HOW ARE THE ODDS TO HAVE ms AND lyme DISEASE TOGETHER?

You have Lyme disease. Lyme disease causes MS symptoms. Lyme disease is very difficult to treat, but at least you can start now on the right track, once you find a Lyme literate doctor.

Do not take steroids in any form! Before you are offered a medication or an injection, make extra sure it is not steroid based. Steroids lower the immune system and make Lyme disease much worse. Many people with Lyme are misdiagnosed with MS. It's so sad because the steroid based drugs routinely given to these people make them sicker over the long run.

Some resources for you:

http://www.lymedisease.org/

http://ilads.org/

http://www.igenex.com/

http://www.lymediseaseassociation.org/

http://flash.lymenet.org/ubb/ultimatebb.php

It's possible to have both together, but it's much more likely to have lyme disease than MS. Lyme disease can mimic MS, which is why one of the preliminary steps in a MS diagnosis is to rule out all other causes, such as lyme disease, viral infections, brain abnormalities etc.

If you haven't had it already, then you'll need to get an MRI scan and if it shows MS typical lesions: a lumbar puncture to confirm the diagnosis.

If you haven't had an MRI and a lumbar puncture yet, the odds are good that you have just lyme disease.

No. I had Lyme disease 14 year ago and it is one nasty deal. They thought it might have been MS, but I didn't realize I had been bitten by a tick. Lyme is caused by a bacterial infection (carried by ticks) and while some of the symptoms mimic MS it can be treated with antibiotics and steroids. I am mostly fine now even though I get some milder symptoms when stressed. ALS is a muscular dystrophy and HIV is a virus. None of 3 are caused by the Lyme disease bacteria. These things might happen in people with untreated Lyme but I have not heard about it and I researched it at length when I had it in 1994.

The symptoms of MS and Lyme can overlap a lot. Some docs believe that Lyme disease can be the underlying infection that triggers MS. Many folks who were first diagnosed with MS later are found to have Lyme, and IMPROVE with Lyme treatment.

Check out this website:

http://www.lymeinfo.net/multiplesclerosis.html

(Lyme misdiagnosed as multiple sclerosis)

Other good sources of info about Lyme disease:

http://www.lymedisease.org/

http://www.ilads.org/

http://www.canlyme.com/

http://www.lymenet.org/

http://www.lymeinfo.net/

http://www.lymediseaseassociation.org/

http://www.lymedoctor.com/

http://www.touchedbylyme.org/

MS is a disability. Don't know much about it apart from that it gets worse and is painful, eventually making so that you can't even move your head. Lymes disease is a disease caused by infected tics. You can have both together. Lyme disease can be treated, MS can be slowed down with medication and marijuana BUT eventually it will kill you.

Lyme Disease if often misdiagnosed for MS. So, you most likely don't have MS, you only have Lyme. And those are definite symptoms, so I'm not surprised.

When MS occurs in people under 40, about 70% experience sensory difficulties as the first (‘presenting’) symptom. The most frequent sensory symptom is a difficulty with vision, although numbness and tingling in various areas of the body are also common. Symptoms in which voluntary movement is affected (‘motor symptoms’) occur in fewer than 30% of YOMS patients as the presenting symptom, and problems with dizziness or coordination are relatively rare.

About 85% of people with MS have the familiar relapsing-remitting (RR) form of the disease. RRMS is characterized by acute episodes (also called ‘attacks,’ ‘exacerbations,’ or ‘relapses’) of neurologic problems, such as numbness, visual disturbances, loss of voluntary movement of some part of the body, lack of coordination, or dizziness, which are followed by periods with little disease activity. During the periods of remission, patients usually regain most or all of the functionality lost during the previous attack. Most people with RRMS eventually enter a phase called “secondary progressive” (SP) MS, which is marked by a progressive accumulation of neurologic deficits, with or without acute attacks. It is in this later phase that the cumulative damage to the central nervous system (CNS) begins to result in permanent disability.

I would get a second opinion for your MS diagnosis and have comprehensive testing done.