“The most widely used lab tests for Lyme have been shown to miss more than 50% of cases. That’s no better than a coin toss.”
via Delayed diagnosis of Lyme disease has devastating effect on patients.
I’ve been telling people this for years, along with many other points in this report:
- Lyme is in all 50 states and more than 60 countries
- People are consistently diagnosed with mood disorders, Fibromyalgia, and Chronic Fatigue. The first says “it’s all in your head”. The second and third are primarily descriptions of symptoms with identification of a cause. Addressing Lyme appropriately can reverse these symptoms, and usually does.
- For the most part, short term treatment fails. The idea that many doctors and mainstream media promote, that Lyme is hard to get and easy to cure, is wrong.
For a more comprehensive understanding and approach to Lyme disease, please join me Monday, June 22 at the Chester Public Library.
Fran Sussman Holistic Services 
My children and I were not properly diagnosed with lyme and coinfections until we had been sick for years. I grew up thinking I had learning disabilities and sensory integration disorder, and became extremely ill with graves disease at age 14, and I was almost hospitalized. I grew up thinking I was unintelligent because I struggled in school and with things like executive planning and organization, and social interactions overwhelmed me. My children had developed PANDAS, an autoimmune brain disease, by the time their doctor figured out all the chronic infections they had, including Lyme. One child was given an autism label. I watched them struggle with often severe neurological and psychiatric symptoms because of this, and regressions. One child bordered on psychosis at times. Imagine having to live your life like this, on a daily basis, feeling tired and sick yourself, while your two children alternate constantly between autoimmune flares. I didn’t find out I was lyme positive with many other coinfections and immune deficiency until over a year ago when my health completely fell apart. At that point, having to work fulltime and care for two sick kids, lacking hardly any support system, I literally was afraid I would die. Somehow, I found my way out of this dark place, and a year later most of my learning issues are gone. My child with autism has stabilized for the most part, and we are working on the second child. I wouldn’t wish lyme disease on anyone. It’s not fun when your brain is foggy and doesn’t work right, when you are tired every day, when your child staggers around with uncontrolled body movements from lyme neurotoxicity, or you have to deal with rages from a family member that is battling late stage lyme disease and bartonella.
I plead with doctors to think of lyme when your patient presents with classic symptoms or severe neurological or psychiatric problems, or you see teens and children, young adults with fatigue and chronic joint pain, autoimmune diseases. It will take my children and I many years to heal, and we suffered and missed out on life for many years. Lyme is more common than you think, and it destroys families and people’s health.
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I’m so sorry for everything you and your family suffered. I hope you are all well on the way to recovery now, and I can assure you that Healing is Possible. I am well aware of how common, and how pernicious, Lyme can be, as well as all the misdiagnoses, not to mention the lack of diagnosis. I find that many clients who come to me have no idea that Lyme and its co-infections are actually the root cause of their symptoms. The good news is that once we identify it, there is the possibility to recover.
thanks for writing,
Fran
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