Joint pain. That's the first thing I noticed. Pain in my hands typing or working on the car. I thought I was pushing too hard. I thought I was stretched too thin. My sleep quality was bad, I worked long hours, I dealt with stress beyond what you could imagine. Then, one day, I made a chicken dinner. It was a simple meal with breading on chicken quarters. There were five quarters and I was using tongs to pick them up, rinse them, and then coat them before putting them on the pan for the oven. One was easy, same went for two. Three was harder, four was painful with my bent fingers trembling as I picked the piece of chicken up. Five wasn't possible. I could no longer grip the tongs well enough to pick up the chicken. My hand was in agony. I waited a few minutes and then was able to complete my task.
It was then I knew something was really wrong so I scheduled an appointment with the doctor. He looked me over, told me I should lose weight and asked what was wrong. I told him about my joint pain and the chicken. His first thought was arthritis so he decided to do a blood workup to make sure all my bits were working alright. I told him I wanted a lyme disease test. I knew that my pain fit the mold and that people in my neighborhood had gotten it as well as The Wife (although that was years ago). He was hesitant stating insurance wouldn't cover it without a good reason. I didn't remember any tick bite or any round rash but I pushed him to do it. He put down the reason as possible tick bite and, after some blood was drawn, I went on my merry way.
The following week they called with the news that I had lyme disease. The test had come back positive. When I went in to get prescriptions for treatment the doctor was amazed that I even thought to have them run the test. He wanted to know what tipped me off that it could be a possibility. I explained the pain and the neighborhood and the chicken. He just shook his head commenting on how lucky I was to have the test run.
So now I am on a month of medication which makes me dizzy. I don't feel any better, but I have hopes that it will come eventually. What keeps running through my head is the doctor's reluctance to run the test and his amazement that it was positive. Just how many people out there have it and don't know?
-UW
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