Round and Round we go ~ circular lyme logic

The circular nature of Montana's stance on lyme has come up in this blog before.  But it is worth repeating until it changes.

In a nut shell, we automatically don't count Lyme cases contracted here as Lyme, because we don't have lyme.   We then say all cases were contracted elsewhere. So until someone gets Lyme here, anyone who gets Lyme here doesn't have Lyme (because they got it here). 

This article is a year old, but I still think it is worth correcting.  But I'm restarting treatment today, so we'll see how fast I get to it!

http://m.missoulian.com/news/opinion/mailbag/lyme-disease-not-endemic-to-montana/article_e2fd6136-068d-11e3-8c8a-0019bb2963f4.html?mobile_touch=true

Lyme Highlights from 2013, Part Two: Media ~ Lyme Celebrities in Headlines

http://lymedisease.org/news/touchedbylyme/punk-singer.html

In part one of my highlights post, I offered a few links to studies that made an impression on me this past year.  I also diverged into a relatively brief and lite-weight political rant about the lack of sound science used in policy decisions and the lack of defensible inquiry by CDC, IDSA, and uninformed physicians.  

With that out of the way, here's a bit of what I remember most from the news (mainstream media) this year that had to do with lyme (aside from the revised infection rates, which would be too much to add together here).

Media ~ People and Headlines

Early on in my diagnosis, I came across a lot of celebrity names and lists.  I can't say why that was heartening. I'm certainly not glad any of them had to go through this.  But it was the same as with Bell's palsy....it just added a bit more to the sense of solidarity and hope that I was seeking (and finding) on-line. Lyme and memory are not friends, so I can't make a list of this year's most noted lymies from memory.  But here are a few that stood out for me this year.

Lyme Highlights from 2013, Part One: Research Highlights

I had my lyme diagnosis for most of 2013, though I've had lyme for almost 4 years.  I didn't read a whole lot about lyme before being diagnosed, having focused more on the diseases I was previously diagnosed with.  Filling in the blanks on lyme isn't easy during any year, and I don't have other years to compare to.  So I can't say that this was a crazier year than most for catching up, but I can say it sure feels like a lot has happened in a year.  This is not by any means a recap, but it is a collection of some of the highlights for me as I worked through my first year with the right diagnosis.

Research Highlights

There was more research available from previous years than I expected once I started to dig.  Even browsing lyme sites was fruitful, as lyme advocates are refreshingly science-focused as a group (see lymedisease.org's page regarding evidence based health care for a great example of this).  Many lyme patients appear to me to ask very sound questions and approach the questions sytematically.

I believe this is one of the primary reasons why a review of the pseudoscience they are answered with is such an insulting endeavor.  It is not just the unsupported conclusions IDSA, CDC, and uninformed physicians are drawing (or the nasty way so many choose to present them) that is so insulting, as much as it is the lack of willingness (or ability?) to ask or answer the right questions, or to at least use all available science to answer the alternate questions they are distracting themselves with.

Happy New Year

Bell's Palsy and Lyme Disease ~ "BECAUSE HER FACE WAS PARALYZED"

Most of a smile, most of the time.

Bell's palsy isn't always caused by lyme disease. It can occur separately, but it is a major indicator of lyme, and in my case it was the most blatant symptom early symptom during my acute phase that should have been taken more seriously.

I was bit by a tick while working in the woods in April of 2010.  By May 2010 I had Bell's palsy.  My face regained a fair amount of movement within a few months (and was even loosing some of the droop by the time of the day 11 photo later in this post), but it was life changing all the same.

You know while you're enduring it that there are many aspects of life and people you will never see the same again.  It's hard to see the light at the end of the tunnel.

It's hard to look back on that time.  I was years away from knowing I had lyme, but there's part of me that thinks I always sort of knew.  Or at least strongly wondered, while being told it wasn't a possibility.  I was usually joking when I voiced it, though. Along my almost 4 year illness timeline, the Bell's palsy 'tunnel' was relatively short.  But man, it's a heck of trench....a whole other world....while you're in it.

Bell's palsy day 11 (May 2010)

I was just briefly side tracked on MD Junction, wondering how many people in the Bell's palsy group have also been diagnosed with lyme. And there just-so-happened to be a recent post at the top of the list about lyme and Bell's palsy, so there were people diagnosed with lyme and people wondering about it.

As I scrolled down the other posts in the Bell's palsy group, it brought back a lot of memories, as they were the types of headings I used to sift through every day, from the day my Bell's eye could handle it until I was out of pain and out of bed and not even taping my eye shut at night.  And then continuing to sift through them well beyond that time, with all of the recovery questions you don't know you're going to have.