She suffers everydays still~ She has at least 2 seizures a day and is still wheelchair bound right now due to not having any energy and her joints are affected greatly~ I talked to her lastnight and she says she feels better but she's had this since 2004 and had gone undiagnosed until 2008. Up until then the doctors thought she was suffering from MS. She went thru 2 pregnancies while having Lyme~ Both her sons have suffered the effects of the disease but are getting treatment to stop the ongoing effects. Due to the length of time it took doctors to figure out what was wrong with Charity she will most likely have this for the rest of her life~
I am truly sorry to hear about her, and hope that she gets better over time. Outsanding video, a MUST SEE for anyone that doubts that Lyme is "just a tick bite"
In Ontario it is STILL more common that Lyme is diagnosed as MS. As I mentioned earlier, a longtime friend of my wife is in a wheelchair also because of Lyme.
And it was my wife that suggested that she be checked out for Lyme because her doctors didn't diagnose it correctly for 10 years. Unfortunately it is probably too late for her to recover.
I have mentioned this before, that anyone who spends time in the bush, and ends up with joint pains, neurological problems, or even diagnosed as MS, get checked for Lyme. Unfortunately that is much easier said than done.
DIAGNOSIS
The ONLY reliable test is a PCR (DNA type test) that is only done in one lab in the US (
www.igenix.com as shown in the video). It will cost you about $500. You can arrange it with your doctor and it is all done by Fed-Ex to the US lab.
How bad is the diagnosis problem? Ontario has the LOWEST diagnosed rate of Lyme but the HIGHEST rate of MS. MANY of those cases of MS are actually misdiagnosed Lyme and they are just starting to become known.
There is HUGE ignorance on the part of doctors about Lyme, MOST don't believe in it, and MOST diagnose it as something else. And even when they do prescribe a treatment, it is usually completely useless because it is way too short a term. (4 or 5 weeks)
EXAMPLE
For example, if you have joint pain, your doctor sends you to a rheumatologist (arthritis specialist) and what will he say? You guessed it, you have some form of arthritis. When you have tingling in your feet, you are sent to to a neurologist, obviously it is a neurological problem. Your mind gets cloudy, and you can't think as clearly as you once did, well that is just old age. And so on.
The above example is TRUE, it is my father-in-law (a geologist). He went through a dozen doctors over 5 years before my WIFE figured out it was Lyme. His tests in Ontario for Lyme came back NEGATIVE on several occasions. He then sent in samples for the PCR test and they came back POSITIVE. He has been on treatment for about 2-3 YEARS, including IV antibiotics. Only after being on treatment for a year or so did one of his Ontario tests come back positive.
His joint pain as subsided, still has some tingling in his feet, but most importantly his mind is now clear.
LYME BACTERIA LIFECYCLES
The problem with Lyme is that the bacteria that causes has about a one month lifecycle where activity, and symptoms increase and decrease. This is also the basis of the past "treatment" of 4 to 5 weeks of antibiotics.
What happens it that the bacteria activity decreases on a monthly basis, and symptoms decrease substantially, only to reoccur a couple weeks later.
My wife and daughter accurately charted their symptoms for at least a year and there was a DEFINITE monthly pattern to the symptoms. This was before, during and even after 9+ months of treatment. (treatment might have been longer, I don't remember) The treatment was stopped based on the chronicle of symptoms, not because of the Ontario blood test, which only once returned a positive result. The medical texts also recommend Lyme diagnosis based on symptoms, and not the test, but society (doctors) have become so dependant on tests, that if you constantly return negative tests, the conclusion is that obviously can't be anything wrong with you.
Things are changing, but VERY slowly. Your best defence is your own knowledge of the situation.
BTW the is only ONE doctor in Ontario that specializes in Lyme Disease. He is being closely "watched" by the Ontario Medical Association because he is prescribing treatment way in excess of the "recommended" 4-5 weeks period of antibiotics. In the eyes of the OMA, his treatments are bordering on malpractice. But he is throughly documenting his results and he is GETTING results, along with a growing body of evidence from the US and other places.
) we dealt with ticks on a regular basis. 
