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Lyme disease rises, but early tests still not available

Posted on Aug 14th 2007 5:24PM by Brian White

Filed Under: Diet & Weight Loss

It's something I rarely hear in the news during the summertime -- lyme disease. This disease, most often associated with the common tick, can be fatal in a small number of cases but is usually treatable. In fact, did you know that President Bush recently admitted to having Lyme Disease treatment?

As such, the media discussion has flared up again on ticks and lyme disease. If you've ever worked outside in the spring or summer, you've probably seen ticks, and they seem to like pets (dogs) as well. Ticks are nor harmless, though. Just like mosquitoes, they can transmit disease.

Yet, tests for lyme disease is not detectable when inside the human body using standard test batteries. Current tests only are good for finding the antibodies inside your body that are fighting the lyme bacteria -- but not the disease itself. Why aren't better techniques available? Your guess is as good as mine.

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Tags: lyme disease, LymeDisease, tick disease, TickDisease, ticks

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Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)

Joe McMahon 4-10-2008 @ 5:21PM

Dr. Jones treated my daughter when Lyme disease destroyed her life. Actually he cured my daughter. We had to travel over 300 miles to get her treated. If not for Dr. Jones, she would be permanently disabled. His treatement worked.

BETTY MCGLOTHLIN 3-02-2011 @ 7:24PM

PLEASE PLEASE HELP ME WITH LYME'S DISEASE CAUSE MY DRS. DON'T KNOW WHAT TO DO....IT IS LITERALLY KILLING ME EVERYDAY...GETTING WORSE. ON TONS OF MEDS AND NOTHING SEEMS TO HELP ME....ALMOST READY TO GIVE UP CAUSE OF THE PAIN, THE AGONY, AND JUST TRYING TO LIVE DAY-TO-DAY. HAVE WENT TO HERBALIST, IRIDOLOGIST ETC. AND THEY GET ME DOING BETTER BUT NOT CLEARING ME UP. THEN I HAVE ANOTHER FLARE-UP AND IT GOES ON FOR MONTHS AT A TIME...SLOWLY TAKING ME APART PIECE BY PIECE. SO PLEASE GIVE ME SOME INFORMATION THAT MIGHT BE ABLE TO SAVE MY LIFE...GOD BLESS YOU!

Delores 2-25-2011 @ 12:04PM

I live in Florida where I contracted Lyme disease. When a “bull’s eye rash” appeared on my thigh on a beautiful Sunday afternoon after working in my yard all weekend I thought it was a spider bite and did NOT seek immediate medical attention. I had no idea this “tell-tale” rash indicated Lyme disease. Over the next 6 years my health deteriorated significantly. Six years, one needless neck operation, and thirteen doctors later, I was finally diagnosed by the first doctor I visited when I my latest symptom was chest pains and heart problems. But by then I basically was “toast”! I could hardly walk, speak, my endocrine system had practically stalled, the neuropathy pain was horrible, had trouble focusing my eyes, but the “brain fog” was by far the most debilitating and devastating! After an unorthodox treatment of 2 years of constant I.V. antibiotics I now seem “normal” to most people who did not know me before I was bitten by a nasty little tiny Lyme-disease-carrying parasitical tick! But the chronic pain and other physical and mental deficits caused by Lyme disease will affect me the remainder of my life. It is what it is. However, my point is that AWARNESS of what Lyme disease is, and the reality of the fact that it affects people in every single state, is crucial to prevention, early detection and treatment. I am a testament that this scourge certainly can and does develop into a CHRONIC illness. Living this way is NOT my choice!

sherry rutherford 2-25-2011 @ 1:31PM

Dear Deloris.
i thougt i ahd been through hell,until i read your story.I was treated for heart disease first then severe depression,then diagnosed with(age49) Dementia,depression and anxiety.A spinal tap that was prformed in July of 2010 actually showed the lyme disease,but the test wasn't read until january of 2011 ,immediatly hopitalized and a pic line installed for intravenous iv treatment.Now it's 28 days after the antibiotics and feeling no better.All I feel I can do is say my prayers that this BACTERIA will be wiped out and THAT PEOPLE LIKE US THAT CALL THEMSELVES DOCTORS WILL BECOME EDUCATED FOR THE PREVENTION AND CURE FOR THE DISEASE)MY LYME BACTERIA HEART GOES OUT TO YOU AND HOPE YOU THE BEST THAT YOU CAN BE...SHERRY

Deanna 2-27-2011 @ 11:20PM

Hey Delores - I also live in Florida and when I read your story, I thought I was reading about myself with the exception of the bulls eye rash and a positive lyme report. I do remember being bitten various times throughout my life and a severe exposure almost 20 years ago. I easily had hundreds of ticks on my legs while fishing around a lake in VA during the summer. At first, my husband and I thought it was dirt, but it would wipe off. He was getting bitten as we were picking them off of me. Days later, I would find them at the nape of my neck, around my waist band, etc., but we didn't know a thing about lyme disease.

It wasn't until 2006 when I crashed and have been in treatment since 2008. Broke the bank with years of treatment including IV for 8 months. I am almost back on my feet, but I will never be the person who I use to be. I also had neck surgery because of the pain that I was experiencing, but the stiffness and pain didn't go away until the IV antibiotics. I now have chronic pain in my neck from the surgery.

My symptoms are so close to yours which seems unusual. I got to the point where I could barely speak, walk, would sleep for days at a time and the pain was unrelenting. The aggressive antibiotic treatments have saved my life, but I owe it to a special doctor here in Orlando who diagnosed me.