Lyme Disease Awareness and why I am blogging

I used to blog on my myspace page when I was first diagnosed late 2008 and early 2009. I have copied my blogs from myspace and posted them into this new blog that I am starting.

Read the "About Me" section about why I am doing this blog.
I also want to raise awareness about lyme disease and assure you that it DOES exist in the state of Ohio. No matter what doctors are telling you.

Lyme Disease is not heard of in the public enough so many people either don't know what it is or think it is rare. It is not rare at all! Ticks are everywhere and can even be in your own back yard. Yes even in the state of Ohio. Ticks don't know where the borders ends and are very common in PA.

First discovered as Juvenile Rheumatoid Arthritis in 1975 in Lyme, Connecticut.
It is being misdiagnosed as Rheumatoid Arthritis, Multiple Sclerosis, Lou Gherig's Disease(ALS), Lupus, Chronic Fatigue Syndrome, Fibromyalgia, Autism and others.

You can get bit and not even know it. They can be a small as a poppy seed and they numb the area of the bite. Less then 50% of people even remember a bite.

There are 100+ symptoms because the bacteria can be anywhere in your body. It can go deep into your tissues and organs and effect your nervous system, your brain and memory, your muscles.

Some people are so sick they are in wheelchairs & some are dying! This disease can be treated with antibiotics if it it caught early. If it is caught late then it needs many months or years of treatment and could stay with you forever. The Lyme bacteria can hide deep in the tissue, muscle, organs and bones so that antibiotics can not kill it.

It is underdiagnosed because many doctors do not know enough to test for it. Or they are using the an outdated test by a lab that doesn't specialize in testing for lyme disease. There is a lab called Igenex that does a more accurate test but doctors are not using it or are not aware.

In the mean time many people are sick and don't know why! Then when they finally find a Lyme doctor they are denied long term treatment. Why? Because doctors are following treatment guidelines that say chronic lyme doesn't exist. Well I am proof that it does!

Please watch the lyme documentary called "Under Our Skin". I have a copy if anyone would like to see it to understand more about the seriousness of the illness. Also to understand why we have troubles finding a diagnosis, getting treated, finding doctors and getting insurance to pay!