Dear DocSarah,
My best friend and her two teenage children have been fighting Chronic Lyme Disease. Just as we try to understand about AA as much as we can, she has been doing her own research. As I mentioned to you before, I DO have so many of the Lyme symptoms, particularly neurological ones, and did see a specialist about two weeks ago. My friend and her family moved to NC from here last year and are viting this area this week for their daugher's treatment for Lyme (pic-line insetion), and I had a chance to visit with my friend for a few hours today.
The more I shared my symptoms, the more similarities we found between us. Even the doctor I saw suspects Lyme for me. I did look through a list of the characteristics of Chronic Lyme Disease before, and many of them match those of AA. And I do have many of these \"Lyme\" symptoms. However, I just don't think I have Lyme, and my doctor's office hasn't called me with any abnormal lab work results from about two weeks ago. I know you have mentioned before the Autoimmune aspects of AA but not the similarities between AA and Lyme. Lyme could be, I heard, hard to diagnose because it mimics so many diseases and conditions. Blood tests are not always accurate, so it is usually diagnosed based on medical history and clinical signs and symptoms, my friend says. A doctor must be very famiiar with Lyme to recognize it.
I don't know exactly where I am going with this actually. Maybe these similarities are coincidence? Perhaps no connections except the fact that both affect the nerves. But what about other types of Lyme symptoms? It's just so weird or even spooky that I have experienced so many similar symptoms as my friend has -- at various degrees. Do you know much about Lyme? Could AA cause all these symptoms so similar to Lyme? Any thoughts or comments?
Also, given the suspected Autoimmune aspects of AA, I guess I shouldn't be surprized at the fact that my new doctor mentioned about the need to define an Undifferentiated Connective Tissue multi-system disease for me, right? I think I am overwhelmed by the fact that new symptoms seem to keep coming up and that I don't know yet for sure what's causing them. My AA is very mild, so I am very confused.
I am sorry to dump all these onto you.
Best Regards,
Mitsuyo
