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US Map of Lyme and Co-infection Statistics for Dogs
I may have posted this before, (don't remember - Lyme fog?:), but it is so important, I'll risk the embarassment:)
Google "Lyme Disease in Dogs Map" and click on the first link. Here is the actual link without having the Medhelp big brother erasing it:
www [dot] dogsandticks [dot] com [forward slash] US-map-lyme-disease-dogs [forward slash]
Now, isn't that just interesting!? The veterinarians have a better understanding of Lyme disease and co-infections than medical doctors. What is wrong with this picture?! I'm going to go to a veterinarian.
Enough to put a person into a Lyme rage.....:P
Google "Lyme Disease in Dogs Map" and click on the first link. Here is the actual link without having the Medhelp big brother erasing it:
www [dot] dogsandticks [dot] com [forward slash] US-map-lyme-disease-dogs [forward slash]
Now, isn't that just interesting!? The veterinarians have a better understanding of Lyme disease and co-infections than medical doctors. What is wrong with this picture?! I'm going to go to a veterinarian.
Enough to put a person into a Lyme rage.....:P
Ah - yes, I was thinking of sarcoidosis! It's all blending together. It is true that they are chasing ghosts and the patient pays for it in the end. LOL about finding a good vet..
Hi Hope,
I think you must be thinking of Sjögren's, although most chronically ill patients do experience this symptom to a certain extent, it is most prominent in Sjögren's.
When they diagnosed me just a few months back it was based on hilar lymphadenopathy (chest x-ray), all my inflammation markers were out of range, but not super high, the usual ESR, CRP, ACE, but my D-dimer was off the charts a little. Which is strange because it's usually found to be high in people with blood clots, but it can go high from intense inflammation though too I guess. Then collaborated with bilateral arthritis, night sweats, low grade fevers, muscle pain and inflammation, it was enough to do a biopsy, the lung biopsy found the non necrotizing multi nucleated giant cell granuloma that they consider to be Sarcoidosis, collaborated by cultures they perform coming out negative, mainly M. Tuberculosis, Mycoplasma Pneumonia, Hystoplasmosis, HSV, and general gram stains for other bacteria. The lung cultures they performed on me only showed a small amount of Candidia (yeast), which is normal.
It's interesting you mention thinking of having another diagnoses because previous to this year I believed I had MS. Mainly because of numbness, and tingling that would last for really long periods of time all day everyday. The first time I heard of Sarcoidosis was last year when I was looking for causes of chronic paresthesia, and Sarcoid was on the list, so I read about it for a few minutes, and it was talking about it attacking organs, and all this stuff, and I just said to myself "I don't have nothing like that". Well the weird thing was I had primarily neurological symptoms up until this year, so that's why I was always leaning towards MS. All the arthritis, and the lung stuff didn't become obvious until this year.
The way I look at medicine now is that I'm my own Primary Care Physician, and the clinic is just on payroll, and if they don't want to do what I want to do then I'll find somebody else that will. But during pre-diagnosis we're more at their mercy, and trying to distinguish between all the "autoimmune diseases" is just a nightmare. It's a severely flawed system of expensive wasteful testing, and going from specialist to specialist, and chasing your tail around in a circle. Even now that I have the DX they're telling me to take immune suppressants, and just hope the Sarcoidosis magically goes away in a few years. Wow all the thousands of dollars I spent for a Dx really paid off.
In my opinion the major problem with diagnosing, and treating Chronic Lyme Disease, Multiple Sclerosis, Sarcoidosis, Sjögren's, Myalgic Encephalomyelitis (CFS), Fibromyalgia, Systemic Lupus Erythematosis, Hashimoto's Thyroiditis, Addison's Disease (and many, many others, these are the primary ones most of us have), is that physicians are still chasing ghosts. Ghosts like unspecific antibodies, lesions, inflammatory markers, coinfections, and focusing on small clinical variations in disease manifestation, and not on the pathogenesis they all share. That's why I'm so interested in the Marshall Protocol, because he is looking at it in the big picture, with no financial profit motivation , and I think that's what all medicine needs to start doing. But I may still also find a good Vet in the meantime just in case :-) ~Corvin
I think you must be thinking of Sjögren's, although most chronically ill patients do experience this symptom to a certain extent, it is most prominent in Sjögren's.
When they diagnosed me just a few months back it was based on hilar lymphadenopathy (chest x-ray), all my inflammation markers were out of range, but not super high, the usual ESR, CRP, ACE, but my D-dimer was off the charts a little. Which is strange because it's usually found to be high in people with blood clots, but it can go high from intense inflammation though too I guess. Then collaborated with bilateral arthritis, night sweats, low grade fevers, muscle pain and inflammation, it was enough to do a biopsy, the lung biopsy found the non necrotizing multi nucleated giant cell granuloma that they consider to be Sarcoidosis, collaborated by cultures they perform coming out negative, mainly M. Tuberculosis, Mycoplasma Pneumonia, Hystoplasmosis, HSV, and general gram stains for other bacteria. The lung cultures they performed on me only showed a small amount of Candidia (yeast), which is normal.
It's interesting you mention thinking of having another diagnoses because previous to this year I believed I had MS. Mainly because of numbness, and tingling that would last for really long periods of time all day everyday. The first time I heard of Sarcoidosis was last year when I was looking for causes of chronic paresthesia, and Sarcoid was on the list, so I read about it for a few minutes, and it was talking about it attacking organs, and all this stuff, and I just said to myself "I don't have nothing like that". Well the weird thing was I had primarily neurological symptoms up until this year, so that's why I was always leaning towards MS. All the arthritis, and the lung stuff didn't become obvious until this year.
The way I look at medicine now is that I'm my own Primary Care Physician, and the clinic is just on payroll, and if they don't want to do what I want to do then I'll find somebody else that will. But during pre-diagnosis we're more at their mercy, and trying to distinguish between all the "autoimmune diseases" is just a nightmare. It's a severely flawed system of expensive wasteful testing, and going from specialist to specialist, and chasing your tail around in a circle. Even now that I have the DX they're telling me to take immune suppressants, and just hope the Sarcoidosis magically goes away in a few years. Wow all the thousands of dollars I spent for a Dx really paid off.
In my opinion the major problem with diagnosing, and treating Chronic Lyme Disease, Multiple Sclerosis, Sarcoidosis, Sjögren's, Myalgic Encephalomyelitis (CFS), Fibromyalgia, Systemic Lupus Erythematosis, Hashimoto's Thyroiditis, Addison's Disease (and many, many others, these are the primary ones most of us have), is that physicians are still chasing ghosts. Ghosts like unspecific antibodies, lesions, inflammatory markers, coinfections, and focusing on small clinical variations in disease manifestation, and not on the pathogenesis they all share. That's why I'm so interested in the Marshall Protocol, because he is looking at it in the big picture, with no financial profit motivation , and I think that's what all medicine needs to start doing. But I may still also find a good Vet in the meantime just in case :-) ~Corvin
Thanks for your post! I have honed my MedHelp skills for three years:) I had considered Sarcoidosis at one point. My mouth was extremely, uncomfortably dry. I swetched toothpastes, mouthwashes, etc. and I still had to carry around a spray that would wet my mouth for several months in spring '06. It went away in the fall, but I have no idea what that was all about! I still stay somewhat dehydrated no matter how much I drink water. I don't have any positive testing to indicate Sarcoidosis (ANA, ESR, etc.), so I think it is ruled out for me.
Chronic illness is sometimes a bother, I think, to a large percentage of health care professionals. Not necessarily because they are bad people, but that it can be frustrating as a healthcare professional to not be able to help someone, with all the education in the world. When I get angry is when they do not educate themselves on the particular issue at hand, like Lyme. If you can't google chronic Lyme and look at these MedHelp posts in your spare time as a doctor, nurse, etc. to obtain a better understanding or entertain an out-of-the-box theory, then you don't need to be in the business. The status quo does not cut it in healthcare. The human body is not fully understood, yet.
Chronic illness is sometimes a bother, I think, to a large percentage of health care professionals. Not necessarily because they are bad people, but that it can be frustrating as a healthcare professional to not be able to help someone, with all the education in the world. When I get angry is when they do not educate themselves on the particular issue at hand, like Lyme. If you can't google chronic Lyme and look at these MedHelp posts in your spare time as a doctor, nurse, etc. to obtain a better understanding or entertain an out-of-the-box theory, then you don't need to be in the business. The status quo does not cut it in healthcare. The human body is not fully understood, yet.
Umm, riddle me this, Batman:
Exactly what test are vets using to detemine a positive or negative test for lyme in dogs? Why are the test results for people doubted, but not the dogs? And if they can get a definitive "yes" in dogs, why aren't we "humans" getting the same type of test?
Exactly what test are vets using to detemine a positive or negative test for lyme in dogs? Why are the test results for people doubted, but not the dogs? And if they can get a definitive "yes" in dogs, why aren't we "humans" getting the same type of test?
Hi Hope,
I think your post on Chronic Lyme patients getting better care from a Veterinarian than from conventional medicine is the best post I've ever read since being on MH. It just sums up everything chronically ill patients face better than I could ever express myself.
I have Sarcoidosis which is another "mystery chronic inflammatory disease", and I'm looking into starting the Marshall Protocol, which treats a parasitic infection of L-form bacteria taking over the phagocytes. I don't how many people have heard about Trevor Marshalls Protocol, but he has developed a protocol that is slowly curing people of chronic illness. Check out my journal for more links if anyone wishes to.
Even though we were given different diagnoses I believe we share the same causative illness, and I'm right with you on everything conventional medicine has to offer chronically ill patients turning into a dead end, or in the long run actually making their disease worse not better.
~Corvin
I think your post on Chronic Lyme patients getting better care from a Veterinarian than from conventional medicine is the best post I've ever read since being on MH. It just sums up everything chronically ill patients face better than I could ever express myself.
I have Sarcoidosis which is another "mystery chronic inflammatory disease", and I'm looking into starting the Marshall Protocol, which treats a parasitic infection of L-form bacteria taking over the phagocytes. I don't how many people have heard about Trevor Marshalls Protocol, but he has developed a protocol that is slowly curing people of chronic illness. Check out my journal for more links if anyone wishes to.
Even though we were given different diagnoses I believe we share the same causative illness, and I'm right with you on everything conventional medicine has to offer chronically ill patients turning into a dead end, or in the long run actually making their disease worse not better.
~Corvin
I would think the pharamaceutical company's would want to keep us sick so they make more money. How does that work?? We want cures not them doing research on how to keep us stable.
Physicians are said to be an estimated 10-15 years behind in research and the fact that so many physicians now are relying on the pharamaceutical companies to provide them their research is very frightening !
I'm with you, a vet is more knowlegable on lyme then our physicians. I read somewhere that lyme is not as severe for canines as it can be in humans. However, it apears to be bad with some of the strains of lyme. Thanks for this post.
This is crazy! I think it is absolutely terrible that dogs get better treatment for lyme than us! Really, it makes me so mad! I've lived in Colorado, Oklahoma, and have stayed in Texas many times camping etc... All three of these are high for lyme disease for dogs according to this map. Also in Spain where we lived for 3 years I've NEVER seen so many ticks in all my life! It was totally infested!! We had a big yard and two labrador retrievers. Literally everyday we'd sit for hours and pick ticks of them. They were on Frontline as well and still had this infestation. It was horrible. I don't know what the prevalence of lyme is in Spain, but the ticks were very abundant.
This all blows my mind.
This all blows my mind.
I've seen the map before. It is real interesting. I live in Colorado where supposedly no Lyme exists. It doesn't rank in the top tier but Colorado is in that second tier of reported dog Lyme cases. I don't think I'll show the map to my regular docs but I would sure like to hear some of their excuses to skate around evidence like that.
There's no price tag for good health or even health maintenance. I'd be willing to do all that you do -- although I'd have to take out a loan.
Treating Lyme is exhausting. I do wonder why it has to be so expensive though.
Treating Lyme is exhausting. I do wonder why it has to be so expensive though.
Well, I currently travel 5 hours each way out of state to see an LLMD.....but I can see how people end up accepting whatever treatment they can. The person relaying that story would NOT tell the name of the vet, as I am sure the vet doesn't want a long line of human patients outside their door. (I spend close to $400 per visit to my LLMD including hotel, gas, turnpike fees and price of the appt....so this is more than some can afford.)
I remember seeing this back when I was initially diagnosed and realizing how ridiculous it was that they said lyme doesn't exist in Oklahoma.
SOMEHOW there were 535 dogs that tested positive during the same time frame that only 4 people were reported positive to the CDC. Hmmmmm 133 to 1 ratio...and dogs get tick medication too!!
Without knowing about my lyme diagnosis, my vet was discussing the different strains of babesia that she sees with me....so yes she is probably more qualified to treat me for lyme and co's than my GP who probably has no idea what babesia is. I have heard that there is a vet treating a human in my state. It's embarrassing that people really have to go that route in my state.....but at least the vets have a conscious and the knowledge to act on it.
SOMEHOW there were 535 dogs that tested positive during the same time frame that only 4 people were reported positive to the CDC. Hmmmmm 133 to 1 ratio...and dogs get tick medication too!!
Without knowing about my lyme diagnosis, my vet was discussing the different strains of babesia that she sees with me....so yes she is probably more qualified to treat me for lyme and co's than my GP who probably has no idea what babesia is. I have heard that there is a vet treating a human in my state. It's embarrassing that people really have to go that route in my state.....but at least the vets have a conscious and the knowledge to act on it.
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