Saw a friend at church yesterday who has Rheumatoid Arthritis and is on methotrexate. She changed doctors because she up to 8 pills and naproxen with no relief. She has now been told she has Lyme Disease which causes Rheumatoid arthritis as well as MS & other diseases. That you must first treat the Lyme disease or the arthritis will never get better. Anyone ever hear of this??
Hi Liz,
Not very knowledgable because Lyme doesn’t happen here in Aus, but as its tick-borne, I imagine you would notice, and hopefully the doc would consider it if you’d had a tick in the preceding months / weeks?
Usually you don't even remember being bitten. The ticks that carry lyme disease are super small, and very easy to miss. If you're lucky, you get the characteristic bulls-eye rash, and don't even need to do testing. It's pretty common for people to not be diagnosed with Lyme disease until later on in the course of the disease.
In my home town paper, The Commercial Appeal, there is an article about how some infections cause arthritist and Lyme Disease is one of them. My parents neighbor's sone has it and it is something not to fool around with. They had to go to some place in Nevada to get proper treatment.
We have ticks and Lyme's here n Vermont. It is one of the things the Rheumy's test for in the first blood work they order here when seeing a new patient for arthritis type symptoms. It appears as an arthritis like disease in the later stages and is treated with antibiotics. PsA tends to be a disease of ruling everything else out or exclusion. When you have ruled all the other one;s out it must be PsA! Although pits in the nails tends to point straight to PsA.........
Michel is right in that there is a test for most forms of reactive arthritis (Lymes being one of them) HOWEVER (bet no one knew I would say that) there is a bunch of hooey (similar to bull puckey) going through the net using undetected lymes disease as the cause of most everything wrong with the world today (including illness)
Tntlamb, what ISN'T a cause of psoriasis (and everything else bad) according to someone on the internet? It seems to originate with someone trying to sell a book or something.
tntlamb said:
Michael is right in that there is a test for most forms of reactive arthritis (Lymes being one of them) HOWEVER (bet no one knew I would say that) there is a bunch of hooey (similar to bull puckey) going through the net using undetected lymes disease as the cause of most everything wrong with the world today (including illness)
My brother in law is currently on IV abx for advanced lyme. His symptoms were swollen joints, nervous system issues causing his hand to shake, fatigue, and heart issues. Lyme is often overlooked as a diagnosis because it's symptoms mimic many other things. Bil's took 2 yrs to daignosis.
I'd say that your friend from church may have lyme disease which needs to be treated and may be adding to her discomfort however if she truly has rheumatoid arthritis then it's not going to be cured once the lyme has been treated.
Hey Stoney,
Thanks very much for the info - I’d always wondered how people got misdiagnosed and they missed Lymes.
The ticks here are of the incredibly irritating (roo ticks) or possibly fatal (paralysis ticks) kind - I’ve never heard of the situation here where they drop off before you even notice them (though I suppose they might exist - if we don’t notice them and they don’t make us sick)
Still they are not documented here by the tick dudes, are they just really small and only stay on for a few hours?
Even the roo ticks which are the most innocuous bury in deep and stay until you dig them out!);
Check out this site re. size http://www.uri.edu/ce/factsheets/sheets/deerticks.html. The deer ticks get up to 1/4 inch when fully engorged, then just drop off.
It sounds as though the roo ticks are closer in size to the dog ticks here, which you can't miss due to their size. Tough to find on a dog, but really easy to find on bare skin.
I know that when I was first diagnosed, I showed positive for Lyme Disease. However, after followup bloodwork, it was shown to be a false positive. Apparently, because my immune system was going so crazy, I showed positive for Lyme and Mono. Your friend should ask her doctor to repeat the tests and/or consult with another doctor.
Hi Liz
It is true Lyme disease mimics other auto immune disease. I have been diagnosed with 5 auto immune diseases including PsA and I have chronic lyme disease. Lyme is a silent killer because the medical community does not accept that it is a true condition. Your friend needs a Lyme literate doctor and it most likely will not be in her community. The Jemsek Clinic is one of the best in DC, I travel there with my 26 year old son for treatment, we both have chronic lyme disease. I recommend everyone watch under our skin the hidden fact of lyme disease. Lyme leads to the misdiagnosis of ALS, MS, all forms of arthritis, Hoshimotos, lupus, conductivity issues of the heart, mental illness, just to name a few. I personally know several people with each of these diseases including myself that have been treated for Lyme and there symptoms go away if caught in time. You are right that these conditions if caused by lyme will continue until the Lyme bacteria and co infections are treated. Lyme disease will always be a factor in your life, once properly diagnosed in can be treated and put in remission, it will be a life long battle to keep it controlled. Your job as a friend is to support her because she will have a lot of people in the community and medical community doubt her diagnosis which is heart breaking! I wish your friend my best, Also, important to note ticks are not the only insect carrying lyme. Mosquitos are also carriers, you may never know how you acquired the disease most people do not have the tell tale rash the medical community describes as a symptom nor do they remember ever getting a tick bite! Also, you must be tested by a doctor that uses the proper lab and results must be read by a LLD(lyme literate doctor) The longer you have Lyme disease the more symptoms you will have, your body stops making antibodies against the infection because it begins to be the n"new normal: in your body. A doc not trained properly will miss this when reading results. Also a cd 57 is a pretty good indication of lyme disease since it is usually only significantly decreased in HIV and Lyme. It is a misconception that Lyme disease is only in certain areas of the country, it is pretty much everywhere in the U.S. at this point.
We have a Lyme Support Group as well :)