Rough question but it needs to be asked

It is possible to die from Lyme disease, but very unlikely. Very few people die from it. Her chances of getting better are excellent now that she truly knows what is wrong and is getting off of the wrong medicines.

Hi Citygirl,
I'm so glad you found us! I'm so very sorry to hear your Mom's story! There are so many that have stories just like or similar to your Mom's.

As Firtrees said, now that she's under the care of a wonderfully compassionate LLMD, her chances of healing are much better. Be there to encourage her though, as she possibly has many tough days ahead of her still. Be sure to celebrate even the small victories with your Mom, that'll help her get through the tough times.

I'm one of those that have been infected for decades before I knew what I was dealing with, but now that I've been in treatment for going on 2 years for my tick-borne infections, I've had amazing improvements! No one -not even the LLMD - can say for sure that you will get your "old Mom" back, as this experience usually changes people, not to mention any actual damage that may have occurred, but you should be able to reasonably expect her to get quite a bit better.

Not many people actually die from Lyme itself - it usually is because of a condition that the Lyme either causes or allows to develop that ends up taking the person's life - things like kidney failure and such. Like I said though, now that she's under the care of a LLMD, her chances of that happening are greatly reduced.

Without a bunch more detail, it would be hard for anyone here to say if she is dealing with major herxing or not, but do be sure she is detoxing well as lots of us have blocked detox pathways and the toxins build up. There is a great post in the "New to Lyme? Start Here!" thread that sits at the top of the forum that goes into how to detox when a person has these diseases. It's the bottom half of the second post in that thread.

I would suggest that you do all the reading you can on her treatment and these diseases, as the more you understand the more you will be able to help her. There is a different site that might be of great value to you as well. It's called Lyme Spouse (www.lymespouse.org/) - it was originally intended for use by spouses of Lyme patients, but it grew to include all those who have a loved one with these terrible diseases. It's sole purpose is to help you understand what is going on with your loved one! I would encourage you to check into it as well.

Of course you are more than welcome to come here and ask any questions you may have! We will do our best to answer as honestly and openly as we can. You could also encourage your Mom to join in our conversations with us as well!!

Please let us know if we can be of any more help!

Hi everyone,

Thank you all SO much for the supportive words and advice. You have no idea how much I appreciate you taking the time to write back to me.

We have started doing a lot of research, and have been buying books (I'm currently in the middle of Cure Unknown now). Since she is relatively new to antibiotics, she has not explored alternative routes yet, but her diet has become very bland which I think helps. She has cut out sugar, caffeine, and a lot of dairy.. pretty much eats protein, veggies, and fruits. I'm like a mad woman on her when it comes to drinking water, anytime we're around I pretty much force her to have a glass of water in hand, and she's also become big on tea. I will tell her to take baths as I think this would help, too.

And thank you all for the suggestions on websites and books. I wish you all well in this fight and am very grateful to have a new outlet of support since, sadly, a lot of people just don't "get" Lyme disease and how scary it can be.