Commentary – Truth be told
A few months ago, I wrote a commentary on how the tides seemed to be changing for Lyme Disease (LD) awareness. This shift in acceptance of LD was greatly welcomed by me and other chronic LD patients. Not that recognizing how prevalent a pandemic we have will ever help me walk again, but more so that I don’t have to see anyone else die in this slow and demoralizing manner.
Around the same time, I also wrote a commentary on how it often felt like I was preaching to deaf ears. And in this piece, I mentioned that in my babbling that all health problems were possibly the result of LD, and this made me appear psychotic.
The CDC now believes Lyme may have infected as many as one percent of the country’s population (ten times the official reported cases since 1980 – 4 million). I guess psychosis doesn’t look so crazy anymore.
Dr. James Howenstine, a specialist in internal medicine, wrote in a letter dated July-2004 that:
Lyme Disease is now thought to be the fastest growing infectious disease in the world. There are believed to be at least 200,000 new cases each year in the US and some experts think that as many as one in every 15 Americans is currently infected (20 million persons).
http://www.samento.com.ec/sciencelib/4lyme/Townsendhowens.html
I am now reaching my ten year anniversary of being chronic, and twenty year anniversary for incubating the bacteria. It is nice to know I have outgrown the Psychotic phase of my preaching and have entered the Curmudgeon phase. Where I once was pleased that information was being reported on LD, I now get angry at the incomplete and misleading information that is reported. Hopefully this is just my Bartonella rage flaring up.
We are getting closer to the truth about LD, though the whole truth is just beginning to be told (and known).
For now, enjoy your Sunday, and should you stroll past a windmill with a knight, look for me.
Rob
Windemere, UK
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Yule Tide Tides: https://lymehandbook.com/2009/12/28/yule-tide-tides/
The Lonely Soapbox: https://lymehandbook.com/2010/01/15/commentary-the-lonely-soapbox/
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The Lyme Disease Memorial Park: http://www.lymememorial.org/In_Memory_Of.htm
Lyme Handbook 
Keep up the encouragin work Rob 😀
Thanks Melissa.
Happy Easter
Where do you get “The CDC now believes Lyme may have infected as many as ten percent of the country’s population (ten times the official reported cases since 1980 – 4 million).”? I’d love to quote you but need a reference.
Val,
I have seen it over several sources. I’ll send the sources to you as I find them again. Here is one such source:
“After seven years, she finally got a definitive diagnosis — Lyme disease. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention reports about 20,000 cases of Lyme disease have occurred in the U.S. in recent years but says actual numbers could be up to 10 times that amount.”
http://www.thedenverchannel.com/health/22414033/detail.html
Total cases reported by CDC since 1980: (bar 1981): https://lymehandbook.com/index/must-know/250-reported-cases-by-state/
381k x 10 = 3.81 million.
This does not include pre 1981 cases.
Regards,
Rob
If you take the numbers at https://lymehandbook.com/index/must-know/250-reported-cases-by-state/, add 25,000 for 1981, then multiply by 10 (assuming Lyme is under-reported by a factor of 10), you come up with 4,065,520 people with Lyme. That is approximately 1.32% (not 10%) of the U.S. population, assuming none of those 4+ million have died.
Happy Easter and best wishes,
Val
Absolutely correct. well done.
Have a great Easter.
Rob
Val,
Here is another view on the number of infected
Americans:
Lyme Disease is now thought to be the fastest growing infectious disease in the world. There are believed to be at least 200,000 new cases each year in the US and some experts think that as many as one in every 15 Americans is currently infected (20 million persons). Dr. Robert Rowen knows a family where the mother’s infection…
From: http://www.samento.com.ec/sciencelib/4lyme/Townsendhowens.html
Actually, it’s pretty funny Val – My Mom has always remarked about the word “assume”…it makes an “ass-u-me”…:)….I think the CDC’s numbers are even lower than we can imagine…there are so many diseases and conditions – what is it 200-300 – that Lyme disease “mimics” (that we know of)….I wonder if it is in reality that it has been Lyme disease all along … and over these many years of emergences of “new” diseases and diagnoses, Medical society has buried the possibility of Lyme disease with labels for its symptoms….Until proper testing is developed I guess we will be left wondering with no definitve way to know.
Well, as I have vocalized in the past. Why would we accept a doctor’s diagnosis for ills that have no cure instead of being aggressive with diseases that are curable?
Yes, there is a medical position to protect antibiotics from overuse. But damn, we protected antibiotics in the wrong fashion. Now the bacteria have mutated in ourselves and we are passing off the mutated bacteria to new tick bites, mosquitoes, etc. And on top of that, I sacrificed decades of my life and put my family at risk.
Unfortunately, we were brainwashed to trust the medical establishment, and they failed us.
Regardless, we shall overcome,
Rob
I think it is very possible that CFS and FM do not exist; that they are both manifestations of Lyme and co-infections.
I’ve been sick nearly 25 years. Diagnoses: ankylosing sponylitis, hypothyroidism, hyperparathyroidism (surgery) primary hyperaldosteronism, polymyalgia, and now, finally, Lyme & Bartonella. I’ve only been on ABX since November so I guess I have a long road ahead – if I remain upright long enough to walk it.
Val,
I wish you the very best in your treatment.
If you ever give up on conventional antibiotics, give me a shout. I have been trying an alternate drug-free treatment which so far has a 100% success rate with Lymees much worse than I.
Well, that is, 100% success for everyone but me so far. But I am still persevering. And if it does work, I’ll be shouting “I can walk, I can walk” all across this blog.
Actually, I am getting close.
Stay optimistic,
Rob