Writing About Lyme

I live with Lyme disease. I won't write here about the daily travails. Frankly, it gets boring. Perhaps, if there's interest I'll give periodic updates. I will write an introductory piece that records the challenging path to diagnosis, as a part of the body of work out there documenting the vagaries of this disease and our medical system.

I'll also write about the science and "controversies" surrounding Lyme disease. My hope is to make it understandable for the layperson. I'll collect good, informative links, also.

Why do this? Well, of course, it's of interest to me. More than that, there is a lot of misinformation out there. Only a few months ago, a friend of mine took her daughter to the doctor's office with an engorged tick attached to her body. My friend didn't want to remove it improperly. So, off they go to the doc. What does he do? He plucks it out and throws it into the trash and says, "done." When she told this anecdote I was horrified. That tick should have been sent off to a lab for testing. I instructed her to go back to the doctor and demand a round of anti-biotics for her daughter. Which she did. Thank goodness.

Lyme is a very challenging disease. It doesn't follow any rules, really. 50% of the people who acquire Lyme never have that bull's eye rash. 35% of them will test negative on the standard Lyme test. Some never exhibit the early flu-like symptoms. Some get neurological symptoms without arthritic symptoms.

One thing we know for sure: the best chance of actually getting Lyme out of your system is to get anti-biotics right away. The longer you wait, the less likely you are to banish it. So, if you've been bitten and you can't confirm that the tick did not carry the spirochete, you should protect yourself with a prophylactic course of anti-biotics.

How was it that this doctor didn't know that? We live in Lyme Country. Still, practitioners are not being properly educated about Lyme. That leaves it up to us to educate each other so we can protect ourselves. Hence, I will do what I can right here.