Hi Linda, my name is Kim. I was first diagnosed with Lyme Disease in 1986 as a teenager in Connecticut. In 1988 I was diagnosed with Chronic Lyme Disease. Throughout the years I had flares that affected all of my joints and my immune system has been an issue since infected, but I was able to ride and show horses, get an education, and have a great job as a healthcare professional. The flares would only sideline me for a couple days to a week or so. Then in 2009 I move to Florida to pursue a career in academics. Due to the stress of moving myself and show horse 1500 miles, and starting a new career, my flare began in 2010. It was controllable until 2012, when it got so bad, I needed to leave work. I was lucky I found an ID doc that specialized in Lymes. I now suffer from arthritis in all my joints, chronic fatigue, fibromyalgia, and neuropathies in my legs and hands. I've been fighting for SSD for 5 years. To supplement the meds I am on, I eat an inflammatory diet, try to rest as much as I can, and keep stress at a minimum, which can be difficult. If it wasn't for my French bulldog "Oliver" I don't know what I would do. Pets help a lot with the stress and depression that comes with this disease. I f your looking for a good physician, I would look into the nearest medical school and what ID physicians are affiliated because they will be current on all research and treatments. Also, if you can get to the University of Albany Medical School/Center my physician has done a lot of work with them and they are supposed to have great physicians. Think positively.

Hello Lindee13, Welcome to this site. I was diagnosed with Lyme in 2005 by a Lyme Literate
doctor who was also a naturopath.
He treated me for some eight years with standard and alternative medicine.
He doesn't take insurance and I had to pay out
of pocket except for labs. I don't know your circumstances. I have had much better experiences
with alternative doctors than conventional. Dr. Richard Horowitz who I believe is in Hyde Park
NY is one of the leading Lyme doctors in the country. He has written a huge book on Lyme
and I have heard him give talks. There's a Steven Bock, M.D. in Rhinebeck NY who uses
traditional and complementary medicine to treat. I only know of him from reading the book,
"Insights into Lyme Disease Treatment" by Connie Strasheim. (available on Amazon) I live
on the west coast so have not gone to these doctors.
Also, if you go to the site www.ilads,org there's a lot of good information about Lyme.
If you type in your zip code they will send you LLMD's referrals in your area. Also, if you
can find a support group near where you are, that can often be a good source of
information.
I wish you well. I know this is not an easy illness to deal with. We really need to
be our own advocates, not be afraid of asking questions, and to reach out. That's what
I've learned with this. Take good care.

ps. I just did a search on Dr. Horowitz. He has a page on Face Book if you're on there. That
gives you an idea who he is. Their office number is: 845-229-8977. That could be one place to
start. If he's not taking new patients or too expensive or such you could tell them your situation
and ask for referrals in that area. There's also a Dr. Q Zhang in New York city who treats patients
using Chinese herbs and acupuncture. I did his program long distance for a year. It did help
but I felt limited not being able to see him in person. He was very nice over the phone.
Just hang in there. It's good you were able to diagnose yourself and I trust you will
find help. Just keep searching and reaching out.

Hi Linda. I am so sorry that you are suffering immensely. My mom gave me lyme disease at birth so I always was sick and went in and out of the hospital as long as I could remember. but I was fortunate enough to travel all around the country and many overseas doing hyperthermia, stem cells, apheresis, too many abx and over 2000 IVs. Unfortunately, none of the treatments and therapies were helpful to me, at least for a long run. In fact, it led me a debilitating brain and spine inflammation and crazy pain and burning sensation with severe mast cell disorder where I was extremely reactive to EVERYTHING and frequency of vomiting was quite norm daily :( But few people have informed about this lyme practitioner who sees people all around the country via skype and face-to-face (but not so much as she has a waiting list) so to make the story short, I had my first skype consult with her 27 months ago. The battle was pretty intense with barely no improvement but I was noticing pretty significant improvement that I was not able to see. I had enough energy to be more aggressive and grouchy as per my dad, my liquid diet was slowly changing to add more food into my diet, and I was up more instead of sleeping 18 hours a day. She has made me this unbelievable herbal protocol that are from Russia and Korea. And she has started me on this amazing injection called immuno-maf and glymino gcmaf cream. It was tough to get adjusted to but once it settled to adopt these ingredients into my body, it was showing me great acceleration of healing. I am forever debt to this practitioner and our whole family cannot live without her. Yes pls do your research and consider these immuno-maf and glymino transdermal products. It is definitely worthy of trying these. xx

Hello there, I looked carefully into your description of your symptoms. I am sorry to hear that you have been ill for so many years. Your symptoms should be in the third stage, and there are a lot of complications. Joint symptoms such as joint pain arthritis or chronic invasive synovitis in knee elbow large joints.I was a Lyme disease patient once, after few years, I found out a serial herb medicine which called DR ZHANG. They’ve been doing a medical study on Lyme disease by using herb medicine for a real long time. By using their medicine, my symptoms has been greatly relieved. And You can find helpful help on there website www.hepapro.com. Wish you get well early!