Lyme Disease And Knee Pain. The Link Between Them And Ways to Defeat it.

During my teen years, I unfortunately “acquired” the hidden epidemic that is lyme disease. It came about after a camping trip I took with my father where apparently while in my tent or even in the woods somewhere, I was bitten by a tick.

My horrible story with lyme disease:

And it is from these nasty things that lyme disease is spread. Now for me, I did not understand what this condition was or how it would change my life for the worse for years to come until a month after the camping trip occurred that I first began to experience the first symptoms of it and that was on my right knee.

The first time I experienced a slight discomfort there was while I was in middle school. At the time, I dismissed it was

a muscle pull and paid it no attention. 

However, the next day, as soon as I woke up and moved my knee, darkness filled my eyes, sharp pains hit the knee and I literally screamed in pain. After I removed the cover, I noticed the same knee that was giving me discomfort was now swollen and I could not bend it at all. 

In fact, any motion to try and move it, let alone stand on it would result in me falling and/or having immense pain. Obviously I stayed home that day, but an immediate appointment was made to see my pediatrician at the time.

When he examined me, he could not understand what was going on and none of the questions he asked, that I gave an answer to, made sense to him. To his knowledge, everything he knew was swelling and knee problems just didn’t fit with what I was experiencing.

It was recommended that I seek a second opinion from other doctors at a local hospital which I did go to with my parents. Unfortunately, after being examined by 2 “professionals”, also could not pin point just what in the world was going on with me. 

A revisit with the pediatrician and the diagnosis established…

After the doctors at the hospital could not help me with my problem, a day or two passed, during which the pain in my knee remained the same, but half my body began to feel as though it was being cut in half. In addition to the knee pain and swelling I had, I also developed a very high fever, severe joint pains, surprisingly on one half of my body (the right side). 

This horrible pain led me to losing consciousness and not knowing just what would happen next and it went on for 4 days.

I then revisited my pediatrician, told him the update and he told me to get tested for lyme disease. Sure enough: Positive.

But now that we knew what was going on, we finally had a treatment option: Antibiotics which I immediately started taking but the surprising thing was, this was after the 4 days of torture I endured and right after that, everything was gone.

My knee lost it’s swell, my pains went away as did my fever and I felt great and renewed. And it was after that feeling vanished that I started taking the antibiotics. 

Did they work? The unfortunate facts about lyme disease. 

While I did take the antibiotics as instructed, it wouldn’t be until several months later that the same type of knee pain resurfaced that I began to wonder if the condition really went away.

2 follow up blood tests determined that I no longer had it. But during this time, I began researching just what in the world could have been causing my pains and I discovered several unfortunate facts about lyme disease:

1) This is an EXTREMELY sneaky condition that often times knows when antibiotics are being taken and it can actually go into a hibernation period to “hide” and “protect” itself from the antibiotic effect. And once treatment is done, it resurfaces. 

2) I believe I read somewhere that 1/5th of all lyme disease cases have “reoccurring symptoms” meaning that even if the condition is gone, it’s effects may remain in a minority amount of cases such as myself.

3) Apparently this is disease is a “hidden epidemic” in the United States, especially in wooded areas and places with farms. It is considered this because it has 100’s, I kid you not, 100’s of symptoms that it can be identified by, but because the amount of symptoms is so broad, very often, such as in my case, the thing goes misdiagnosed and often mistaken for other conditions, which may lead to the wrong type of treatment.

4) There is a very small window of opportunity to A) Spot the condition and B) To treat it. Because if you go through all of the symptoms as I did without getting treatment in time, your risk of having these symptoms become chronic increase. Now we know why my knee pains continued…

5) Joint pain and lyme disease is often synonymous because the first place it hits is the joints, particularly the knees.

6) Antibiotics are so far the only shield to actually get rid of this condition but like I said, it can be a sneaky thing to beat.

7)  This condition can even be deadly if not treated correctly or in time…

Ways to identify lyme disease in time and take the proper treatment:

1) If you live in a wooded area or plan to go camping or spend anytime outdoors where ticks are often present, come prepared with tick sprays and wear clothing that covers your body to reduce the chances of being bit.

2) Often times a tick bite can go unnoticed like it did in my case, so make sure that during and post trip, that you look at your body to see if there have been any tick bites. If you notice them, seek a doctor immediately to test yourself and start treatment if necessary. The earlier you spot this, the better.

3) Sometimes, you may find that a tick may actually be on you when you spot the bite, in which case you should also get rid of it and see if a bite mark is left. Whether or not it is, still seek a doctor and repeat the same things. 

Finishing my story: 

Most of the lessons I just mentioned were learned too late for me and that is mainly because the disease itself is so foreign to modern medicine that most of the time, doctors just miss it.

Because I was late to do what was necessary, I ended up having recurring knee problems for well over a decade since the original incident. Luckily though, the condition was gone because as I said, I tested negative for it, twice. 

Since the pain continued, I needed to find solutions:

Lyme disease left me with what was basically arthritis in my knee. To make matters worse, the problem ended up spreading to my left knee overtime and there were periods where I didn’t know if I would ever be able to run or play sports. It would literally hurt me 24-7.

And as I aged (now 30), the problem ended up getting worse and worse. If at such as young age I suffered this much, what would happen if I didn’t treat it in time? 

This problem inspired me to push forward to find a solution…

And overtime, throughout the years, I found ways to treat the pains and eventually got rid of the pains.