Hello, all. I know of an individual diagnosed more than 15 years ago with Lyme. Given 2 weeks on a pic line and follow up antibiotics for 6 months. From that moment forward, he was never the same. Fast forward 15 years: in August, he went to a neurologist and has an MRI done of his brain. MRI was repeated a month later so the doc could be sure of the results. White spots (lesions) that do not indicate MS. The doctor wants to take a lets wait and see approach. He has no short term memory, tinnitus, vertigo and has been diagnosed with depression. Any ideas would be greatly appreciated.
The white spots are pretty common - scary but common. Most often they are either aging OR cholesterol. Fortunately hey are happening in the white matter so have little effect on the symptoms you mention.
The aggressive ABX treatment your friend had could explain his current symptoms. The depression could as well. There seems to be a few folks who have some damage to their autoimmune system form either the Lyme or the ABX treatment. Believe it or not "depression" and brainstem inflammation is one of the results. I would pursue the treatment for depression and track progress over a while with antidepressant meds. It may take several tries to get the right one. But anti-depressants seem to becoming a staple of autoimmune treatment.
Thank you for the reply. Yes, very scary. Some research has suggested that if person is given IV antibiotics, the spots would go away... Just do not know... it is scary and confusing.
The spots don't go away from antibiotics. Most often they are caused by headaches. These are transitory and in fact may be caused by antibiotics. They go away on their own and some unscrupulous or uninformed lyme practitioners claim credit. There have never been spirochetes found in white matter lesions, but classical forms when found, are almost always in the gray matter. It is a particular type of plaque confirmed with silver stains.
If the white matter lesions are lyme related in anyway where there is clear evidence (Serology of the CSF) that the infection has penetrated the Blood Brain Barrier, they aggregate around or near the central ventricles often with micro-vessel inflammation/infiltrate seen in the ependyma membrane of the ventricles.