Sorry to hear that, Dave. I don't think you are joking. My dad lived on a farm near Catskill, NY in retirement. He had Lyme disease off and on for about five years close before he passed away at 94. He hated the fatigue part of it. How are you doing in that regard?
I get arthritic. I have a lot of problems with my knees and back. A few years ago there were days I could barely walk. I don't get too fatigued. I actually have the opposite problem. I have a lot of trouble sleeping. My brain is very electric. I have an overactive immune system. I have tinnitus in my ears like you can't believe.
About three years ago I started having vertical double vision (diplopia) in my left eye when I was looking left. I would see two cars in my left side mirror when driving. The middle to right I had no vertical double vision. I was on two oral antibiotics for about a year and half. My eyes were for the most part back to normal and almost perfect. And then my health insurance company stopped paying for one the antibiotics. They said it was not an approved treatment. It took me a month to get them to pay for it. But after a month on just the one antibiotic my left eye went ballistic. The vertical double vision kept working its way from left to the right. I was no longer able to see straight ahead without having vertical double vision. I had MRI in both eyes, my brain, everything was normal. About 15 months ago I started wearing an eye patch over my left eye so I can drive.
Late last August on a Friday my right eye started acting funny. By Monday my right eye would open for about a minute or two and then it would close and not open no matter how hard I tried open it (ptosis). That Monday morning on the way to work the only way I could drive was by wearing the eye patch on my right eye! I went to my Lyme doctor on Tuesday night after that because it was very disconcerting. I got another round of MRI's in both eyes and my brain and everything looked normal. So then the Lyme doctor decided to give me intravenous antibiotics so now I have a pick line in my arm for the last four months. Every night for the past 3 months I have an IV of antibiotics for 3 hours.
Around Thanksgiving it was the worse it has ever been. When I look straight ahead with my right eye, my left eye points off to the left outside of my control. Last month I was tested for Myasthenia gravis but it came up negative. But today my eyes tested a little better. A month ago the vertical diplopia was so bad it could not be measured. Today it was at least measurable. Since my eyes improved the ophthalmologist doesn't think it's Myasthenia anymore but now he thinks it's still Lyme disease.
I was on statin drugs for high cholesterol and I read an article saying statins could cause diplopia and ptosis. So I've been off statins for 2 months but I've had no improvement even though the article said people who stopped taking statins eventually had their eye sight restored.
So now I'm still taking intravenous antibiotics. I still have the eye patch over my right eye because of the ptosis. The good thing is I haven't lost my job over this. I actually solved a really heard problem this week and saved my company some money. I'm also coaching my 6th grade son's township recreation basketball team. We had our first game last night and they played well. We lost but my son scored 14 points. Our team is called the Pirates because of my eye patch. You have to make due with what you get! My older son jokingly said that the players should not call me "coach" but "captain". LOL!
