Re: I got diagnosed.....

I actually just kind of lucked out with my Dr. I had been going to a clinic since January and the doctors there were trying to figure it out but they mostly specialized in gluten intolerance, adrenals, allergies....stuff like that. They were thinking I just had leaky gut but I suspected something else going on....either Lyme, mercury or something else.

Since they were unable to treat me due to my inability to tolerate supplements...they ended up suggesting I see this other Dr. who is more familiar with mercury toxicity....to find out if thats the problem or not. The Dr. is an M.D. with 25 years in internal medicine. He has knowledge of both Western and Eastern modalities so he practices both....he runs his own clinic.

I hadnt had ANY luck with mainstream Dr.'s and not much luck with naturopath's either....I think someone who's in-between is the best bet.

Even though I'd gone to see him about mercury and thats what our discussion was focused on...my dental work...he STILL thought of Lyme and he was RIGHT. Now I think about how he easily could have just focused on the mercury...since it fit so well..he could have tested me, found that I had heavy metal burden and JUST treated that. I would have never even known about the Lyme and possibly I never would find out. Its a scary thought.

I see alot of people putting all their attention into one thing and not succeeding. Whether its Celiac's focusing on the gluten free diet and not getting better or candida or mercury or whatever....I believe in alot of cases there is a multitude of problems and just focusing on one dynamic is not enough.

When I got my remaining Amalgams removed by a mercury-free dentist a couple years ago...he told me in order to regain my health I would have to find out each problem....like peeling the layers of an onion...there would be many layers involved. He was also the very first person to tell me I needed to change my diet and that I had a yeast problem to deal with. He was right about everything.

I'm learning about Lyme now and finding out it *could* potentially be the underlying cause for alot of people who are struggling. They are saying its the fastest spreading infectious disease in the world today and most people are not diagnosed.

Luckily my Dr. is aware of this...he said most Dr.'s do NOT diagnose Lyme Disease....they dont even test for it and if they do...they dont use the right lab.

With Lyme a proper diagnosis is ESSENTIAL for recovery....getting diagnosed is critical because over time the effects can be devastating if left untreated. On the other hand...with diagnosis and treatment the prognosis is good.

Heres an article about Lyme:
http://www.newswithviews.com/Howenstine/james26.htm

There is still alot that is unknown about Lyme and alot of the stuff written in this article would be debated by mainstream Dr.'s but from my experience mainstream medicine seems to be behind the times when it comes to ALOT of things. They are behind even when the disease is very clear cut and easily diagnosed like Celiac Disease....they still fail to correctly diagnose in most cases. I have no doubt in my mind that a great deal of people I come across on various message boards may indeed have undiagnosed Lyme Disease.

I am most active on the Celiac board and a HUGE number of people on that board are still struggling and sliding downhill....picking up more and more intolerances. One thing that is known about Celiac is that it requires a "trigger" of some kind to activate the disease. The trigger would be *any* stress on the body from pregnancy to mono to a car accident to surgery. Alot of people dont know what triggered their disease and I believe these people have an "unknown" stressor keeping them from recovering. If the Celiac Disease was triggered by Lyme Disease and the Lyme was never discovered....these people obviously would continue to suffer ill health no matter how faithful they are to their diet. most of them would also have candida and a multitude of intolerances.

So far I'm aware of at least 5 people on that board with Lyme Disease and since my own diagnosis one more has been diagnosed and alot of people are asking to be tested now. I'm very curious as to how many of these people (who have struggled right along with me with similiar symptoms) will come back positive for Lyme Disease. I think it may be more prevelant than anyone would have imagined.

A good doctor is KEY in all of this. I had given up on Dr.'s and thought I could figure it out on my own but in the end...a good Dr. is necessary. I wouldnt ever have been able to heal myself no matter how hard I tried. My HMO was horrible....treated me like a hypochondriach and just wanted to throw antidepressants at me. I wasted 3 years with them but once I got out and started looking for people who are more knowledgable about these specific issues I regained faith. There ARE good Dr.'s out there...its just a matter of finding them.

When I was doing my candida diet I went to an N.D....basically wanting someone to comfirm my candida diagnosis so that I would feel that I wasnt losing my mind. She readily agreed that I had candida....just based on my symptoms and my "score"...which was extremely high. After a few weeks I didnt feel right about it....how could she KNOW for certain what I had...how could she KNOW that candida was causing all this?? This is about the time I gave up on candida.....realizing there is something I was missing. It just didnt make sense to me.

While it makes us FEEL so much better to have a Dr. tell us we're not crazy and that we DO have candida....I think its more important to find the Dr. who's gonna try to find out WHY we have candida. This is more important than anything else in my opinion.

Stanna.....it may be hard to believe but I'm actually happy I have Lyme Disease. I guess we can all relate to the "not knowing"....it was eating me up. I was working hard to get answers....I dont think my mind has rested in at least 2 years....trying to get this figured out. It got to the point that I didnt care what was wrong...I just needed to KNOW. The Lyme diagnosis took a huge load off of me....it was a relief and now I can begin a new chapter. Its time to get better. :)

-Rachel