Blast from the Past – Part 2

Alas, a true vacation. One that I was able to take the time to enjoy and concentrate on just having fun. Yes, it had a purpose, but I had fun in the process.  This blurb is a bit of a continuation of my Blast in the Past blog.

In my quest to find my past, I stumbled upon quite a few that were touched by Lyme Disease and other tick-borne diseases. One evening, I met my sweetheart and a friend for a bite to eat. It was the place where my younger sister once worked while in high school as a waitress. When I was asked to meet them there, I couldn’t recall where it was, nothing new there. I was a bit nervous. My sweetie was confident once I began driving there I would be able to remember familiar landmarks along the way and arrive safely. (Mind you, I drove my hot rod I thought I’d never been able to drive again due to my Lyme Disease arthritis.)

It was exhilarating as I encountered some familiar smells, recognized farms, and homes. I arrived at the same time as they did. (If you’d ask who lived there I wouldn’t be able to recall the name, but they had a familiarity. No big deal to someone normally but it was a major step for me.) It was a small place where anyone or everyone would begin talking to one another. All of a sudden, I heard him, he has been going to the doctor over and over, he had asked the doctor to run a battery of blood tests, and he even asked to have a Lyme Disease test. Funny thing the doctor didn’t even let him see the results. Then, he began wondering out loud. Do you think they even did the Lyme Disease test? I couldn’t help myself. I asked if he got copies of the results and if he went over them with him. Of course, I had to share that most doctors will not test for Lyme and avoid it like the plague. I recommended that if his doctor didn’t order a Lyme Disease test that he could have his blood drawn and send the sample to Igenix or one of the other labs for testing.  You have to be your advocate and fight!!!

As I was talking to him, I noticed the uncontrollable shaking of his right arm. I recalled how my arms would shake uncontrollably like his. He shared how on one day his arm was numb, and he couldn’t move it at all. He described the excruciating pain he felt that day, it was unlike any pain he had experienced before. He spoke of how he had some unexplainable things going on with him. He has been seeing this doctor, and he still has no answers.

As the evening progressed, he mentioned his father–he had Lyme Disease in the past, now he is dealing with Fibromyalgia. Then, it all began a big uproar. “Fibromyalgia is a BS diagnosis that doctors gave a label because they have no clue.” I had to share on how some think that fibro pain is lingering symptoms of nerve pain from Lyme Disease, other theories were that CFS, fibromyalgia, Morgellons, and Lyme Disease among other tick-borne disease all had a common link.  In between their bites of pizza and my buffalo wings, giggling and chatting. They took it all in. We were still enjoying ourselves, but we also made it an education seminar of sorts.

The dialogue calmed down—I emphatically stated that yes, it is important to find the cause to find a cure, but while all this discourse was going on the patients are the ones that are seriously being hurt. They need relief now and to be treated with what helps them. Until an answer is found, they should be able to receive the treatment that helps them get better or feel some relief. Why in the world should they continue to suffer and be denied treatment? There is no easy answer, and it looks like there won’t be one anytime soon so let the doctors and patients use their judgment to be able to do what’s best for them, now not later.

In my blog, Blast to the Past, I mentioned how others said that they never saw me upset or angry, but I can tell you that I am very passionate when it comes to Lyme Disease. I did my best to inform them of the controversies involved but also gave them enough information to do their own investigating. When I was in Wisconsin, I was astounded with the number of people running around with a diagnosis of Fibromyalgia and CFS (chronic fatigue syndrome); how awful to be running around with all that pain and fatigue.  I also wondered how many had the later stages of Lyme Disease.