I’ve been feeling run down and sickly a lot for the past few years. Yes, years. Nothing super specific. Just… overly tired. My memory is getting worse. When I try to get in shape by running, the next day I feel almost like I have the flu. Granted, I barely sleep, because of 2 li’l kids, and late nights working. And I ain’t getting any younger. But still — something just doesn’t feel quite right with my wavering constitution.
Two years ago, I had some kind of weird mouth plague. My tongue burned horribly for a few months. I lost over 10 pounds because eating was too painful. I saw at least 10 different doctors and specialists, both in the US, and in Denmark. Nobody knew what it was. Then, one day, it went away.
More recently, I had an insane fever, had a horrendous outbreak of seborrhoeic dermatitis, and dozens of veins burst in the palms of my hands and soles of my feet. I looked and felt like an extra from World War Z. It was excruciating. Diagnosis? Some kind of regular ol’ virus. But why was I so slammed by it? What’s next? Spontaneous human combustion?
The dermatologist had me go through an all-encompassing set of tests. Almost everything came back negative. Except one result: Borrelia. Wait, what? I showed positive for both old and new antibodies. (What does that mean, anyway?) And when the heck did I get bitten by a tick, when I never had the obvious skin reaction and “bullseye”?
I took 10 days of strong penicillin. Then I got a cold. Now I don’t have a cold. And do I still have borrelia? I have no idea. I watched a documentary about Lyme Disease, Under Our Skin, and it was freaky, because there is a minority of doctors who think it’s actually really hard to cure, requiring years of antibiotics.
Bottom line? I have no idea.
