cha's Top Ten: Worst Advice Lyme Patients Give Each Other

[Guest guest]

I owe my Lyme diagnosis and much, much more to other patients I've

learned from. So this is not a put-down of Lyme patients at all.

We're not infallible, though.

I was a volunteer staff member on a certain website, which shall

remain nameless. Until I wised up, I naively repeated what turned

out to be half-baked, pseudo-facts.

So when I talk about patients giving dubious advice, I'm not just

pointing the finger at others.

Anyhow, these are the ten worst pieces of advice that I've seen Lyme

patients give each other (your list might look very different):

1. If you want to get well, you have to do exactly what I did.

2. IV antibiotics have been discredited, and oral antibiotics are

superior. OR: High doses of antibiotics have discredited, and low,

pulsed doses are superior.

3. All Lyme patients respond to the same treatments in the same way.

4. Antibiotic treatment never works.

5. Antibiotic treatment always works.

6. If you don't stop doing X and start doing Y, you will never get

well.

7. If your symptoms get worse on antibiotics, you can always safely

assume this is a Herxheimer response to bacterial die-off.

8. There is a cure that works for everyone, but only a few people

understand it.

9. Lyme patients with chronic pain should avoid narcotics, or

they'll get addicted.

10. Putting absolute faith in experimental treatment is necessary

for that treatment to work