Anonymous Lyme disease story

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I am a 38 year old woman. For about three years I have been suffering from seemingly random and unrelated symptoms. I had a lot of problems with one leg, then the other, one stiff hip joint, then the other, weak ankles, and problems in other joints. I also had a lot of gynecological symptoms that seemed to get worse and worse, starting with painful intercourse and very frequent UTIs, then a lot of pain, dryness, and misery leading to a total loss of libido and energy. I alternated between going to specialists who would give me expensive, frightening, and sometimes (I feel) bizzarely chosen tests (brain MRI for hip pain), and getting discouraged and just trying to adjust to my new, deteriorating reality, "This is just what it feels like to get old." But then I would have a reality check, "If this is just normal getting old, nobody over 35 would be smiling at all." So then I'd go back to another doctor or specialist. One of my favorites was the male gynecologist, who when I told him I couldn't even think about sex and it was painful to even touch my vagina, informed me of the importance of foreplay to the female in sexual

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relations. As if by age 38, I hadn't figured out how sex works, and as if foreplay would even be possible in my state. I was getting pretty resigned. But my conviction and my trust in my own body won out. I knew my body. I knew something was wrong. I began to do a lot of research and I was led to Dr. Cameron. I made an appointment. I went in with a spreadsheet of all my symptoms, determined to get through all of them and not forget any.

Dr. Cameron listened to me in a very caring, human way, he asked appropriate follow-up questions, etc. He explained to me that my symptoms could be related to Lyme disease. He said he would send my blood for testing, and then we would discuss options. He explained what those options were even before the test. The test came back negative. He reviewed my options - start treatment on antibiotics (improvement in symptoms or lack thereof would aid diagnosis) or explore other avenues, such as see a different gynecologist to try to treat vulvodynia, interstitial cystitis, etc. He didn't seem to have an interest in which I chose other than my doing what I