A limping competitive dancer, a student forced into a parking lot.
According to Dr. Erik Kolbenheyer, internist, gastroenterologist, family doctor, occupational health specialist, and doctor of traditional Chinese medicine, cases of Lyme borreliosis that produce neurological symptoms, often very bizarre ones, are particularly interesting. The doctor, who treats his patients with excellent diagnostic skills and great empathy due to his own involvement, presents two shocking cases from his own practice in which young people fell ill but, fortunately, their quality of life has essentially returned to its previous level.
Nervous system disorders can manifest as anxiety, depression, panic attacks, and can also be accompanied by strange movement disorders. This is a very complex set of symptoms, so the help of a neurologist is also needed to examine the patient in other areas. As neurological symptoms can take on very unusual forms, patients and their relatives may be overcome by panic.
Dr Kolbenheyer recalls the case of a twelve-year-old girl who was aware that she had been bitten by a tick, and a red spot appeared at the site of the bite. She was treated with antibiotics for two to three weeks at one institution, and the spot disappeared. The girl was a competitive dancer. Two months later, she became lame: not only was she unable to dance, but she also had difficulty walking. Her doctors said they would not treat her for Lyme disease because she had received treatment, the spot had disappeared, and her test was negative. Then she appeared at Dr. Kolbenheyer’s office. The ELISA test was repeated and was again negative, indicating that there was no Lyme infection. But they didn’t stop there; they sent the blood sample for Western Blot testing.
Both the ELISA test and the Western Blot are indirect tests, but the latter is more specific because it tests for antigens found on the surface of Borrelia bacteria. The latter came back positive. Following the recommendations of ILADS (a non-profit, international, multidisciplinary medical society dedicated to the proper diagnosis and treatment of Lyme disease and related illnesses), they resumed treatment, which finally brought about an improvement in the little girl’s condition. After about three to four months, the hip and knee joint pain that caused her to limp disappeared, she was able to walk normally again, and after six months she was even able to dance. It was good to see that after the child and her family’s despair and hopelessness, the little girl recovered and was able to live her daily life as before.
Another memorable case was that of a seventeen-year-old girl who was unaware that she had been bitten by a tick. Her first symptom was that her shoulder began to twitch, and at the same time she developed severe learning difficulties, even though she had been a diligent and excellent student before the onset of symptoms. Her short-term memory was impaired by the infection. She suffered so much from neurological symptoms that she was unable to study and eventually had to defer her studies for a year. It was a long struggle, recalls Dr. Erik Kolbenheyer, but she eventually graduated from high school and was even accepted into university. Her muscle spasms have significantly decreased, almost completely disappearing. However, the sudden learning difficulties have only slowly faded away. Her case was also dramatic, with the little girl and her family falling into a state of complete despair. Now, she is, so to speak, in a self-sustaining state.
Source: weborvos.hu
