@becsbuddy Dr. Phillips was the first clinician who treated my Lyme (and co-infections) after my PCP hid my confirmatory Western Blots from me in an effort to convince me I did not have Lyme--which, by the time I discovered his deception, had raged past the point of control. I contracted it in 2002, lost my beloved job as a college professor in 2006, retired involuntarily on disability and have dealt with a cascade of perhaps consequent medical problems since: multiple endocrine neoplasia with acomegaly, Sjogren's, brain tumor, deconstructing spine, etc.

How much worse would it be if Dr. Phillips not prescribed IV antibiotics? I would be dead. I was lucky to have access to a Lyme literate physician. The endocrinologist who diagnosed my acromegaly had trained Dr. Phillips at Yale and referred to him as a "crank." That's how bad it is out there for Lyme--patients and doctors. I respected both of them, but the medical world is not big enough for Lyme disease.

Year after year I hold on. I wish I could do more for others suffering this horror. This dual horror--the disease AND its exclusion from understanding by medical gatekeepers.