Stop the lies and endless suffering of Lyme patients!

Before having my surgery, I was very concerned about how the Lyme might be a complicating factor in a major surgery.  I went to see an Infectious Disease doctor (ID doctors are the ones mainstream medicine claims are the experts on diseases such as Lyme disease; to the Lyme community, they are a large part of the problem) to ask her opinion of this matter.  I went in with very low expectations of this appointment, which were definitely confirmed.

As soon as my mom and I sat down, this doctor asked me why I believed I had Lyme Disease.  She told me my ELISA test was negative (and anyone who knows anything about Lyme testing knows how grossly inaccurate the ELISA test is – it’s an embarrassment to medicine that it is still used).  I explained that I had taken the Western Blot on my own, and tested positive or double positive on almost all of the bands indicating Lyme Disease.  The Western Blot does not detect the presence of the bacteria (the bacteria is very small and can hide in tissue, bone, etc., so can be extremely difficult to detect), but rather, it detects the presence of the antibodies which fight the Lyme bacteria; it looks at specific bands and proteins in the blood, and is a very precise test…to which this ID doctor flat out denied.

The ID doctor told me I did not have Lyme and I needed to stop reading garbage on the internet.  She continued to say that her claims were based on medical literature and mine were not- that I had no idea what I was talking about.  Actually, I have probably spent thousands of hours and countless sleepless nights (thanks insomnia) researching this disease, and sadly, I know more about it than most doctors.  I told this ID doctor that the sources she was likely referring to were written by the same 5 doctors (or so), all of whom wrote the diagnostic criteria guidelines that allowed for the continued suffering and denial of treatment for Lyme patients – they have made the diagnostic criteria so rigid that a high percentage of  positive Lyme patients are told they are negative and remain undiagnosed and untreated, or are misdiagnosed and improperly treated.

I continued to explain to this woman that I had been certain to look for credible sources- some of which were medical journals from Europe, based on actual data, and backed what the Lyme community has been fighting for.  Of course, she completely dismissed this, and said she had never heard of anything like it.  I asked her to explain my horrible and debilitating symptoms- if it wasn’t Lyme, what was it?  Her response was that ‘people like you just have some disease we just don’t know about yet.’  What a completely ridiculous and absurd statement.  I REMEMBER BEING BITTEN!

Anyhow, long story long, she said that even if someone has Lyme, there aren’t any extra precautions to take with surgery.  That was the only answer I was looking for- my only reason for my meeting with this doctor.  I didn’t bother to ask her if the Lyme would affect my recovery.  I plan to send her some credible medical journals supporting my case and all other late stage/chronic Lymies, and however unlikely, I hope she will actually read them.