Date: Wed, 10 Aug 2016 08:33:35 -0400
From: “Jeannette Beranger”
Subject: lyme disease
I’m a former New Englander and the incidence of Lyme is much higher where I come from yet it is misdiagnosed just as badly up there as it may be here. One of my husband’s colleagues was misdiagnosed until she landed in the hospital, unable to walk and was beginning to go into heart failure. As a last ditch effort they brought in an infectious disease specialist who identified she was chronically infected with Lyme. After beginning treatment she was stabilized and eventually got back to normal. It was not long before this that I started to become symptomatic with joint pain and I suspected Lyme. I went to 4 doctors and was misdiagnosed for over a year. (By then I had chronic Lyme.) I had one doctor tell me of my red, swollen finger joints that “I wasn’t getting any younger and that it’s probably arthritis.” At one point I ended up in the hospital with heart palpitations (thought it was the beginnings of a heart attack) and it was at this point I hunted down the specialist that helped my husband’s colleague and sure enough, she found I had Lyme. After a month on IV antibiotics, it got under control but some symptoms still persist years later. The crazy thing is when talking about my symptoms at work, I had a number of co-workers that also felt they had something going on but couldn’t get a diagnosis. They all went to the specialist and it turns out a total of 9 of us at work had chronic Lyme.
I think it’s still fairly misunderstood, even by many doctors. Often women are effected differently than men. There are physical, metabolic, and emotional symptoms as all 9 of us experienced. (We compared notes on a regular basis.) Remember, you are your own best advocate. If you really think there is an issue, seek a second, third, fourth, or in my case, a 5th opinion.
Jeannette