What would you say if I told you there have been at least 4.05 million cases of Lyme Disease but only 404,000 have been documented through the Centers for Disease Control (CDC)?
Or imagine I said in the past 8 months over 140,000 people have contracted Lyme Disease but only a tenth of them have been reported to the CDC. Some would say reporting doesn't matter but let's think of the snowball effect! Without reliable reporting of Lyme Disease cases, our society continues to believe its a problem that simply goes away with a few weeks of antibiotics. I also believed in this myth.....thats of course....until it happened to me!
Lyme Disease was rated one of the top 10 misdiagnosed diseases by Reader's Digest. First and foremost, we have to think of the people being affected by the lack of education to the general public and the medical profession. There are potentially millions of people misdiagnosed with Multiple Sclerosis, Fibromyalgia, Rhemuatoid Arthritis, Anxiety, Depression, Lupus, Hypothyroidism, Polycystic Ovary Syndrome, Celiac Disease, Aneurysm, Parkinson's Disease, Mononucleosis, Chronic Fatigue Sydrome, Candidiasis, multiple psychitrics and mood disorders and some reasearch even strongly suggests Autism.
Let's also think about the group of people who have no diagnosis. I was this person before being mislabeled with many of the above listed. I was told by doctors I was "stressed", "It's all in your head", "It's probably just anxiety......people get that with age", "You have a brain aneurysm", "I'm pretty certain its MS".
Now you would think the signs would have rang a few bells to the people in the medical profession, particularly since I actually told them I was convinced it was Lyme. I also informed them that my dog had just been diagnosed with Lyme. My symptoms had started with flu-like symptoms, stiff neck, a high fever followed by months and months of low grade fever. I had arthritic pain in my knees, hips and back, my short term memory was significantly impaired, I was experiencing panic attacks, had no appetite (literally couldnt even force myself to eat), my brain felt like it was tingling all the time. I had continuous ringing in my ears and I had severe light sensitivity (It's hard to believe but when Lyme became chronic the list of symptoms grew even larger.....that deserves a post all to itself).
I can sadly guarantee that almost every single person reading this blog knows at least one person with one of the above "labels". What if you knew that what was causing their suffering might actually be treatable and capable of recovery when treated by a Licensed Lyme Disease Specialist (email me for recommedations in your area)? Would you spend 10 minutes of your time suggesting they read about it? Educate Yourself!
