Pregnancy, Birth and Lyme Disease

After being in remission from Lyme disease and finally getting off of antibiotics at the beginning of this year, I found out I was pregnant so I had to get right back on antibiotics to help prevent the Lyme from crossing the placenta. I'll have to admit, it was hard swallowing those icky tasting antibiotics* again. I questioned if that was really all it took to save my baby from this dreadful disease.

Although it was a very difficult pregnancy, my health held up wonderfully well throughout the entire pregnancy. In the third trimester, my Lyme doctor wanted me to add Azithromycin in, but when I did, some of my Lyme symptoms came back, which panicked me since I had been totally symptom free. I immediately stopped taking it and the symptoms went away as quickly as they had arrived. My doctor said that was a pretty strong indicator that my symptoms would come back after the birth.

My baby was born peacefully at home on November 1st, 2013. 

My sweet little baby girl is now one month old. Every day, I've looked into her perfect little face wondering if I passed my Lyme disease to her. After her birth, we sent off a sample of her placenta to be tested by a tick-borne specialty lab (Igenex) for Lyme disease. It's been a long four weeks of waiting, but...

...we got her test results back today and SHE'S NEGATIVE!! 

Unfortunately, my doctor was right and some of my symptoms have come back since the baby was born. My visual problems are back (it's like a fog on my glasses that won't wipe off), which was my very first Lyme symptom, and I have mild joint pain. I'm still taking Ceftin, and I had no other choice but to give the Azithromycin (the antibiotic that I couldn't handle during the pregnancy) another try. I've been on it for a little over a week now, and my joint pain is much better and my energy level is back to normal. I'm still struggling with the visual problems, but it's better than it was before I got back on Azithromycin, and I'm hopeful that it will continue to work its magic and that this protocol will be enough to keep my symptoms under control. 

**I did Bicillin injections for the first trimester and took Ceftin for the remainder of the pregnancy