Guest guest Posted June 12, 2006 Report Posted June 12, 2006 http://www.rutlandherald.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20060611/NEWS/60611 0307/1037 Letters Lyme disease article was a godsend to readers June 11, 2006 I want to thank you a million times over for the amazing article your paper did on Lyme disease! I am so impressed with its breadth, fairness, depth and clarity. It is by far the best newspaper article I have read yet on the subject. I have chronic Lyme disease, which I contracted while my husband and I were living in New Haven, Conn., for graduate school. It took two years and about 20 doctors before I was finally diagnosed and started treatment. Though I have tried a handful of times to wean off of the antibiotic treatment, I have been unable to after three years. My debilitating symptoms just seem to come right back. I was actually in the hospital last night for heart symptoms related to the infection and am now back on intravenous treatment. The antibiotics cause a dramatic increase in the quality of my life by greatly reducing the hugely debilitating symptoms. Because of erroneous information put out by organizations such as the Centers for Disease Control, the Infectious Disease Society of America, and even prestigious medical institutions such as the Mayo Clinic and Stanford University, many patients that I have met are refused treatment. Most insurance companies are now refusing to cover antibiotics after 30 days, because the institutions I've mentioned are collectively saying there is no such thing as an active chronic Lyme infection after one month of antibiotic. And sadly, the controversy has become a political football and very little research is being funded, if at all. Many organizations founded by Lyme patients and their doctors make it one of their primary goals to raise money for research, or the legal funds of the Lyme expert doctors who are getting yanked before state medical boards and losing their licenses or having them challenged for " overtreating Lyme disease. " It's truly unbelievable! The pediatrician mentioned in your article in Connecticut - the only pediatrician in the entire country who is an expert on Lyme disease - is having his license contested as I write this. There was a huge Lyme rally in Hartford on June 3 to support him. He has treated at least 10,000 children in his career - children flown in from all over the country by their frightened and exasperated parents. So now you know why I am writing to you from across the country! What you have done with your amazing article, researched and reported with so much integrity, is a godsend for all of your readers, and may possibly save them from years of debilitating health problems. Theresa H. Boer Menlo Park, Calif. © 2006 Rutland Herald ===== http://www.timesargus.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20060611/NEWS/606110308 /1022 Letters Doctors are in denial about Lyme disease June 11, 2006 Mel Huff's article " Lives compromised by Lyme disease: Ticks becoming more prevalent in Vermont " in the May 28 edition of the Sunday Rutland Herald and Times Argus was very well done. As a fellow chronic, late-stage Lyme patient I understand all too well the personal stories in the profile. I have become disabled to the point that I am no longer able to work. On a really good day I can get " out and about " with assistance for a couple of hours, only to have to rest for the next day or three to recover. Lyme disease has affected my entire body. In the past year alone I have lost 30 pounds, mostly muscle. My nervous system is affected (I have anxiety, depression, memory loss, hypersensitivity, insomnia and more), I've been hospitalized with heart complications, I am constantly fatigued and most days I am in quite a bit of pain (in my head/neck, knees and muscles) as well. My mobility is severely diminished. Like so many others, my symptoms were treated individually (with little relief) for years. It was not until last year when I could no longer even get out of bed for several weeks in a row that I was diagnosed and that was only because someone recommended I see a doctor in New Hampshire. The biggest problem I see with Lyme disease is not that the public is uninformed; the biggest problem is that there are still so many doctors in denial that Lyme exists in Vermont, or that it has been here for many years. I personally was infected more than 20 years ago, at a time when I never traveled outside of northern New England. Doctors, all kinds and all specialties, need to be trained in how to recognize and treat Lyme disease in all its many manifestations. The rates of Lyme disease are staggering. And while the government is wasting millions of dollars on preparing for the possibility of an epidemic bird flu, they are ignoring the current epidemic of Lyme disease. People are losing their lives as they know them, and even dying from undiagnosed Lyme disease. Something has got to change. Middlesex © 2006 Times Argus -- No virus found in this outgoing message. Checked by AVG Free Edition. Version: 7.1.394 / Virus Database: 268.8.3/360 - Release Date: 09/06/2006 Quote
Recommended Posts
Join the conversation
You are posting as a guest. If you have an account, sign in now to post with your account.
Note: Your post will require moderator approval before it will be visible.