Hi Cell,
I'm so very sorry you have been suffering with all of this for that long! You should have been in treatment right away, as the Bulls eye rash itself is conformation of Lyme disease. Whoever you saw that told you they were Lyme Literate really isn't if they missed that.
I would suggest that you not use the other docs - especially not an ID doc - until after you have been seen by a real LLMD, one that will get you started in treatment based on your Bulls eye rash.
For information on finding a Lyme Literate Medical Doctor(LLMD) in your area, please email our long time member, Dan's Mother at:
[email protected] You can also email Stephanie at:
[email protected] You can also go to:
www.turnthecorner.org/ if you want to learn a little bit more about
Lyme Disease.
You can also go to The Lyme Disease Association and search for LLMD's 3 times in a month. You have to register first. Here is the link:
www.lymediseaseassociation.org/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=277&Itemid=74 You will want to find an ILADS (International Lyme And Associated Diseases Society) doctor. The ILADS site is another great place to read to get you started on your Lyme journey.
www.ilads.org/lyme_disease/treatment_guidelines_clearing_ilads.html You can also start a new thread asking our members if they know of a LLMD in your area. You will need to enable your email so that it shows, as we don't allow people to share that information on the forum, mostly to protect the doctors as they are frequently hounded and even prosecuted for trying to help us. Depending on where you are located, I might even have a name or two of LLMD's that you could see.
If you haven't already, please do read through our "New to Lyme? Start here!" thread at the top of the forum, as it's packed with important information, informative links, symptom lists, and even a list of questions to ask a doctor!!
Be sure to read through the post about
detoxing, as that's something that you could start now that would really help to ease your symptoms right away. Please don't use hot water though, as hot water by itself can cause a herx. You will also want to be sure to incorporate all of the detox strategies into your routine, as it's the toxins that are put off by the bacteria that drive our symptoms.
www.encognitive.com/node/5768 It's a very sad state that our dogs and cats can actually get better care than we can when it comes to these diseases! My vet was astonished when I explained the troubles we have to go through just to get tested! I just had my dogs tested - as part of testing for heart worm - and the test results were given to us in less than 20 minutes!