B-Lyme-y!

After my bloodwork and x-ray results were in, my family doctor referred me to my rheumatologist. My rheumy's nurse was able to squeeze me in, a miracle in and of itself.
And so, yesterday, my rheumy decided to go ahead and treat me for Lyme disease, even though my test had been negative. She said due to the fact that it can take 8-12 weeks for a positive and the fact that I am on a low dose of tetracycline--a treatment for Lyme in a dose four times that of what I take for adult acne--which might never allow a positive test, in addition to the fact that some never test positive even though they have it (how they diagnose it then, I don't know) leads her to believe that I have early stage Lyme disease. My c-reactive protein was up. That is an inflammatory marker that rises and drops quickly with inflammation. My sed rate--another inflammatory marker that takes longer to go out of whack and longer to correct--was normal. This information means basically the inflammation was a fairly recent thing and still ongoing. So Lyme it is, for now. I will lay off the tetracycline and take doxycycline two times a day for a month. If after three to four weeks after my last does I still don't feel "better" (remember, it's all relative) then I will go back to see her for further testing to figure out what else it could be.
She also told, and I found it interesting enough to share, that in North America Lyme disease tends to manifest more neurologically--like my neuropathy--than in Europe where Lyme manifests more often with rheumatological symptoms. Nobody is really sure why, I guess. Weird, huh?