Need to VENT!!!

Maybe i never paid close attention... but i feel like for how severe Lyme is and how common it has become... it doesnt seem like it gets enough attention in the media.

I mean... people make such a HUGE deal about the flu every darn winter. You see/hear ads for flu shots in all forms of media... and its just the flu!!! You get the flu... 99% of people survive and you feel better in a week or less. BIG DEAL.

Then on the other hand we have Lyme... which im pretty sure has a higher chance of killing you... and even if it doesnt kill you it basically ruins your life anyway. But you pretty much never hear about it in public. I am almost never taken seriously when I talk about Lyme with "friends". Ive been made fun of and even had someone call it a "fruity illness". Well... im getting better now... and now i do the laughing when these same people complain about getting "sick". I literally make fun of people who complain about colds and flus. They have no idea what it really means to be sick and feel like your dying every single day for YEARS!!!

So anyway... I think its about time Lyme got its 15 minutes of fame. And not just these briefings you see that pop up in the news once a year in the spring that says "watch out for ticks and bulls eye rashes". It literally makes dumb people think that a rash is like the only symptom you ever get. I know because I used to be one of those dumb people.

Lets see some stuff that actually shows what lyme can do to you. Show some people in wheelchairs. Show some people who have lost their jobs, friends, and relationships. Show what lyme really does in the long run. How it affects every part of your body and brain and mimics almost every major disease. Not just a rash. Then maybe people will do a better job watching out for it and also be more respectful to those who already do have it.

I have never been the type to make excuses in the past. But there are many things in my life that I now directly blame on Lyme. And if people want to sit there and say Lyme is a dumb excuse and a fruity illness well SCREW THEM!!! Once I am completely back on my feet it will be real funny when people start trying to be my friend again. I am now a lone wolf...

Anyone else want to vent?? Go for it... its fun.

-MysteryLyme

Can't agree with you more. I remember once I heard someone died of lyme and thought, well he had to have had something else wrong with him. I had no idea what it was! I myself am having a bad day and feeling like crap. Just when I think I am on the way up, I try to diet, eat healthy and exercise and WHAM. Today, chest pains, shortness of breath (NEVER had this before) and ache all over. Guess I need a detox bath tonight. and yet I know I am fortunate. I got up, showered, went to work and came home to sit on the couch. I know there are many out there not as lucky as me. It just doesn't seem fair. I try everyday to think of a way to bring this GD DISEASE to the forefront and then I think, my luck, my insurance company will get wind of it and cut me off and then I'll really be up a creek. Ugh.

Well said.  I NEVER knew anything about this disease until I was diagnosed about 4 weeks ago after years of being very sick, numerous doctors and thousands of dollars later.  I heard about lyme but never knew how damaging it can be. 

I have been on the fibromyalgia board after being diagnosed back in 2006 and when I got diagnosed with lyme I came on here and started reading everything I could so I could know what in the heck is going on in my body.  Very frightening to say the least.  I never had the bullseye rash and I had been bit by a tick 3 times over 20 years.  Not one doctor thought about checking for lyme.  After having a completely crazy mental episode I went to a holistic dr and that was one of the first things she asked me about.....did the tests and here I am.  It all makes so much sense now.  I have been having major illnesses as far back as 2003.  All the doctors (heck...i think I went to every ologist dr I can think of) wanted to tell me you need to see a psychologist.  I kept telling them something was wrong...they would run a few tests that all come back negative.....prescribe me some meds and send me on my way.

There definitely needs to be more awareness of the disease!!  If more doctors were aware of all the disease entails maybe people wouldnt go undiagnosed for so many years!!

I love this forum!!  I cant say it enough...y'all have helped me tremendously without even knowing it!!

Makes me want to take a handful of ticks and put them in every bed of every physican that said i was crazy and see how crazy they become.....JERKS!!

this could make u more mad

I saw mi "DR" for the first time a couple of months ago.

I had previously gone to his pa for meds such as a beta blocker prozac and a few broken bone accident type things.

anyway  fibro is its new name, more politically correct  i kinda cut thru the sh-- and said look at mi records i have chronic lyme . quick as a wink he says "there's no cure."  

had I been on mi toes i'd have said then please give me something to help me function in life the pain is taking mi life.

but i didn't. the lyme has slowed mi brain and in some cases eradicated (totally) memory.

so think:  he was not surpprised nor did he EVEN try to argue mi diagnosis heck the folder that holds mi records would prove beyond a shadow of a doubt.  he just said immediately there is no cure.

My right wrist bone and mi knuckles started to get real big and red. Mi right hand's wrist bone swelled  noticeably up.  He saw this,

they are watching me he told me,  i said  who the ins co's?  (again very dumb move should have just said who?  And let him tell me,

from the beginning of the appt I made him nervous just as I had the first non lyme dr. back in 96.

to his credit? he ran blood tests.  this was a month ago due to schedule changes i will not see him for mi blood results until the end of this month