I have noticed that the line between condition and cause is often overlooked, even by doctors. For example this leads to people thinking Pinkeye/conjunctivitis is highly contagious, when it is still conjunctivitis if it is caused by getting something in your eye. I think that holds for everything that ends in -itis too Sinusitis, Arthritis, Tendonitis, etc.
I know that is a bit of a tangent, but you reminded me of someone who had bell's palsy telling me that it was actually shingles. I explained that just because it was caused by shingles doesn't mean it stops being Bell's Palsy, just like how it is still a cough if it's from the flu or from smoking. They ended up getting really angry at me about it, but I think hn might appreciate the semantics a bit more.
It definitely helps as a patient to advocate, and add anything that a physician like myself maybe wouldn't always ask, like if you've been a tick-infested area and/or discovered a tick attached to yourself recently.
Looks like Labcorp made over 3 billion dollars last year, so I think probably that number would go up instead of collapsing?
It is true - you can’t test every patient for everything. There is an estimated 1B primary care visits in the US each year. Assume every patient get 5 tests at $50 a test and you just spent a quarter of a trillion just on tests.
The frustrating part for me is when people think of the symptom as the cause. Like they understand that multiple things can cause a fever, but they don't understand that multiple things can cause bronchitis.
When I was a kid I had "sinusitis" multiple times a year, but my doctor never explained to me that it could be the same or different causes. When I learned that '-itis' just meant inflammation, it blew my mind. I have done my best to spread that knowledge ever since.
Here’s one paper on the topic I remember reading at the time: https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC8791801/
It also cured my nearly lifelong IBS-D about a decade ago. I had a small re-occurrence of IBS-D last year after so many years without it. I was able to convince the doc that it fixed it for me in the past, so he prescribed me doxycycline again. Boom! All fixed just like before.
I have no idea why that particular antibiotic does the trick, but I've taken so many others from amoxicillin line, bactrim, even cipro, flagyl (gross) etc. and only doxy is the silver bullet for me it seems.
Ouch
Then again if it irritates you, maybe it deserves a little disruption itself.
I think you’re alluding to this in your last statement, but standard treatment for Lyme can absolutely wreck your natural gut microbiome. This could explain some of the lingering chronic effects post-treatment. Did you try supplementing with fermented foods or probiotics after completing dox?
In the end it was four weeks of doxycycline— that was several months ago and it doesn't seem to have recurred, thankfully.
Many people face symptoms months after the bite or they might not remember getting bitten by a tick so it’s common that it is misdiagnosed and they get all kinds of ineffective and / or unnecessary meds, so I added it to my “list of illnesses to check” in case I ever get unexplainable neurological issues, fatigue and joint problems.
Note that the absence of that wouldn't mean you didn't get lyme disease.
Where I live, most of the ticks carry lyme disease, yet not that many people get infected: if you pull it out quickly, you greatly reduce the chance of getting infected. Of the people I know, perhaps 20% had lyme disease (and knew about it, I must add).
Some have no lingering issues, others have lingering issues seemingly for life, and yet others have issues for a couple of years and then they're ok.