Feeling Helpless Over My Cousin's Lyme Disease

I think I'm just posting this out of frustration.

My cousin has had Lyme disease about as long as I've had it. She lives in New Jersey, where it's common, but her PC sent her to an RA doctor. And that doctor diagnosed Lyme disease from bacteria found in the fluid on her knee when he did surgery.

And since she definitely had the bacteria on her knee, we would all agree that she had Lyme disease. But she had heard that Lyme tests were unreliable, and she just didn't believe she had Lyme. If I remember correctly, she had the standard infectious disease doctor's antibiotic treatment, though.

Fast forward to today. Her knee has been swollen since March. And she went back to the RA doctor, who found in a blood test that she still had Lyme "evidence" in her blood, but he told her that something was missing (a G---I'm guessing that he thought the Igg, or Igm (I get them mixed up), meant an old infection. I doubt she knows what lab did the test, or what test she had, so I didn't ask.

At any rate, her PC wanted her to go to an infectious disease doctor, but after getting two cortisone shots in her knee, the swelling and pain were gone. And she can again play tennis and run. I read online about cortisone shots and some people think it's okay to take the shots for pain, but not to take any steroid orally.

I just can't get her to come here and I can't get her to see an LLMD.

:(

Thanks, Ludic.

I hear you jane ..my uncle has alheimers, and cousin has scleroderma. .another with confirmed lyme ...you can horse to water ....send her a copy of under our skin? Email justinandcristie on u toob?...