When Lyme Disease Triggers Multiple Food and Chemical Sensitivities

In the Summer of 2013, my daughter was diagnosed with Lyme Disease, Ehrlichia Chaffeensis and Bartonella, it all began the year before, after a family trip to Hawaii (her story here).  Her case of Bartonella was one of the worst her doctors had ever seen (see Bartonella rash here), and the diagnosis of her tick borne diseases was complicated by the fact that she had come down with a case of Parvo B-19 Virus at the beginning of her illness. All of these infections worked in concert to crash her immune system leading to multi systemic illness and a low white count, which she continues to struggle with today.

CDC Finds Several New Species of Bartonella: What You Need to Know

In a Paper Titled: "Identification of Novel Zoonotic Activity of Bartonella spp., France" to be published March 2016 in Emerging Infectious Disease Journal, the CDC reports they identified six strains of Bartonella in patients with chronic subjective symptoms and a history of tick bites. Three of the strains strains were B. henselae and 3 were from other animal-associated Bartonella spp. (B. doshiae, B. schoenbuchensis, and B. tribocorum). 

Six Things You Need to Know About Bartonella: 

The Long Road to a Lyme Diagnosis

In August 2012, my daughter became critically ill. What we thought was the flu, progressed to a point where she could no longer function physically or mentally.

At the time of her illness my daughter was a straight "A" honors student and playing Water Polo. She was doing 360 sit-ups, 20 pushups and swimming for 2-4 hours every day. One day she came home from school with a flu like symptoms and a fever. After a week of her progressively getting worse, I started taking her to the doctor on a Bi-weekly basis. By the second month of her illness she could barely walk. She'd gone from Geometry/Algebra to not being able to do simple addition/subtraction. She had a laundry list of symptoms: Constant migraine type headache, extreme insomnia, extreme light sensitivity, sound sensitivity, neck/back pain, muscle/joint pain, jaw pain, extreme foot pain, extreme fatigue, shortness of breath, nausea, abdominal pain, low blood pressure, lightheadedness, as well as a recurring low grade fever that was accompanied by a diffuse rash. Later she developed reddish/purple striated marks on her back, her legs/feet would remain bluish & cold most of the time and her blood pressure would hover in the 70:50 range making her completely intolerant of any activity.  Her memory which was once sharp as a tac had disappeared. She wasn't able to walk more than ten feet without starting to black-out. School had become virtually impossible.