Lyme disease update
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I think you'll find not only real ignorance, amongst Doctors, and all medical staff when it comes to the rarer diseases. You will also find the most unprincipled medical doctors imaginable, who should be immeadiately struck off, working for powerful low profile companies like the French ATOS Healthcare.
They in turn are employed by the DWP to assess people with illness, and some of the quotes Ive read from these 'doctors' are truly despicable.
They'll say and do anything for cash. They create a system of rules which just plainly deny that there is anything wrong with really seriously ill people.
The so called safety net in this country, has massive holes in it.
They in turn are employed by the DWP to assess people with illness, and some of the quotes Ive read from these 'doctors' are truly despicable.
They'll say and do anything for cash. They create a system of rules which just plainly deny that there is anything wrong with really seriously ill people.
The so called safety net in this country, has massive holes in it.
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Lyme is a relatively new area of research and like most illnesses the medical community at large do not fully understand it. Personally I would be sceptical as to "chronic" lyme disease becoming a major problem, most times antibiotics will sort it out. Although I'm inclined to agree with the possibility it's caused by damage of the initial infection period. EddieP and I where actually discussing this earlier. If and when I come across a specialist I'll gladly change my opinion on evidence mind you as I have only a working knowledge of the desiese and am by no means an expert.
Couldn't agree more about atos though Dave, it's where good, ethical doctors (more often nurses and NPs) go to get jaded and break the promise of preserving health they swore to uphold. Personally I'd have them all thoroughly investigated by an impartial panel and any found to be making these decisions based on profit should be immediately struck off.... Well I actually think we should horsewhip them first but the patient coming first is something I really believe in and find the whole system obscene and fundamentally wrong. I had a gaffer at a certain well known hospital in Newcastle force an assessor off the grounds (literally) for saying how he was definitely going to kick one of his patients off ESA, a man who had sadly passed away from the very illness he was on ESA over. Utterly disgusting.
(sorry for the little rant and jack!)
No, you will undoubtedly know more than I do on the subject Mick, and thankfully most doctors and nurses, and carers, are absolutely brilliant in my experience.
But there are certain ways they carry out systematic methods of diagnosis, which lead me to believe that the 'chronic' statistics on certain diseases are really innacurate.
[Im talking about my own here]
And Ive questioned my BUPA specialists about this, and they will neither confirm nor deny.....They agree and disagee...then look at the desk...Whereas I niavely assumed that as soon as they saw the thousands of granulomas in my lungs, they would know. But they really dont. I knew immeadiately. It comes as a shock, but you just know when something is seriously wrong, with yourself, and your doctor, even after seeing the results asks, how did you know?
You feel like saying, well it was as obvious as if I had just broken both my legs to me.
[Hang on a sec! Shock Horror kicks in] Why? isnt it that obvious that you know too now?!?? NO. Its not!
My [cathartic] rant over. Im going to get off my butt and go see a neurologist and liver specialist as well as the pulm cardiologist one last time I think. Before I kick my private health into touch.
There should be an holistic approach to diseases which affect multiple organs and it should be automatically done by your GP in my opinion.
Anyway, I dont have Lymes, so I'll leave the rest to those that do.....
But there are certain ways they carry out systematic methods of diagnosis, which lead me to believe that the 'chronic' statistics on certain diseases are really innacurate.
[Im talking about my own here]
And Ive questioned my BUPA specialists about this, and they will neither confirm nor deny.....They agree and disagee...then look at the desk...Whereas I niavely assumed that as soon as they saw the thousands of granulomas in my lungs, they would know. But they really dont. I knew immeadiately. It comes as a shock, but you just know when something is seriously wrong, with yourself, and your doctor, even after seeing the results asks, how did you know?
You feel like saying, well it was as obvious as if I had just broken both my legs to me.
[Hang on a sec! Shock Horror kicks in] Why? isnt it that obvious that you know too now?!?? NO. Its not!
My [cathartic] rant over. Im going to get off my butt and go see a neurologist and liver specialist as well as the pulm cardiologist one last time I think. Before I kick my private health into touch.
There should be an holistic approach to diseases which affect multiple organs and it should be automatically done by your GP in my opinion.
Anyway, I dont have Lymes, so I'll leave the rest to those that do.....
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Here in the USA Lyme disease is widespread, and post treatment lyme disease syndrome (PTLDS) is not uncommon. The link top a CDC paper gives useful and accurate information.
http://www.cdc.gov/lyme/postLDS/
Causes and treatments are not really known, even though the syndrome is acknowledged as real and widespread ( maybe 10-15% of LD treated persons.
Best suggestion is probably to avoid. If your regularly get out (hikers, hunters etc.) treat the clothing you use with permethrin and treat exposed skin with Deet.
http://www.cdc.gov/lyme/postLDS/
Causes and treatments are not really known, even though the syndrome is acknowledged as real and widespread ( maybe 10-15% of LD treated persons.
Best suggestion is probably to avoid. If your regularly get out (hikers, hunters etc.) treat the clothing you use with permethrin and treat exposed skin with Deet.
This must be an incredibly difficult thing to deal with, on both sides of the disease. Every single person reacts slightly differently to things; how the hang can any rigid protocol deal with that.
I have a hellish reaction to insect bites, my eldest son appears totally immune
I know he's mine, I was there 
but we are still totally different in our reactions. His father reacts but mildly, so does his brother.
That's just one family, spread that across the population and it's never going to be simple.
M
I have a hellish reaction to insect bites, my eldest son appears totally immune
I know he's mine, I was there but we are still totally different in our reactions. His father reacts but mildly, so does his brother.That's just one family, spread that across the population and it's never going to be simple.
M
One of the Mods, Goatboy, has had a hellish time of things with it. He doesn't complain, but it's done a number on his joints and his heart.
Not funny, and not something to be ignored if it's suspected.
M
Not funny, and not something to be ignored if it's suspected.
M
My mate has what I can only describe as arthritis symptoms from it. Took ages to get diagnosed.
I picked it up in Transylvania and was treated within hours/days with the correct antibiotic, that was nearly twenty odd years ago and I seem to be fine, recognise the symptoms and catch it early seems to be the way to go.
Himself and I were discussing this the other day; we've walked/worked all over Scotland between us, and until recently we never got ticks. Now he comes home from a walk and there are these tiny wee ones, six the last time, yet they were never a problem before.
If we cleared out ticks once, surely we can do it again.
M
If we cleared out ticks once, surely we can do it again.
M
Suffering from lymes has fairly turned my life around. I've gone from a healthy outdoor guy to a kaput cyborg.
Worked in forestry and knew about lymes from the early days. Must've missed one and the immediate symptoms (can masquerade as a cold so do you get tested everytime you get a sniffle?).
Things got progressively worse until nearly passing out I drove to the small village hospital in the next village. Passed out in the carpark and luckily some NHS saff still smoke as one found me passed in the car park in the dark. Lucky they did as they say much longer and I wouldn't be here typing this.
Like Toddy says, it hits different folk in different ways, it had damaged my heart pretty badly (only working at a third of it's normal), my resting pulse was 120 BPM.
As well as this my organs had shut down and my lungs filled with fluid/froth. Took a long hospital stay and a lot of drugs to stabalise me. Could no longer work and health went up and down... Mainly down. Further complications damaged my joints and I had no skin on my legs below the knees. That took over a year to clear up before they would risk opening me up to fit a pacemaker. (A transplant was considered but we went down the pacemaker route). This made a big difference and once I was improved enough I could then get te destroyed hip joint replaced with a shiny titanium & ceramic job.
For such a little bite and a disease that can be treated with a simple course of antibiotics, it has to be caught in time. Otherwise it can attack organs, brain, joints all sorts. A lot of medical staff don't know enough about lymes so if you think it is tell them that you're an outdoors person and that you may have been in contact with ticks. It's growing in frequency and ticks can be found in urban areas. It's affected me health wise, mentaly, work, social all sorts. I've just given a quick recap of some of the ways it hit me. Ther were some others that you may not want to hear about.
So take precautions, check after being out and look for symptoms. Read up on it and be prepared to inform health care officials about it. The NHS have been brilliant with me, only one doctor let me down. The rest of the staff at all levels have been beyond brilliant.
Sent via smoke-signal from a woodland in Scotland.
Worked in forestry and knew about lymes from the early days. Must've missed one and the immediate symptoms (can masquerade as a cold so do you get tested everytime you get a sniffle?).
Things got progressively worse until nearly passing out I drove to the small village hospital in the next village. Passed out in the carpark and luckily some NHS saff still smoke as one found me passed in the car park in the dark. Lucky they did as they say much longer and I wouldn't be here typing this.
Like Toddy says, it hits different folk in different ways, it had damaged my heart pretty badly (only working at a third of it's normal), my resting pulse was 120 BPM.
As well as this my organs had shut down and my lungs filled with fluid/froth. Took a long hospital stay and a lot of drugs to stabalise me. Could no longer work and health went up and down... Mainly down. Further complications damaged my joints and I had no skin on my legs below the knees. That took over a year to clear up before they would risk opening me up to fit a pacemaker. (A transplant was considered but we went down the pacemaker route). This made a big difference and once I was improved enough I could then get te destroyed hip joint replaced with a shiny titanium & ceramic job.
For such a little bite and a disease that can be treated with a simple course of antibiotics, it has to be caught in time. Otherwise it can attack organs, brain, joints all sorts. A lot of medical staff don't know enough about lymes so if you think it is tell them that you're an outdoors person and that you may have been in contact with ticks. It's growing in frequency and ticks can be found in urban areas. It's affected me health wise, mentaly, work, social all sorts. I've just given a quick recap of some of the ways it hit me. Ther were some others that you may not want to hear about.
So take precautions, check after being out and look for symptoms. Read up on it and be prepared to inform health care officials about it. The NHS have been brilliant with me, only one doctor let me down. The rest of the staff at all levels have been beyond brilliant.
Sent via smoke-signal from a woodland in Scotland.
Which is a chronic illness. An illness persisting for a long time or constantly recurring. You're not the same and you never will be.
I had one highly regarded specialist, pen hovering over paper, asking me, so err, shall I put you down as chronic then?
I said no! I was scared of appearing on C.V's etc and affecting other things, like my insurance, my ability to get loans, all sorts of things in fact. But I am chronic.
Not acccording to official NHS statistics though!!
There will be a lot of people going to see the DWP, and being told no, you cant have any money, and they will be desperate but will not be able to hold down a full time job.
I think over 80% of homeless people in the States have some form of long term illness.
I had one highly regarded specialist, pen hovering over paper, asking me, so err, shall I put you down as chronic then?
I said no! I was scared of appearing on C.V's etc and affecting other things, like my insurance, my ability to get loans, all sorts of things in fact. But I am chronic.
Not acccording to official NHS statistics though!!
There will be a lot of people going to see the DWP, and being told no, you cant have any money, and they will be desperate but will not be able to hold down a full time job.
I think over 80% of homeless people in the States have some form of long term illness.
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There was a thread earlier in the year on here which mentioned various tick twisters and removers and since several people seemed to think the O'Tom Tick Twister was a good one I set out to find a couple at my local chemists. I was actually advised in the first three chemists (and this was not by spotty faced 16 year old part timers but by so called pharmacists) that I would need to get them from a vet because they were used for removing Ticks which only bit Dogs. When I finally found some at a chemist shop the woman that served me was amazed that they were so difficult to get hold of and how little people that 'should' know better actually knew about Ticks and Lyme's disease. I will admit that Ticks are not common in my area but with more and more people being encouraged to get 'out and about' you would think there would be a bit more of an effort to alert people in general and chemists doctors especially to the problem.
DB.
DB.
Completely agree with db, there should be much greater awareness. It was only by chance reading a thread like this -probably here too - that I recognised one on my son (4) when my daughter pointed it out. I've only seen removers in the vet and petshops, and had to improvise with a dinner fork then. Luckily he escaped unscathed but at least I had an idea what to watch for.
Does anyone have tips on checking a black dog? I must've caught the one on my boy early, and it was still tiny and flat - I'd have no chance of finding that on my labrador.
Does anyone have tips on checking a black dog? I must've caught the one on my boy early, and it was still tiny and flat - I'd have no chance of finding that on my labrador.
I used to take at least one tick every day from my Springer, most days two or three; my vet suggested a product called "Advantix" which is a spot-on treatment six weekly, keeps ticks and fleas plus quite a few of the worst of the worms at bay. I've never had one on her since using it, I recommend it highly.
If there's one on a dog like a Lab., you won't find it 'till it's at least begun to feed, they swell up a lot very quickly and that's when you get 'em
Cheers for the tip. I use advantix already so its hopefully doing its job well. I wonder if they do an equivalent for the kids?!?!
Trying to remember te name of the stuff I used on my Jack Russell. Came in a little tube, supposed to squeeze it on the back of the neck. Followed the intructions but it made him sick as a... Well dog. Never used it again an to be honest as he was a smooth coated JRT ticks and dirt didn't seem to stick to him. (Still checked him over at least once a day in tick season.)
Sent via smoke-signal from a woodland in Scotland.
Sent via smoke-signal from a woodland in Scotland.
