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Lyme Disease Awareness Month

2K views 13 replies 9 participants last post by  buffalo689 
#1 · (Edited by Moderator)
Since my family has been affected by Lyme disease and May is Lyme Disease Awareness Month, i would like to take this opportunity to get the word out. The ticks are out and active-check yourself, your loved ones, your pets after having been outdoors. My husband contracted lyme twice (once undetected, some 15 years ago, we think) and was reinfected 8 months ago. He's still not healed from the latest infection. Here are some facts that come from this website: (bold emphasis my own!)

12 Lyme Disease Facts

1). You are more than 10 times more likely to get Lyme Disease than West Nile Virus. Ticks are everywhere and you are most likely to be bitten in your own yard.

2). Lyme Disease has surpassed AIDS as the #1 infectious disease in the U.S.

3). Testing for Lyme Disease is UNRELIABLE. To be tested correctly you must have your blood tested through a tick borne specialty labe such as Igenex Lab in Palo Alto.

4). Lyme Disease is passed many ways, ticks, all biting blood-sucking insects can be carriers.

5). The average primary Md knows NOTHING about Lyme Disease even though they believe they do.

6). Lyme Disease, if not caught right after the bite can become chronic with multiple systemic (body-wide) symptoms that is extremely hard to treat and patients only hope is long term antibiotics, sometimes YEARS and hope for remission.

7). You know someone with Lyme Disease and they likely don't know it. It is the "great imitator" If you know someone with pain, back problems, knee problems, Fibro, anxiety, migraines - you know someone with Lyme. There are 100 symptoms of Lyme Disease.-my husband had many of these for many years, not recognised by any doctor. It was all "between his ears".

8). Only Lyme literate Md's treat Lyme Disease effectively, not found in your local phone book either. Contact The Lyme Disease Association for more information Lyme doctor referral.

9). Lyme Disease enters the central nervous system almost immediately and even if "cured" you can relapse many years later.

10). The symptoms of LD are so devastating it can be completely disabling with symptoms similar to Parkinsons, Alzheimer's, MS or minor as migraines and insomnia and may be the cause of these diseases!

11). Lyme Disease may be responsible for some psychiatric illness and the number one cause of LD death is suicide.

12). Lyme Disease can kill.

END quote from website.
PLEASE DO TAKE CARE AND GET YOURSELF TO A KNOWLEDGEABLE DOCTOR WHEN YOU DISCOVER A BITE.
 
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#2 ·
I've had Lyme disease for over 20 years and I'm never going to get rid of it. Every round of antibiotics we've tried (that is long/strong enough to kick the LD) has nearly killed me.

It's something everybody needs to become familiar with.
 
#3 ·
Thankyou for the warning and reminder, I live in the country and on the east coast of Canada. I am told we are just beginning to see some cases here. Does insect repellant help, and any other pre-bite prevention suggestions would be helpful if there are any. Again thankyou for your concern.
Jack
 
#4 ·
DEET helps, but it is personal preference whether or not you want to use that. Other than that, wearing a hat, long sleeves, pants tucked in socks/boots, and thoroughly checking after you've been outside is the only thing I know. And if you live in a wooded area on some acreage free roaming chickens and guinea hens will eat the ticks before they become a problem (and you have eggs!)
 
#6 ·
Definitely check yourself thoroughly. And - I can't stress this enough!! - have a buddy check your hair after you've been in the woods. My tick bite was on my scalp and because of that, I did not notice the tell-tale "bulls-eye rash" until a doctor paid attention to why my head was itchy (everybody else said I just had dandruff). If you do find a tick, you want to be sure to pull it out completely - those little buggers attach very thoroughly.

Fiddlebanshee - thank you. You (and your husband) also my sympathies. I may PM sometime :)
 
#7 ·
Yep, I've had 'em on me and have been bitten, but as of yet no symptoms. I'll never leave the woods, so I take my chances. What is amazing about the lil critters is their capability to crawl onto you, even in numbers, and you don't know until you get an itch…then you scratch, and there's this little spot that doesn't get scratched… there's a bug there. If they are latching on, they can be hard to pick off. I always take a good look around myself after having gone out, paying special attention to areas that are hard to see. Lymes is no small issue, thanx for the opportunity to learn/help.
 
#8 ·
thanks for the info, I have been a victim of fleas in the past 2 years - always in the spring time. I have not gone into my detached garage/shop for the past couple of months because of that. it is indeed amazing how they find their way onto you almost regardless of what you do to prevent it.

I was very concerned with getting LD and went to get checked out - MD told me it's not that, but you have me worried. that was a year ago, and I haven't had any symptoms ever since (except for new bites in the last month and a cought flea that I was able to finally identify as the cause of my bites - they are a pain … feels like a burn more than a scratch and lasts for a long time).

be careful out there. it's the small unseen critters that are the most pain, not the big animals.
 
#9 ·
All you guys that have been bitten, PLEASE, PLEASE, PLEASE insist that your MD orders a bloodtest. Our GP didn't want to believe my husband had it and it was only after I insisted he got tested that it surfaced. Even if you have no symptoms and/or no bullseye, you may still have the pathogens to go dormant and surface later. If you leave it too long, it is much harder to eradicate.

Ironic in my husbands' case that the same GP who didn't believe in LYME 2 months later came down with it himself.
 
#10 ·
One of my good friends has Lyme and has created a good database site with excellent free material (as well as pay material), where she gives a lot of great tips on how to deal with Lyme in a holistic fashion.
A great resource I believe for those who really are seeking different methods of dealing with Lyme. There are ways to manage the illness, and no one should feel crippled because of it. In fact there are individuals out there have healed from Lyme. It is a road for sure, but definitely not a road that is signed and sealed with no possibility of healing. I cannot bring myself to ever believe that.
http://www.lyme-disease-research-database.com
 
#11 ·
Lymeadvocate:

That's a wonderful website. Thanks for posting it. I will make sure to look at it.

We're fortunate to have found a really good lyme dr. and my husband is slowly improving under her care. But it is a long and cumbersome process with ups and many downs. I wish I could agree with you that no one should feel crippled while having lyme, but the reality is that many patients are crippled and are not responding to treatment well. There is so little information about lyme because there is so little research done that it is very hard to find the right combination of drugs and other treatments for each individual. Case in point, some lyme patients are literally crippled-they develop MS or in my husbands case the infection settled in his feet and he literally could not walk.

It is very easy to pass judgement over what someone should feel or not feel-those who have to live with the reality are the final authorities in my book.
 
#12 ·
i to have had ld, i never saw a bite with the tell tale bulseye marking. i was lucky and caught it in its early stage. it was totaly debilitating, my symptoms were a severe headach that would not go away and lasted for more than 4 weeks, my whole body hurt like a bad case of the flue, cronic fatige, could sleep for 20 hours a day as this seemed to be the only way to cope with the headache, it affects your central nervous system as i couldnt walk a straight line if my life depended on it. one doctor told me it was all in my head and that i was working to much, i never went back to him and found another doctor and insisted that i be tested for ld. the test came back positive! i was put on an antibiotic treatment for 4 to 6 weeks and recovered. most people think they have the flu and never seek treatment, ld goes into remision and returns months or years later and when it returns it can be untreatable and permanent! it is so rare in the part of michigan that i live in that i recieved a phone call from the health department and got alot of information from them. 2 days ago i was cutting down a tree with a friend and he reached out and picked a tick off of my shoulder! it was crawling up my shirt and i didnt even know it was there, if he hadnt seen it it probably would have made it to my hair and not have been detected. that moment made me think of ld all over again.
 
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