Hi Brassbutton!
Welcome to our little community!!
As the others have said, you are definitely not alone!! Most of us have gone through something very similar to what you have experienced. I'm in Arkansas, and they don't want to admit to having Lyme and other tick-borne diseases here because it would harm the tourists trade as well! Craziness!
As you will discover, there is a lot of information in that "New to Lyme?" thread!!! Hopefully you will go back there from time to time as you learn more and more about
these diseases.
It's actually quite rare to have only Lyme disease, as the other diseases are also very prevalent, so take a good look at the symptom lists - the most knowledgeable Lyme doctors will diagnose based on symptoms as they understand that the tests that are available and used most miss 50% of those that are truly infected.
If you had the bulls eye rash (which sounds like what you described), you have Lyme disease as the rash is the skin form of the disease.
For information on finding a Lyme Literate Medical Doctor(LLMD) in your area, you can start a new thread titled something like:"Looking for LLMD in the _______ area." Although you will need to enable your email option in your profile in order to receive any recommendations, as we don't allow doctor's names and contact info to be posted on the forum for several reasons. You can enable your email option in your profile, under 'edit profile'. Be sure to click the submit button to actually save your preference.
You can also 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) trained doctor, as ID Docs (Infectious Disease Doctors) believe Lyme is hard to catch and easy to treat, and don't believe in the reality of chronic Lyme. 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 If you would prefer to heal naturally, that's possible as well. You will need to find a Holistic doctor that has been in practice for many years, as they will need this experience in order to deal with these terribly complex diseases.
We are here to listen, to give you a shoulder to lean on, to vent a bit, or to just find some understanding!