My elderly stepdad (90) was struck down over 20 years ago with what was -- many years later -- recognized as Lyme. But up until then they had no clue what was wrong with him. A previously strong, energetic, creative, productive boat and house builder, avid sailor and fisherman, and all around great guy. Suddenly he was tired, in pain, unable to do stuff.
So the doctors were clueless but of course they tried any number of treatments, none of which addressed it, and many of which had deleterious side effects. The end result of years of misdiagnoses and incorrect treatments, not to mention the Lyme itself, ruined his life.
Nobody can tell me chronic Lyme doesn't exist. Your comment is right on the mark -- treatment in time is critical.
I just got “diagnosed” with it. They didn’t do a test, they just started with the antibiotic. Luckily, I think they were wrong and it was Sacroiliitis instead, which was a good thing because it goes away.
Calling things “Fibro” is not a good thing because it simply pushes the patient off without discovering the real problem. Many times, the patients end up with a real problem without a solution.
It’s good the world is finally waking up to Lyme’s disease. I was very lucky in my youth. I got a deer tick bite in the back of my neck when changing the rear axle on my Wagoneer. I dug the tick out with a knife to be sure I got it out but within a week I came down with severe symptoms of constant headache, fever, chills, muscle convulsions, vomiting, etc.
I went to the hospital and the doctor said it takes weeks to develop the antibodies that the test requires but gave me the test anyway. He said I probably had it and prescribed 800mg tetracycline 3x day for 10 days. The symptoms continued unabated for the 10 days. On the 2nd to last pill on day 10 my fever broke and the symptoms subsided. It was over. The hospital called and said the Lyme’s disease test came back negative so I’ve never had to declare it on my medical records -which would have prohibited some employment and service options.
I consider myself extremely lucky wrt Lyme’s disease.
Now they just need to expose Epstein Barr virus a bit more. There are scores of strains and they appear to be becoming more virulent. From what I’ve learned the virus is the source of many auto-immune diseases. One researcher I read said there are over 60 strains and the typical strain has 18 phases it can be in. Current treatment strategy is to coax it into one of its remission phases to treat the associated auto-immune disease. I suppose we’ll have to wait 20 - 40 years for a more thorough understanding of Epstein Barr.