I know, i was kidding- and yes- we’re pretty fortunate but- things are getting pretty bad with ticks spreading across country- I suspect many people go diagnosed- especially in states where it hasn’t been ‘officially recognized’ yet- many hometown docs just don’t know what the sick people’s symptoms add up to yet-
We had a neighbor who’s daughter got bit- developed the bullseye rash, and hometown doc said ‘nope- not lyme disease’ because the test came back ‘negative for lyme’ (Which is another reason not many people get diagnosed- the tests are notoriously bad at detecting it)
Anyway- she took her daughter to the city for testing because she got so weak- and yep- turned out to be lyme disease-
Yes, I also have had some contact with the false negative culture of Lyme Disease testing. At that time the common hospital lab test produced an unacceptable number of false negatives (may still be the case); however, one or two specialized research labs offered a superior test but without insurance coverage. Few patients proceeded to that test at their own expense. I’ve forgotten a lot of the details, but the etiology of many not properly diagnosed symptom clusters might well lie with the tick bite.