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Lyme-disease is spread by
ticks that are
abundant in the North-East and Fire Island. It is imperative to
carefully check oneself after out-door activity carefully, as well as dogs
and cats that move between the home and outdoors. For your own benefit,
read the sections: Prevention
and Tick/Lyme Info
carefully.
You may think you have always been careful. Think again!!
Some HMO doctors may only test if they observe the typical rash. The
standard test today is the Western Blot Test. With this sequence your
doctor has an about 75% chance of misdiagnosis. Reason: About half the
people infected develop a rash and the Western Blot is only about 50%
accurate. In addition, selection of the laboratory performing the test is
important, since CDC has, not long ago, reduced the required bands
reported in order to reduce false positives. That of course also reduces
accuracy and/or sensitivity. Furthermore, your doctor has to watch
out for co-infection with Ehrlichiosis and Babesiosis. Both may be carried
by Lyme Bacteria. (I am not doctor nor scientifically trained. Please
continue your education from other reliable sources. Please read, and
understand the disclaimer below).
Symptoms may include: the bulls-eye rash, mood swings,
joint aches, flu-like symptoms, general achines, head-aches, muscle-aches,
and more. As you can see symptoms can easily be rationalized away. Guard
your-self against it and be persistent with your doctor, and change
doctors if you feel your symptoms are not properly investigated.
The earlier and infection is diagnosed the more successful
the antibiotic treatment will be. Later stages infections are oftentimes
treated aggressively with one or more antibiotics , orally or intravenous.
The medical profession seems to have widely diverse opinions at this time
. Add to that the reluctance of insurance companies to pay for aggressive
treatments. The problem lies in the fact that it is virtually impossible
to clearly prove an infection after treatment with antibiotics (changes
are about to occur. See below). Later and late stages of infections seem
to be curable only temporarily since a few few bacteria usually survive in
not blood rich tissue.
One new development that has many Lyme positive people
hopeful is a test/culture developed by Dr. Steven Phillips of Ridgefield,
CT and 3 other doctors, published in Infection Journal in January 1999,
that outlines procedures that can culture and prove Lyme bacteria from
blood from late stage Lyme patients. It is still under peer-review, but
promises once commercially available, a strong tool when dealing with
insurance companies to pay for the often times expensive courses of
treatment.
These two links are important to bookmark:
Lyme Disease
Foundation, Inc. and
Lymenet.org. They also can help you find the names of the few Lyme
specialists in the metropolitan New York area. |