Lyme Disease

[MrBug708]

Does anyone have much information on it? I've check it out on a few websites and it gives me the medical terms, but does anyone have anything they can get to me about it based on personal dealings with it? My sister has been sick for about the last 11 years of her life and they havent been able to figure out why for most of it. Well, they FINALLy were able to say it was Lyme Disease so I have a rather personal vested interest in it now. Thanks guys!

[Ragone]

http://www.cdc.gov/ncidod/dvbid/lyme/qa.htm#treated

[MrBug708]

That was the first page I ended up at

[FrogMan]

you've probably already thought about it, but webmd may help...
http://my.webmd.com/hw/arthritis/hw77228.asp

FM

[QuikSand]

I have spent a good deal of time informally researching Lyme disease, and while I don't have a good web link handy, I can tell you that there is a *lot* of information out there, and it will invariably sound confusing and conflicting, partly because the range of symptoms from it are so extremely variable. The bottom line is that it is often tough to diagnose, sometimes even tougher to confirm, and in cases where it lingers a long time (like it sounds like she has dealt with) can manifest itself with a wide variety of neurological, physiological, and psychological symptoms.

If in fact she has Lyme disease, she should count herself lucky. She should find it to be rather treatable once properly diagnosed, and she might (like many Lyme patients) find some rather rapid improvement in the conditions that have befallen her, once treatment is underway. I know of many cases that went quickly from rather severe to almost completely subsided in a matter of weeks. I have been told by doctors that for many people, an eventual Lyme diagnosis is a great blessing -- of all the possible causes of certain very bothersome symptoms (especially neurological things) it's probably the single most treatable thing that could be behind them.


I wish her, and you, the best of luck.

[miked]

The main problem as alluded to above is that the testing is not very conclusive. I seem to remember seeing somewhere that a very high percentage of positive tests were "false positives"...something along the range of 25% or so. It's mainly diagnosed on symptons that are fairly common to other diseases (mono, college, etc...).

My mom had lots of memory problems for a while and they gave her a bunch of tests, neurological and blood. She ended up being diagnosed with Lyme disease and had to have IV antibiotics for a while (they had to leave the IV in so she could have it at home). So consider it lucky if in fact it is Lyme disease and they are able to treat it, because it helped my mom get better pretty quickly. Good luck.

[Eaglesfan27]

I just am echoing what Quiksand and Miked said. That is a major problem of false positives, however, it is equally perplexing that the diagnostic tests yield a signficant number of false negatives. I've known ID doctors to treat empirically without a positive serological test (particularly in the North Eastern US where it is a fairly significant problem.)