No more rash - yeah!

At last the rash is gone. Alison is taking a break from meds to let her body regroup before she goes back on the doxyclycline. No more sulfa drugs for her!
The current program is to be on doxycycline for a few weeks then retest for Lyme using Igenex labs in Palo Alto. People whose first Lyme test comes back negative but who have a lot of Lyme symptoms often have a positive test after a course of antibiotics. Conventional wisdom is that the immune system is so compromised that it isn't creating the correct antibodies to the Lyme so the test comes back negative. The antibiotics assist the immune system to start fighting the Bb spirochettes.
Also Lyme can morph among three forms - the spirochette, a cell-wall deficient organism, and a cyst stage that is resistant to antibiotics.
It is a complicated disease that is creating real problems for a lot of people. I just had another person tell me that she went to her doctor with symptoms, told him about her tick bite and rash, and he STILL said, "There is no Lyme in CA so we don't have to test you." What in heaven's name is going on???
This is part of the reason for doing this blog. We need to get the word out to people so that they can insist on and receive the testing and care they need. Lyme and its co-infections can affect any age group. There is a recent article in the Off 68 feature of The Californian (www.thecalifornian.com) about a young boy who is trying to recover from Lyme while attending school. His story has a happy ending because he is getting treatment.
Please feel free to share your stories in the comments section of this blog.