Lyme Disease Support Group
Lyme disease is the most common vector-borne disease in the Northern Hemisphere. It is now one of the fastest growing infectious diseases in the U.S. Lyme disease is caused by infection with the Borrelia burgdorferi bacteria, and is primarily transmitted to humans as well as dogs, horses and other domesticated animals by the bite of infected ticks.
"The Angry Doctor" wrote an angry diatribe about the 'the crock of chronic Lyme disease''.
I like what one of the responders said and I'll repost it here:
Anonymous said...
My only hope for you is that you come into contact with multiple ticks over a very long period of time. You will of course not see the ticks since they are so small. You will not develop the rash or the bull's eye ring. But you will gradually begin to feel worse and worse.
You will be so fatigued you will not be able to funcction, you will ache everywhere including your eyes and teeth. You will be sensitive to light and sound. Then one day you will remember a walk in the woods, or having gone camping, or maybe as all good docs do....go golfing. Then you will remember brushing something off your legs or clothing. And you will begin to wonder.
You will go to many of your fellow collegues, they will not know what is wrong with you. You will change cognitively, you won't be able to spell or recall words as you used to. You will become concerned about continuuing to practice medicine.
You will eventually concede to being tested for Lyme and the tests will come back negative. You become worse. Friends and family don't understand what is wrong with you and why you complain so much. You will get diagnosed with Lupus, or ALS, or chronic fatigue and a list of many other things.
The treatments you receive won't work. You have to give up practicing medicine. Meanwhile, somewhere in the future the truth becomes known about Lyme being a chronic disease and you remember your blog.
By this time you are almost completely incapacitated and bedridden. You turn for help, it will take years to feel "better" again. You notice that the abx do relieve your symptoms. Hopefully, you will feel some regret. Hopefully, you will not have hurt too many people when you were practicing medicine.
October 13, 2007 at 6:04 PM
http://theangrydoctor.blogspot.com/2007/10/crock-of-chronic-lyme-disease.html
I like what one of the responders said and I'll repost it here:
Anonymous said...
My only hope for you is that you come into contact with multiple ticks over a very long period of time. You will of course not see the ticks since they are so small. You will not develop the rash or the bull's eye ring. But you will gradually begin to feel worse and worse.
You will be so fatigued you will not be able to funcction, you will ache everywhere including your eyes and teeth. You will be sensitive to light and sound. Then one day you will remember a walk in the woods, or having gone camping, or maybe as all good docs do....go golfing. Then you will remember brushing something off your legs or clothing. And you will begin to wonder.
You will go to many of your fellow collegues, they will not know what is wrong with you. You will change cognitively, you won't be able to spell or recall words as you used to. You will become concerned about continuuing to practice medicine.
You will eventually concede to being tested for Lyme and the tests will come back negative. You become worse. Friends and family don't understand what is wrong with you and why you complain so much. You will get diagnosed with Lupus, or ALS, or chronic fatigue and a list of many other things.
The treatments you receive won't work. You have to give up practicing medicine. Meanwhile, somewhere in the future the truth becomes known about Lyme being a chronic disease and you remember your blog.
By this time you are almost completely incapacitated and bedridden. You turn for help, it will take years to feel "better" again. You notice that the abx do relieve your symptoms. Hopefully, you will feel some regret. Hopefully, you will not have hurt too many people when you were practicing medicine.
October 13, 2007 at 6:04 PM
http://theangrydoctor.blogspot.com/2007/10/crock-of-chronic-lyme-disease.html
An MD reads one article from the NEJM and that's all he needs for 100% confirmation that chronic Lyme does not exist? And he calls that 'science?! He is a joke.
I know this will sound like I am "tooting my own horn" but it applies here. As I have written before, I have suffered from OCD for almost 39 years and most of those years at a severe or extreme level. I sent away and paid a small fee for a research paper done by several HARVARD MDs and PHDs in the late 1980's (I got in 1991 or 1992) on a certain psycho-surgery that they concluded was worthwhile or helpful to extreme OCD sufferers.
After I received and read their article I was dumbfounded by their conclusion; it was all wrong! Their research was very sloppy and unscientific. They even admitted to 3 serious side effects of the surgery and only a small portion of the people who had the surgery back in the 1960s (when OCD was unknown to 99.9 % of shrinks) benefitted from it (according to the OCD sufferers from almost 30 years earlier). I think ALL interviews with these supposed OCDers (who knows what they really had?) from the 1960's were done by phone.
Several years later, in 1997, I had the opportunity to speak to one of the foremost authorities on OCD in the country and mentioned that research paper to him. He agreed with me and since he probably knew a few of those researchers, he told me that they would be "singing a very different tune today". In otherwords, they realized they screwed up with their conclusions, probably by peer reviewed feedback.
If a lowly college grad like me that went to a barely average college and got a degree in a non-science subject could see the obvious mistakes and flaws made by these supposed doctors and scientists employed (and some educated) by Harvard U, what does that say about what "science" really is? It means other than "2 + 2 = 4" and the 'sun rises in the east and sets in the west", there is not a lot we can count on what it comes time for scientists to give their OPINIONS! Studies and papers are fine and can support arguments but are NOT fact.
We truly have to be our best advocates as the better MDs remind us or "manage our own illnesses" as an ex-friend of mine said many years ago. Use MDs as advisors, not necessarily finders or dispensers of fact. Even labs come up with false negatives and false positives. The more we read and the more we stand up for ourselves infront of MDs and do not fear to make enemies of certain MDs, the better off we will be.
Sorry for the rant but that whole blog got me fired up!
The problem is---- more people will read his post rather then digging for the background. It's more 'emotional' and therefore 'sexier'.
I will probably reply more later but I wanted to post this here first: You said:
"Use MDs as advisors, not necessarily finders or dispensers of fact."
That's what I do for the most part with the exception of one or two docs in the distant past (llmds). I describe most docs as 'writers of prescriptions' and therefore useful to me for that reason. I find articles (NOT from USA Today or Dr Oz--- PubMed usually) that address the problem I'd like rectified.
I examine that article for it's validity. That takes a lot of practice and experience and for that I relied on the many sources on the Internet that instruct a person 'how to read a medical article'. But it's MY health and nothing is more important and if I can learn anyone can.
I do NOT say the above as a license to 'treat yourself' with some of the less valid 'treatments' that are touted. If you want to use some of them----- I uphold your personal decision but PLEASE do not interpret my posts that way. Please.
I did NOT take your last paragraph as directed at me. But thanks for the xtra message and the compliment about my post.
I did read several of the replies to that MD but when I got to the "scientists" reply (think it was that one), which was very well written, it just went on and on and on and that's when I thought "enough".
Maybe that MD just likes the attention. Some people just like being antagonists.
That's funny----- or ironic! (grin)
I read the entire reply (even though there was nothing new to me) and thought---- we need more of these! LOL
I particularly like articles that take, point by point, a subject and present 'counterpoints' complete with citation after citation. Sometimes it even uses the words of the 'enemy' against them. Delicious!
One of the best I've seen (Dr. Steven Phillips) is a slide show of 80 films FULLY referenced. Page 16 has "In Their Own Words" and is, as I said, delicious.
Another is, by a different author but whose knowledge plus his often hidden sly wit is a delight:
http://cid.oxfordjournals.org/content/45/2/149.full