The "Lymed" Leading the "Lymed" - Getting an Education about Lyme Disease

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It's Your Lyme - Mend It!
Dr. Wiseass Says: Who Needs Medical School When You Can Have Lyme Disease?


It's Your Lyme - Mend It!
OK - First of all, I'm not sure Lyme is really "mendable" - but it's a play on words...so leave me alone. (You have to be old enough to remember the saying: "It's your dime - spend it" which refers to the use of pay phones that, once upon a time, only cost a dime to use!)

Now second, as I’ve mentioned previously, I’m not a doctor. I’m just a gal that made the mistake of going outside & playing with my baby brother about 30-something years ago.

I remember getting ticks several times as a kid – never as an adult. That’s not to say that I never got bit as an adult – just that I don’t remember it.

As a kid I rolled around on the grass; laid down on bales of hay when they were available; played with any animal that wasn’t foaming at the mouth; and jumped in as many leaves as I could gather. I was an average kid.

I do remember my mom sticking a lighter near my scalp to try to get an engorged, fat-ass tick to back out of my head! (And by the way – this is not the “correct” method to removing a tick. You need to get tweezers & pull it straight out…I think. I’ll post the “OFFICIAL METHOD FOR TICK REMOVAL” when I find it, and if I can remember to do that.)

I don’t recall any rashes from tick bites – but most of my tick bites that I can remember were on my head. I have thick dark hair – and it’s not likely that anyone is going to notice a rash under a mop of hair unless they know to look for it. My mom didn’t know – because NO ONE TOLD HER. She wasn’t educated about ticks and Lyme disease because NO ONE TOLD HER that she NEEDED to be educated about it.

My mom did have sense enough to take me to the doctor when the back of my head swelled up with a huge knot after a tick bite. The nurse told her that was a “normal” response to a bite (the inflammation) and to “scoot on out the back door before the doctor comes in” and they won’t charge her for the visit.

So Mom – if you read this – and I imagine you will because you’re probably my only consistent audience member at this point – I want you to know that I don’t blame you AT ALL for this. I know as a mother myself, that sometimes mommas take on “guilt” that isn’t theirs to take.

During my childhood, we didn’t have personal computers and the internet wasn’t even a word. I think most people relied on their doctors and the US government to inform them of any potential health threats.

However, NOW we are fortunate enough to have a wealth of information at our fingertips…and we should use it. We are "growing up" & we no longer have to rely solely on our "authority" figures to give us information.

Many doctors are threatened by the fact that more patients are coming in with a knowledge of what’s going on with their bodies. Many doctors don’t want you on your own medical “team”. These docs, no doubt, have seen their fair share of idiots who come in every week self-diagnosing themselves with a different disease. I get it – they’ve been overwhelmed by the fact that more people know stuff…and more and more people just THINK they know stuff.

But the point of the matter is this: It’s YOUR body. And ultimately it’s YOUR responsibility to heal it. No matter how many docs you go to – not one of them is going to really KNOW what it feels like to experience your illness – whatever it is.

I think people need to allow their doctors enough respect to actually do what they’re being paid to do. It’s the doc’s job to evaluate & examine & to test you for all kinds of crap. If you think your doc is a total idiot – move on. My advice is to listen first…evaluate his/her evaluation second. (Listen to your instincts. You have them for a reason.)

But ALWAYS keep in mind that ultimately it is YOUR job to seek until you find.

Just be careful, though, because there’s a lot of options out there – sometimes TOO many options..and some could be dangerous for you. (More on that later.)


Dr. Wiseass Says: Who Needs Medical School When You Can Have Lyme Disease?
If you know how to search and have an abundance of time on your hands – there’s just no limit to where you can look for medical info. And that can be overwhelming.

We have so many damned options now – it’s mind-boggling! Remember how you feel when you get a fever and some snot-based illness & go to the grocery store & try to figure out what damned over-the-counter remedy is right for you? The internet, to me, is just like that. There’s soooo many options…lots of things to read & try to understand.

Most medical articles put out by the mainstream medical community can be very confusing. And I think this confusion “tactic” is just a way to keep lay-people like us…confused. And that tactic has been working since the invention of Latin. From my understanding, most of the medical root words are based in Latin for that very reason! So if you have no knowledge whatsoever of Latin root words – reading medical abstracts while being infected with Lyme bacteria can be a monumental waste of time. It’s like trying to understand the chemical significance of the ingredients on the back of the bottles of those “remedies” for that above mentioned snot-based illness.

Because I am experiencing the effects of Lyme disease on my brain, I know it is sometimes difficult to think & to make decisions. OK – not sometimes – but A LOT of times. Going out to the information super-highway can be dangerous because you know:

"A little knowledge is a dangerous thing”
--Don’t know who said it – don’t care - it's just true.

BUT here’s the deal....

As mentioned in my previous post: The Basic Symptoms doctors don’t have much time to spend with you. They are busting their ass to see as many patients they can in a day so they can pay their employees and send their kids to prep school. And if you think your primary care physician is reading up on Lyme disease at home – you’re crazier than I am!

I imagine the average doc has a subscription to Time magazine and maybe a few medical journals. I imagine the average doc spends time reading at home while on the toilet – just like the rest of us. And if the average doc doesn’t read any NEW info about Lyme disease during those few precious moments of “alone” time – then Dr. Average is just going to continue to rely on what he/she learned about Lyme disease from medical school....and that could have been 30 years ago!

So what are they teaching in medical school? Hell if I know – I already told you I’m not a real doctor.

Besides – I don’t have to go to medical school. I’ve been going to the school of “I’ve been sick for a really long damned time & I have to research all the shit that’s wrong with me because regular docs don’t have time to do it” School.

Any of you that have actually taken the time to read this damned far into today’s post are probably members of the same school. Hey, we’re colleagues! I’m DR. Wiseass – what’s your name?

Anyway – what I’ve taken three pages to say is that I don’t know everything there is to know about Lyme disease. I’ve only recently been given the diagnosis – so I’ve got some more reading to do.

Fortunately for my reader(s) - (“Hi Mom”) – I DO spend more time reading about Lyme disease than just when I’m taking a crap. Because I’m experiencing daily exhaustion, body aches, extreme dizziness, etc., etc… I’m not really fully functional in the modern sense of the word.

So I sit or lie here in bed and read and write; read and write. (Now – just to educate you some more – I am lying IN bed – but I’m not lying TO you. I know that’s confusing, especially if you have Lyme in your brain.) I’m in my own little “medical school” right now. I’m my own dean of admissions & I accepted my application a long time ago even though I didn’t do well on the entrance exams. I admitted myself into this “school” because I didn’t think anyone else was as uniquely qualified to direct me on my journey to healing other than me. OK – God is naturally the most qualified, but God said it was OK for me to learn. “I think, therefore, I AM.” (Some of you will get that – some of you won’t.)

I think my whole point that it took me all this time to discover is that - God gave us brains - and they are meant to be used - even if infested with bacteria.

Use your instincts. Don't be afraid to question authority. Demand more testing. Use the internet. Buy some books. Join some message boards. (A great message board is found at the Lyme Disease Network!) Sign up for some newsletters. Watch the news. Learn Latin.

Now before some highly-educated Lyme sufferer whom is at the top of their own “I’ve been sick for a really long damned time & I have to research all the shit that’s wrong with me because regular docs don’t have time to do it” School - emails me & tries to ride my ass because I said something that was “incorrect” or because I haven’t addressed a really important issue – I would like to re-direct you to my first post: Lymie Newbie where I have kindly asked you to give me a damned break.

I am the Lymed leading the Lymed, “blindly”, of course. Now cut me some slack, buddy. And remember what they say, “Lead, follow, or get the hell off of my ass”... or something like that.