Biggest misconceptions about Lyme and co:
1.) You don't have to have the characteristic rash to get Lyme, nor do you even know if a tick ever bit you because nymphs are the size of the period at the end of this sentence.
2.) Multiple species of ticks carry Lyme and co. "Deer ticks" is the slang are the black-legged ticks. People get confused and think they are different, but they're one in the same.
3.) Once it goes chronic, which could be months after infection bites, it could always resubmerge or continue to infect because it's undertreated and misunderstood terribly.
4.) Not just ticks carry the disease. Any sort of bug that bites including mites, mosquitos, and even fleas are carriers. Fleas are more likely to carry bartonella, another horrible co-infection to get.
Ysabel, I'm sure you have heard about Linda Ronstadt. She had a tick bite and 7-8 years later, Parkinson's. Michael J. Fox was bitten by a tick and three years later, Parkinson's.
It's awfully peculiar, don't you think?
I can't think of the doctor's name in "Under our Skin" but he had ALS-type symptoms, was treated with IV abx, and has pretty much recovered. That death sentence of ALS had been revoked.
Lymedisease.org is a great source, and so is stopthelymecrimes.com to read up on Lyme.
ILADS.org is the leading resource in study in the US right now. Check out these sites if it suits you.
It's a highly emerging illness... well, it has been for the past 50 years or more.
I contracted lyme from my mother in the womb, and it became active after dental work. Sounds crazy, but she had "MS" symptoms in 1975 which dissipated. That could have been when she was infected.
Any stress on the immune system like giving birth, an accident, a family death, etc can bring it out of hiding to take over when you're hit weak.
I can only lead the horses to water, but you can't make them drink. Tests for Lyme are highly inaccurate for now (a live culture test is being made to see the actual spirochete in the blood). Until then, people are going to keep getting misdiagnosed or undiagnosed.
Find a lyme-aware doctor if you're interested. They most likely won't take insurance since insurance companies are told that Lyme is "easy to cure, hard to get".
Even having one band on your WB can represent a positive. It's like being "a little bit pregnant". If you have lyme-ish symptoms and certain tests come back abnormal, it is safe to say it's Lyme.
Some even feel most to all illnesses or diseases that have exploded over the last twenty years to be a by-product of Lyme or co-infection. These babies are stealthy.
If you want to explore Lyme, again, find someone who specializes in it. Regular neurologists and ID docs don't understand the pathology behind these conditions. That's because they refuse to acknowledge Lyme is persistant because it hides, it cysts to protect itself, and it forms colonies like biofilms to protect their ranks as well.
It may take a while to see improvement if you're positive, but it's a marathon... not a sprint.