme disease. Depending on your needs, doctors may include intravenous cocktails and detoxification and cleansing treatments to flush parasites from your system.
Biofilm Eradication
Biofilms protect Lyme germs, allowing them to hide from antibiotics and other treatments. When they can hide and survive, they can multiply. Biofilm eradication prevents this from happening.
This modern treatment has shown success in as few as 14 days.
Hyperthermia
Your body has a natural way to fight infections, using fever. In late stage Lyme disease, your body cannot fight the disease by itself. However, a Lyme-literate doctor can medically supervise a procedure called Hyperthermia that helps your body do its job.
Hyperthermia involves raising your body’s temperature to the degree that it kills the Lyme bacteria. This artificial fever can be created using several different techniques. All are very safe, quick, and effective.
Final Thought
To start your journey of healing from Lyme disease, contact a Lyme specialist today. Call the best, even if they are not the closest. You deserve treatments that will help you get back to a pain-free, active life.