I ended up finding out I had lyme disease.
During the autonomic response testing, I asked the doctor to test me for parasites or other viruses as it is common for people that have been through chemotherapy to pick up things like this when their immune system is compromised. In addition, he decided to include babesia and bartonella which are the most common co-infections with lyme disease. To both of our surprises, I had them. He tested again just to be sure...same result as the first time.
My immediate reaction was "how is this possible, I have no symptoms!"
I do not recall being bit by a tick, I have no joint pain or stiffness, no neurologic issues. Out of this entire list of symptoms, I have a few but they could apply to anyone. Who doesn't feel like they are loosing their mind every once in a while, especially after everything I have been through? That is actually listed as a symptom.
At first, because I am less inclined to trust anything that is not definitive (for example, a blood test), I did not believe it. I debated whether I wanted to investigate this any further. On one hand, I felt the need to confirm the diagnosis and treat it, after all, what was the point in spending time and money on this testing if I was not going to do anything about it? On the other hand, I had just finished 8 rounds of chemotherapy, 2 surgeries, radiation, immunotherapies in Germany and I didn't want to deal with it. It would have been easier to ignore the test or discount the doctor as some "quack" but if I did that and developed symptoms later on or my cancer recurred, I would never forgive myself.
Instead of taking the easy way out, I called Igenex, a lab based in California that is a leader in lyme disease testing. I asked them to send me a test kit so I could take it to my doctor, get a blood sample, send it in and figure out what the hell was going on in my body.
