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As a chronic Lyme patient I can assure folks that what Scythian experiences is real and the list of suffers is growing. In our rural area we have more people each year with symptoms of Lyme and treatment is hard to find. And when you do it involves several hours of travel each way which alone is debilitating for days. On top of that are very restrictive CDC criteria detailing laboratory diagnosis and treatment when the diagnosis is clinical because of lab testing quality and timing issues.
The official treatment guidelines only work if disease is diagnosed early and that is rare and often rash related. The rash which can take different forms does not always present itself. I wonder why President Bush’s treatment for Lyme is not public - probably because it exceeds the CDC criteria. BTW, I’m not a physician just a long term patient who decided long ago to know thy enemy. And my three treatment regimens with colloidal silver were not successful.

"In our rural area we have more people each year with symptoms of Lyme and treatment is hard to find."

Former Lyme victim here. Lyme isn't seen often in my area, which puzzled my doc when I presented with the bulls-eye rash, swollen joints and eye problems. I explained that I'd been bitten by a horsefly in Munich two weeks earlier, and that is epidemic there, and that the urban legend that it was spread only by ticks is false. I presented a fax from a doctor in Munich (a family friend, and a dermatologist) attesting to this fact. But my idiot doctor could only shake his head and say, "But we don't have Lyme in this area." HELLO: I-got-bit-in-Munich-two-weeks-ago! We went around that bush several times before I got it through his thick skull.

Came the blood test: positive! Again, he was mystified. "But we don't have Lyme in this area!" ...SIGH...

It took two courses of doxycycline (six weeks was not enough) to rid me of it. Doxycycline is a rather benign antibiotic, often used for zits and such. It's cheap and well-tolerated by most folks, and it's effective against the Lyme spirochete if taken consistently for a couple months. Talk to your doc about it; it's well worth a try IMHO. Our family friend doc in Munich routinely prescribes it to anyone with the bulls-eye rash; doesn't even bother with a blood test. It's that common over there.