How ironic.
I've long stopped looking at these, and glanced at this because I was notified someone agreed with a post from last year! I've got LC, but I've done a boatload of research on Lyme.
My child has had Lyme ( + 2co-infections) for 10 years. Got it at 11. He has gone thru hell. Is going thru currently. He has been so disabled he wasn't able to attend middle or high school, and we've seen 3 of the "biggest names" of Lyme--- nothing has helped. ----I get it----
I am so sorry.
Hope this helps? Adopt as see fit.
My Rules:
1. Never go infectious disease route ever
2. Vet drs before if you can: your mental health does NOT need to hear "its in your head". Protect yourself.
3. Be persistent, but not pesky with drs who are good. (NOT so with insurance... ALL they know is pesky! They havent paid for anything.)
4. Subscribe to Lyme Times and any other Lyme newsletter you can. That is where I've found out about new treatments and "new successful" Lyme "treating doctors." The last 3 protocols have been found by me, and then taken to our Dr.
5. ILLADS is for prof. medical providers, but they have good educational stuff. Look through every place that treats Lyme. BUT: Many "big name" hospitals or med centers don't believe in chronic Lyme ( like our host here)
6. Get recs on providers!. (We see a psychiatrist as our Lyme Dr, because he is the one who diagnosed him; and now our doc has kind of been dragged into the Lyme world.) Those are the good (medical) ones: they start out as rheumatologists, pediatricians,etc. (but NOT inf. Disease.) and then they had patients no one could or would help, so they become Lyme drs.
7. Get a support system. Find people you can trust and tell them what is going on. Online is ok, but there are lots of crackpots pushing their cure
( you know? Dip magnets from Mexico into mayo and suck at night? I just made that up, but it gets old.) Do therapy, but w/ a therapist who specializes in chronic illness. (We've tried others, and telling them what is going on just doesn't compute--they wanted to make exercise goals, or "fix it". A bug is causing this, not a pulled muscle, or your slovenly lack of energy!! Most models of therapy/treatment cannot look beyond what THEY know or were taught. Find someone near you, and ask them if they have recs for health therapists.
8. This is the worst. I think. Hands down. I almost died from Covid, and then from Long Covid... but this?? This never stops. When you get treatments you get Herxheimer reactions: your body reacts to the drugs, the bugs react, and your body becomes the battlefield-- think WWI: toxic killing mustard gas floating around the air, trenches filled with crying wounded parts, reeking, miserable and traumatic.
I hope this helps? Or... At least you know you're not alone.
@car0 Thank you for this information! I just read a book, titled “Chronic” by Steven Phillip, which told of his journey thru Lyme toward becoming a Lyme specialist. I know/knew nothing about Lyme disease so the book was very interesting. Hopefully, it was a good choice1