Lyme Disease

Has anyone ever watched that television series, Intervention ? Well I watched it for the first time last night because the young woman they had on the show was addicted to painkillers and she had a rheumatoid arthritis diagnosis at the age of 18. This was such a tragic story and half way through the show, I was already in tears. You can tell from watching this girl that she was in an incredible amount of pain. When she woke up every morning, she was so stiff that she could barely walk. Her fingers were curled and looked like claws (that caught my attention immediately). Anyway, as the show went on, they interviewed her mother and years after her daughter's diagnosis.. her mother read about lyme disease and decided to have her daughter tested for lyme. The test result ? Well it was positive. Obviously her family was thrilled, but confused about why she wasn't checked for lyme disease years earlier ? Well after the positive lyme test, their daughter refused to accept the lyme diagnosis and treatment for lyme. Why ? Because she was already addicted to painkillers and I think the lyme disease had by then affected her decision making (as well as all of the drugs she had been taking). This young woman had been taking so many painkillers, that when the producers and camera crew arrived at her apartment to film her, they found her unconscious on the floor.... glass shattered around her !

This was such a tragic story and one that I'm sure happens all of the time (at least from what I'm hearing and reading). One reason why that young woman's hands immediately caught my attention is because if lyme disease goes untreated, patients will have claw like hands and/or feet.  I'm happy to report that despite the fact that this young woman's family was a little too harsh on her (and there was a physician talking to them about how much pain she was in), this young woman decided to get treatment. At the treatment facility, they treated her lyme and rheumatoid arthritis condition (did she have both ?). They also did surgery on one of her knees.

Of course the first thing I imagined was what if this woman had been properly diagnosed and treated for lyme at the age of 18 ? And would she have the rheumatoid arthritis if she was treated for lyme ? In my opinion, I don't believe she would.

Anyhow.... I think it is frightening when I take my dog to the vet for chronic diarrhea and the veterinarian immediately wants to test my dog for lyme disease. Yet..... it took my physicians years before they even mentioned lyme as a possible diagnosis for me !  What lyme experts know is that many of their patients have been misdiagnosed and therefore, untreated (or should I say... mistreated ?)

If you haven't had testing for lyme disease, I highly recommend you do so. Not only can you have the lyme bacteria, but you can also have other bacterial infections as well. Co-infections are frequently seen in CFS and fibromyalgia patients. Unfortunately... lyme disease testing is tricky and so is testing for other bacterias. For the preferred labs.... check out: http://www.immed.org/illness/clinical_testing.html

One thing I've learned about lyme disease is a large percentage of people who have lyme, never had the classic bullseye rash after a tick bite. In addition to that.... I've read that you could have been bitten by a lyme infected tick when you were a child and not have lyme disease. Years later, you get EBV or another virus and then BAM ! Afterwards... you are very ill. Months or even years (sigh) later... you test positive for the lyme bacteria.