Question: Hi. About 2 1/2 years ago I had a sudden heaviness in my chest while driving. I went to the ER and a chest xray showed multiple nodules in my right lung. I was put in ICU for the night, and by morning had developed pneumonia. I was transferred to a hospital in Kansas city where I stayed for 3 days. Final diagnosis was an atypical lung infection. I was told it had been brewing for a long time. I never had a cough or ever felt very sick. At that time, the doctors discussed that I may have Lyme Disease, but the tests were negative. Several months later I had a totally unexpected episode while driving, when the stop light turned green I had no idea what to do. I felt a total panic and when my sister told me to "go", I told her I did not know what to do. She said to "follow that car" and that's what I did. No more episodes like that occurred until nearly a year later. Within the year or so since that episode, I have suffered a terrible fatigue. I have developed short term memory loss that is effecting my ability to run my business. I have serious difficulty concentrating, and am unable to do simple addition or subtraction or even make a grocery list with any noise in the room. I find myself saying very often to my kids to "be quiet so I can think". On several occasions when speaking, I have used the wrong word in a sentence. When repeating the sentence, I still used the wrong word. (meaning to say broom, I said balloon). On two occasions within the last year, I have become lost while driving. This was in an area where I drive nearly every day. On both occasions I went to the ER. I was diagnosed with TIA's, but tests showed nothing. On one of these occasions, I drove for about 20 minutes past my turn. I felt as if I was on another planet. I was looking at houses and barns and thinking that I had never seen anything like that before in my life. I have also developed arthritis. Imaging of my hips, spine and hands show degeneration in all those areas. I get very little sleep. A sleep study showed that I woke an average of 58 times an hour. However, this was from pain in my joints, not sleep apnea. This is when I was referred to a doctor to deal with my joint pain and found that I have arthritis. The fatigue is awful. I have developed excessive body heat and I sweat so bad it is embarrassing. Within the past month or so I have developed hot flashes that last hours at a time, sometimes lasting 10-12 hours. When this occurs, I get mild shortness of breath and become nauseous. Also, about 2 months ago, I developed a severe burning in one toe on my left foot. This was intermittent. Now, this toe alternates from burning and pain to being numb. It has recently progressed into all the toes on that foot and is just starting into the toes on my right foot with numbness more than burning and pain. Just this week, I am starting to feel it in all my fingers.
My medical history consists only of restless legs and a recent diabetes diagnosis with an A1C of 6.4. My thyroid is a mass of nodules and cysts. A recent biopsy showed no cancer. Recent blood tests showed thyroid OK. Vitamin D is 15. Vitamin B12 and iron or normal, but uptake is slow. I am now taking vitamin B complex and iron, over the counter, and 50,000 of vitamin D twice a week. I also take paxil, 20 mg, Mirapex, .75mg, and 500 mg of metformin twice a day. I am scheduled in about 2 months to see a neuropsychiatrist for evaluation for early onset dementia. No one in my family has had early onset dementia. I don't use alcohol or drugs.
My question is this. Could all of these symptoms be Lyme Disease? Any other ideas? I am miserable. I own hydroponic greenhouses and grow strawberries for a chain of grocery stores in Kansas City. The memory issues are causing problems, and the more recent hot flashes, sweating and the peripheral numbness and burning are also causing a problem with working in a greenhouse environment. The memory and concentration issues have become so bad that I recently spoke with my daughter and my business partner regarding making changes to my trust to allow for the possibility that I may soon not be able to make decisions or care for myself.