I'm cleaning up my best notes and resources after well over a decade with this illness to post for your own research. I hope it helps. But even more I hope you don't need this info!
What's so hard about lyme? Answer: ...Getting diagnosed, getting treatment.
There is there is conflicting recommendations from experts on diagnosis and treatment. The CDC says approximately 10 – 20% of those treated with lyme won't be cured. Hopefully I've given you a usable reference to help you avoid being in this uncured category.
Getting diagnosed: Personality matters!
How we handle stress matters. Some of us relish it some of us don't. Of the 50+ people, 8 horses and a hand full of dogs I know exposed to lyme, the following pattern exists without exception: The more “intense” and “high-strung” the personality, the more intense and harder to treat the lyme disease. “Laid back Lucy” may not know she has lyme until a test shows it and typical treatment will cure her just fine. However, “gonzo Grover” who loves his work jumping out of perfectly operating Coast Guard helicopters into in Alaskan winter seas is going to notice, have restricted function and the illness will progress through his systems faster. Don't despair if you are “gonzo Grover” there are ways around this! I've written some suggestion below under “stress”.
This makes a few things are critically important for diagnosing:
- know your personality. If you like stress be more aggressive with insisting aggressive treatments with your doctor. If they don't comply fire them, get one who will. And stick to ILADS guidelines.
- If you are “gonzo Grover” or heading that direction. Write down all the weird changes you've noticed. One of the things lyme hits is thinking and memory. The first month after exposure is the best time to cure this illness. Being unable to communicate could delay diagnosis and will cost you very, very precious treatment time.
- Have an advocate
with you, just the act of bringing a person with you “cues” the
doctor's attention. You might feel silly, but if there is any weird
feeling you can't quite put your finger on about going to a doctor's
appt alone, listen to it. Your body is trying to tell you something.
www.columbia-lyme.org
Columbia University has a Lyme research/treatment group run by Dr. Fallon - this is the first place I would go for info and help.
www.ilads.org/lyme_disease/about_lyme.html
ILADS - International Lyme And Associated Diseases Society - If you can have two "first places I would go" this is my other "first place".
http://www.cdc.gov/lyme/signs_symptoms/
The CDC says Lyme further antibiotic treatment after the initial treatment is not beneficial. My experience staunchly contradicts this.
Prevention
http://greendragonbotanicals.com/products/lyme-protocols/lb-prevention.html
http://www.cdc.gov/lyme/
http://www.ilads.org/lyme_disease/lyme_tips.html
Symptoms
http://www.ilads.org/lyme_disease/treatment_guidelines_summary.html
http://www.cdc.gov/lyme/
Treatments
I will be adding more on other treatments, but for now my current protocol is Buhner herbs, minocycline and vitamins.
http://www.greendragonbotanicals.com/ My very trusted source for pre-mixed herbs fitting the Buhner protocol. Source matters, I know Tim Scott and I trust his work and sources.
Gastro-Intestional involvement in Lyme:
http://www.thehumansideoflyme.net/viewarticle.php?aid=62
There are also other good articles from Dr. Virginia T. Sherr, MD, a doctor with Lyme.
Heart involvement in Lyme:
Lyme causes nerve signal abnormalities in the heart. There are two general kinds of heart interference in lyme, heart block (heart nerve signal messed witch can cause the heart to stop and potentially kill you) and tachycardia or brachycardia (racing heartbeat/ slow heartbeat).
Tachycardia/brachycardia won't kill you outright, but it can make you feel icky, panicky or tipsy. Mine typically lasting under a minute and is very rare now. Others with lyme report arrhythmias can last hours or longer.
Heart block on the other hand, can kill with out warning – the first time. I may have had this experts aren't sure. I know no one who has had this diagnosed, its a tough diagnosis. Part of what makes heart block so scary is it tends to happen in the EARLY stages of lyme. So, heart block could be your first and only symptom of lyme! If it kills you, its very, very unlikely anyone will figure out Lyme or any cause of death. (For example, a 12 year old who suddenly dies playing sports could be blamed on an undiagnosed, asymptomatic congenital heart condition, when the cause was really lyme – we just don't know.)
Another symptom that can SEEM like heart block, is POTS (Positional Orthostatic Transitional Syndrome). Syncope is a more general term. POTS seems to happen ONLY in the LATER stages of Lyme. What we think is happening is, the vagus nerve has some how been affected by lyme. The vagus nerve is a very important link in the chain for many bodily functions including keeping the right blood pressure as you move around. POTS can leave you with a BP of 20 - which means you don't have enough pressure for bodily functions, so you suddenly lose muscle function. (Such a collapse due to loss in muscle function is what happened to the blond girl, Sea World Trainer in the movie 'Under Our Skin'.)
I've had this symptom. It felt like my heart just stopped. All motor function was lost within 6 seconds. Just as I blacked out, my heart re-started. Experts suspect the cause was POTS resulting in not enough blood pressure to feel my own heartbeat, which was still beating.
Contributing factors to all these conditions might be fatigue, dehydration and deconditioning.
Sexual Transmission of Lyme:
Sometimes we don't see what is right in front of our eyes. We don't know if Lyme is sexually transmitted. What we can say is, Lyme is a spirochete, as is syphilis. And both lyme and syphilis act very similar taking similar paths through the body, infects the host in similar patterns. Classified as a type of bacteria, a spirochete is actually borderline between a bacteria and a virus, having characteristics and lack of characteristics in both categories. The spirochete's particular "MO" is to leave the blood and drill into tissue with its corkscrew shaped body. Spirochete illnesses seem to be able to attack any organ system, including the brain, passing through the very restrictive blood-brain barrier.
What I can say is, sometime during the first year of having Lyme, I felt something was not right. I don't know if it was weeks or months into the illness, but intuitively, I wondered if I should protect my husband until I found out what the problem was.... I did, even though there were zero indications and no medical advice to do so. I felt a little stupid and over the top, but I did anyway. For years my husband humored me, but had no idea why. This summer after seeing the film 'Under Our Skin' he said "I will never complain about wearing protection again...". He does not have Lyme in 12 years. There are few with Lyme who can say that.
We don't know if Lyme is sexually transmitted, the research isn't there yet.
http://www.canlyme.com/sex.html
Knowing something about the history of syphilis can probably help guide us until authorities give us and our medical professionals guidelines on the sexual transmission of Lyme.
http://www.ramcjournal.com/2007/sep07/blair.pdf
Panic Attacks in Lyme:
http://www.thehumansideoflyme.net/articlelist.php?mid=4
Neurological involvement in Lyme:
http://vesta.cumc.columbia.edu/lymedisease/news/user/featNews.php?sel=newsFeat
Ok, the list is long here, and in years, I have had 99% of the symptoms. I will say this one thing. I got rid of almost all of my parathesias within one hour of the first treatment of nortriptiline (15 mgs I think). Stunned the neurologist, who was thinking MS and sleep disorder. I evened out on a 40 mg dose for a few weeks/months and then stopped treatment. The parathesias don't come back, as long as I am taking my antibiotics correctly.
Restless Leg Syndrome can be a misdiagnosis for Lyme. If your legs don't jerk at night or if it isn't just your legs, and you've been given this diagnosis, keep a health diary, just in case you have Lyme, not RLS. RLS is commonly caused by a low iron level. Addressing the low iron with supplement has completely solved the chronic RLS symptoms in one person I know with RLS.
Chronic Fatigue Syndrome is likely a version of Lyme in my opinion. I have suspected it strongly for a long time, now, with Dr. Fallon's, et al, data, we have some evidence. I now feel comfortable saying I think the recently new "drug for CFS" is a greedy financial crock. The data the drug works is weak at best, and results have been very underwhelming. Its starting to look like only antibiotics will help, anything else is a placebo. I could go on about my bias, but it won't help any one.
Skin involvement in Lyme:
I have found no useful references for this. My own experiences include: painful vesicles on the hands and feet similar to Raynaud's or Herpes Simplex... After treatment with minocycline, pain and vesicles went away, but I got innumerable blackheads progressing from the chest up the neck, then the face, then progressing down the back to the tail bone over a period of 2 months. In the shower, it felt like greasy sand which could never be washed off...yuck! I struggle with this still years later.
I tried all the usual washes and acne treatments including benzoyl peroxide. Only drinking water, Dr. Karr's treatment, retinol and a carrot or two each night between dinner and bed has seemed to make made a dent. Red LED lighting may also be helping, I'm experimenting with this now. After years of this my pores are now huge and some minor scarring has occurred. Lesson: If this starts happening to you, get ahead of this if you can.
Safflower oil to be helpful. Safflower oil is high in lineolic acid, an oil our bodies use to clear the pores. It seems to help best when I apply once daily and let it sit on the face for 20 mins. I found safflower oil to be more helpful than coconut oil despite having antibacterial properties safflower oil lacks.
Ironically, the treatment that 'caused' the blackheads was a common acne treatment.
Stress in Lyme:
What I wish they had told me.... manage your stress! Good stress or bad stress is still chemically stress. Fighting chronic lyme is like fighting the ghost of a ninja warrior and your only weapon is to manage your stress. Lyme is seems optimally designed to take advantage of stress. So much so, if your personality tends toward the intense side of the scale, (and that's you adrenaline junkies who won't take second best), your lyme will be much worse than "laid back Lucy". And as an interesting side note, the bits of info I've gathered from my "horse and dog circles" tells me this personality bias happens in horses and dogs too. The more intense the animal, the worse and harder to treat the lyme.
I have been affectionately, and not so affectionately, described as "intense". If I had managed my stress (and didn't try to "get back to normal" so hard) I think my treatment would have had me close to a 100% pre-lyme health years ago. LET THAT BE A LESSON TO YOU!
I am one of those annoying people who tend take on big or new, unfamiliar projects and finish them with ease... As a backpacker, could hike 25 miles a day with 50lbs in hilly, rocky, terrain with ease. But with lyme, I got to the point, where a long car trip (as a passenger!) was stressful enough to make me 50% bed ridden for 2 months. And going to the grocery store for years was too over stimulating - I'd get disoriented and fear getting lost!!! So, regardless if you are a "take on the world personality" like me or more laid back (and smarter) individual, IDENTIFY what is going to be a stresser for YOU on any given day. Then, do half of what you think you should do. Pushing it, stretching and reaching for normalcy will only send you backwards - just like a Chinese finger trap....
MOM!!!!! THIS MEANS YOU ESPECIALLY!!!!! As a mom, you are mother bear, play mate, nutritionist, guardian angel, warning indicator, tooth fairy, achievement high-fiver, birthday dream creator and much more for your children. But with Lyme, getting the PB&Js ready for lunch in the morning may be too much. You MUST respect that. If you don't, you are just going to go in a spiral downward........better....worse....better....worse.......
Managing stress is as important as the medication. Do whatever it takes to get help with chores, mood and outlook management.... If you don't, no medication will ever get you back to who you ARE.... Remember ninjas are sneaky and ruthless - their ghost's are worse...
Back Pain or Weird Pains in Lyme:
In my case, Lyme had me thinking I was chasing a back injury for years – sometimes it would show up in the same place sometimes it wouldn't and I could never really pin point what I did to cause the “injury”. With me it was unlikely to be a non-specific fitness issue, I had very strong core muscles from horseback riding. But I kept getting “injured” despite no episode of trauma or strain.
Thermacare heat pads, were great relief for long car rides and when I couldn’t get away from the pain. I also tried physical therapy for stretching and strengthening. Eventually as decondition occurred the pain would come back after doing a specific tasks.
For example, I would daily scoop grain for my horse. That requires bending over into a trash can filled with grain and scooping out (no scraping of frozen feed) 3 cups of grain with each scoop. Its a minuscule amount of work, especially after you consider I carry the 50lb grain bags in to the grain room over my shoulder weekly, which never gave me a problem. However, that little amount of work, scooping grain, would cause a pain to my mid/lower thoracic area on the same side every time. No matter how long I didn’t scoop grain or did PT, as soon as I went back to scooping grain, the “injury” reoccurred. (What was laughable was, it seemed like three times of scooping brought the pain back, not one, not five - three.) Seemed like a typical – “all I was doing was… when my back went out” story. But something told me this is off… this is not quite right… this is not really just a basic back strain…
The recurring “injury” stopped re-occurring with Lyme treatment, and hasn’t returned.
Exercise & Staying in shape:
http://lymenaide.wordpress.com/2009/09/01/exercise/ (Thanks 'lymenaide' for the link)
I've struggled with this a lot. I have found cardio-exercise to make me worse MOST but not all of the time. I have discovered two signals contra-indicationing cardio: unusual, dramatic increased breathing rate and/or muscle burn. If either happens and seems like they wouldn't have happened yesterday.... while doing the same activity, I stop IMMEDIATELY. If I don't stop, I am flaring/re-lapsing/herxing hard 3 days later. It took me 12 years to figure this out - I'd heed it hard if I were you, especially if you are in that “gonzo Grover” category.
There is a fatigue that comes with lyme which seems to indicate to me the energy delivery to muscles is somehow interrupted. I struggled hard with this. I thought if I could find a sport drink with easily deliverable energy I might be able to get around the problem - but I never could find one, they all had sugary junk.
Then, (cue dramatic leading music) I found http://oscycling.com/ (thank you Syndicate!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!). The ingredients were exactly what I was looking for!!!!!! I tried it. The first OS drink I biked a mile on flat an level no real problem, no pain, just out of shape. I conservatively waited the 3 days for the lyme lapse but none came. So the next day I biked with my second OS drink. I biked 6 miles in under 40 mins - again just normal out of shape stuff. And again no herx/lyme backlash!!!!!!!
Ok now let me put this into perspective: Before OS I tried repeatedly again and again to bike. I was the same thing every time: on stroke 3 my muscles were screaming, after 1 tenth my muscle had long lost its power and by 2 tenths on flat and level everything was absolutely shaking and I was beyond throwing up (I learned not to eat before doing this). I literally, no caveat or qualifications, went from this to biking 6 miles fairly easily, from one day to the next.
On I could go on an on but I won't - this is a miracle for me. I am still experimenting but "Sprint" may be what works best for me. I can't thank you enough OS guys!!!
Pilates, yoga and a hippotherapy program has been the best for me. I am now doing some circuit exercise with success and no relapse - I just don't push. I am gradually able to do more and more aerobic activity. Getting a handle on the cues from my body has seemed to make a big difference.
Myo-facial release is also been a huge deal for me. It can be accomplished with a professional and/or a self roller routine. Before doing a self myofacial release, I struggled with building muscle strength, tone and stability. Now with myofacial release it seems the muscles actually get the nutrients they need to get reconditioned. I now do both self and professional myo-facial release. I particularly like Kinesis Myofacial Integration a professional method based on how the body is used in “trains” or “chains” as I think of them.
Five Fingers. This is an affectionate favorite. I've kinda gotten known among my friends for having the wacked pink feet. While these shoes may not be for everyone these have really helped me restrengthen and re-establish my balance. My arch has slowly started returning, my toe are becoming less pointed and I'm always noticing new balance confidences as time goes on. I wear these shoes hiking and basically everywhere I go if its not wet or snowy. I strongly advise the thicker 3mm soled ones for everyday use.
Diet and Nutrition in Lyme:
Vitamin D3, Omega 3's, vitamin B's, vitamin K, acetyl glutathione and water all seem key to me. These nutrients are good advice for anyone, Lyme or not, but paying special attention to these seem to help support me against my Lyme. I even miss them when I forget to include them in my diet.
With all the vitamin A in carrots, an organic carrot or two each night before and bed has seemed to helped my minocycline cause blackhead condition.
Sugar is an immune suppressant, so minimizing your refined sugar intake is going to help.
Its can be mind boggling to keep straight all the food and nutrient synergies which might help me. This is when I often turn to The World's Healthiest Foods as one of my favorite “de-boggling” devices and the healthiest cooking methods.
Omega 3, vitamin B and vitamin K are important for mitigating the body's inflammatory response to stress. Excellent for “gonzo Grovers” and people with chronic lyme, vitamin K has proven really important for me.
The source may be as important as the nutrient. Organic foods have been shown to have beneficial nutrients in higher quantities than “conventionally” produced food sources (xxx reference). The USDA Recommended Daily Allowances are base on the minimum nutrients to prevent illness caused by not getting enough nutrients, like scurvy and pallegra (XXX reference). Minimum nutrient needs become more demanding while we fight off illness and the nutrients mentioned above have all shown fast depletion when fighting off illness. So we probably need a lot more of these while sick. Feed your body good food sources as close to organic and unprocessed as possible.
Let your body tell you. Listen to food cravings – if a craving gets stronger as time passes, its a need, not just a want – feed it. If a craving diminishes its just a craving – ignore it.
If your body has been fed mostly processed foods it may take a little while for your body to recognized what nutrients are associated with which foods and smells. Give it time. Processed food manufactures have lots of highly payed, smart, neurological experts who's job is to fool your brain's natural nutrient seeking craving system into believing its getting what it seeks from cheaper, low nutrition food products. It might be a few weeks of unscrambling your pallet, but over those few weeks your tastes will change! It won't all taste like ick forever!
Omega 3's are in salmon, mackerel, tuna and flax in high amounts. I try to get the fish O3's three times a week. I'm not sure what the best source for O3's is. I will note, there is a risk of mercury in fish even if it is farmed fish - which is bad for the neurological system and not easily removed from the body. Parsley is good for removing hard metals.
More info on this type of fish: http://www.bbc.co.uk/sn/humanbody/truthaboutfood/best/omega3.shtml
Vitamin K. No, you can not buy vitamin K in the store as a supplement. Fortunately there are foods loaded with them. Unfortunately, these are foods I thought I hated or would never be able to cook. Collard Greens are loaded with Vitamin K. There were long, intimidating moments of me looking at Collard Greens and Collard Greens staring back (yes, collard greens stare back) and no one was really sure how the battle would go. But as it turns out I love them steamed with water or cider tossed with a simple sauce of balsamic vinegar and honey. Vitamin K3 is the only version manufactured and its used in a hospital setting for blood clotting.
Vitamin B a good basic vitamin complex is probably going to work fine. B12 is worth note in lyme since its related to fatigue and energy conversion. There are natural and synthesized versions of B12: methylcobalamin, (natural) and cyanocobalamin and hydroxocobalamin (synthesized). I am experimenting with both. There are also patches of B12 for those who might have difficulty absorbing B12 or might need more than average. If you are having a problem with skin conditions or nerve pain I'd pay attention to what each different B does and work to up the ones which could be supportive to your condition. A word search in The World's Healthiest Foods is good for doing this. B's depleat almost on a daily basis, so keeping up with your own specific needs is important.
Vitamin D3. Getting Vitamin D3 (versus D2) is important for those above the Mason-Dixon line. Vitamin D3 seems to be playing a role in autoimmune diseases and those north of the 39th latitude may not have the right angle of sunlight to make enough D3 internally.
Acetyl Glutathione. I found this to be amazing. After being on a regimine of herbs and minocycline I still struggled with leveling fatigue. Within an hour of taking my first capsule, I felt like I could breathe again. I found Rebecca Montrone of Wondrous Roots to be an excellent resource on questions regarding its function.
I eat yogurt, coconut cream, a few rasps of ginger, fruit and flax or quinoa most mornings which my body seems to miss when I don't eat that way for a few days.
Energy drinks.... All are NOT created equal!!!! As I mentioned in the exercise section OS drinks have made a huge difference for my abilities http://oscycling.com/
Lyme vs. Multiple Sclerosis:
Lyme and MS have similar, but not the same symptomatology and prognosis. Thousands of pages could be written on this by people much wiser on the subject than me. Here are some MS tid bits though:
http://www.ctv.ca/servlet/ArticleNews/story/CTVNews/20091120/W5_liberation_091121/20091121?s_name=W5
Media & Politics
http://www.journals.uchicago.edu/doi/full/10.1086/508667
The Infectious Disease Society of America (IDSA) states chronic lyme does not exist and believes in treating for Lyme only when there is a positive ELISA and Western Blot test. These tests can be 90% accurate when symptoms are obvious, but only 50% accurate when symptoms are not obvious. The IDSA defines long term treatment as 6 months. (My treatment started in 2006 - and has not stopped yet.) Studies have shown antibiotics for 6 months doesn't remove the lyme in some cases. Based on this and other studies, the IDSA has defined antibiotic treatment for more than a few weeks is not warranted or responsible medicine in lyme. Basically it seems as if the IDSA is advocating under-treating the lyme patient and saying if there are any remaining lyme symptoms its not lyme - period - because we said so. Unfortunately, the IDSA is a very influential organization and influences many Dr's opinions, some top medical facilities actually have a policy chronic lyme doesn't exist.
The IDSA panel who created the lyme guidelines has been challenged. The IDSA lyme panel was investigated for anti-trust issues by the CT Attorney General. The result was a settlement which included a hearing investigating whether the IDSA Guidelines should be re-visited. Although the CT Attorney General officially noted concern over the hearing decision process, the effort bound to fail. Simply put, if the IDSA wants to have an official opinion, with supporting studies, stating they believe the earth to be flat, no authoritative body can change it. The IDSA is accountable to no one for being wrong, despite overwhelming evidence to the contrary. It's just an opinion. No changes have been made to the IDSA guidelines - Drs across the country continue to follow them.
Not all patients need lyme treatment for long periods of time. Most are handled in a few weeks. The subset of lyme patients who need treatment for years have been estimated anywhere from 10% to 40% of treated patients. I am one of them. Just a quick read of my older posts on this site will show my improving health - because I can communicate better now than when I typed my first post. So advocates for long term lyme treatment are needed and does work.
The IDSA Hearing on the IDSA website (legally they were only required to keep on the site a year): http://www.idsociety.org/Content.aspx?id=15026 http://www.idsociety.org/content.aspx?id=13352
http://www.ilads.org/lyme_programs/lyme_hearing_press1.html
Doctors with Lyme:
http://www.psychiatrictimes.com/neurology/article/10168/55056?pageNumber=2&verify=0
http://www.ilads.org/lyme_research/lyme_articles11.html
http://www.ilads.org/lyme_research/lyme_publications22.html
Films:
http://www.latimes.com/entertainment/news/la-et…
www.undertheeightball.com
http://movies.nytimes.com/2009/06/19/movies/19u…
www.underourskin.com
http://moviecitynews.com/reviews/2009/lymelife….
lymelife.com
TV Reporter w/ Lyme:
http://www.wbaltv.com/health/22744251/detail.html
Books & Links:
www.amazon.com/Healing-Lyme-Prevention-Borreliosis-Coinfections/dp/0970869630
Healing Lyme Disease; by Buhner. I was first treated and helped tremendously by an acupuncturist trained by the author of this book. It helped get my life back. A year later, I added a western antibiotic treatment from a doctor on Columbia University's Lyme educated doctors list and improved further - almost to pre-lyme health!
www.amazon.com/Everything-About-Disease-Tick-Borne-Disorders/dp/047116061X
Everything You Need to Know About Lyme Disease and Other Tick-Borne Disorders; by Karen Vanderhoof-Forschner
www.amazon.com/Coping-Lyme-Disease-Practical-Diagnosis/dp/0805075631
Coping with Lyme Disease: A Practical Guide to Dealing with Diagnosis and Treatment, by Denise Lang
www.amazon.com/Widening-Circle-Disease-Pioneer-Tells/dp/0312140681
The Widening Circle: A Lyme Disease Pioneer Tells Her Story, by Polly Murray This is the story of how the illness was named and the fight and casualties along the way.
http://www.amazon.com/Helene-Jorgensen/e/B0032DWZFK
Sick and Tired: How America's Health Care System Fails Its Patients, by Helene Jorgensen. An economist looks at her heath care system and her illness: lyme.
www.lymepa.org (has a private teen discussion group)
www.lymediseaseassociation.org
http://www.underourskin.com/screenings.html - a movie about Lyme
http://www.lymeinfo.net/lymediseasetreatment.html
My History....
I was diagnosed clinically with a bull’s eye rash. Amoxicillin was started (for 4 weeks) with in 24 hours of the rash’s appearance. I thought I was cured.
But then, I had years of mysterious undiagnosable health problems after that. I was finally diagnosed years later after an arduous terrifying view into the weaknesses of our health care system even at the highest levels of care.
I have now been on minocycline and Buhner herbs for years and improving.
If I had to do it over again....
I wasn't on the antibiotics long enough. Upon completion of initial 4 week treatment, I should have gone back to the doctor to report I had atypical irritability, impatience and other cognitive discomfort during and persisting after my initial antibiotic treatment - all other symptoms (pain and reduced mobility at rash site) dissipated. Nothing else stands out.
Knowing what I know now....
I can only say, I have received excellent results with a combo of Buhner herbals and Dr. Liegner's minocycline prescription. I know Dr. Liegner has published a case study, representative of the many lyme patients in his infectious disease practice, with dosing information for minocycline in the presence of a erythema migranes rash (in 'The American Academy of Dermatology, Vol 28, 1993). I am no doctor, but if a erythema migranes rash (bull's eye rash) showed up on someone I loved now, I would insist on the Liegner treatment recommendations. (Kids are not included in Liegner's recommendations because minocycline in children causes permanent teeth discoloration.)
Me now...
I am working, horse riding when I get the chance, biking road and mtn, (I now bike 3 miles to work!) looking forward to kayaking and backpacking and doing more. I look normal, and even better I feel pretty normal, but my balance needs a lot of work!!! Yoga is really helping with the balance. Improvement is finally starting to happen closer to the speed I'd like which is just way cool. I'm continuing to get better.
Hope the above helps and better yet, finds you well....
