I have a friend who has lost the ability to raise his arms through the ravaging effects of Lyme disease. He has been actively treating it for last year and after 6 months he started getting better. But the progress is slow, painful, soul-crushing. 

That would be awful enough, but he had medical insurance and sought medical advice and was told for years previous to his effective diagnosis and treatment of Lyme that he had an ordinary bug bite (cortisone cream), tremors in his hands (drugs to treat the symptom) and then as his symptoms progressed that he had ALS and all they could do was make him comfortable and wait for the end.  

I was there when the big expert at MGH said that to him. My friend didn’t even argue with the doctor.  He had already plugged into the Lyme-aware doctor network and was simply going through the main-stream medical steps.

He lives in the suburbs of Boston.  Deer ticks are everywhere.

Now that he knows the symptoms, he has realized that his 17yo daughter who has been having neck pains for a year and is being treated with Percocet by her PCP might have the early signs of Lyme.  He sent her to have the tests and sure enough they came back positive. His Lyme expert MD prescribed her a course of treatment.

Now for the really awful part… the PCP doesn’t want her to take the treatment and has convinced her to stop.  I assume because anti-biotics have side effects - you could develop colitis.

He is now in the awful position where he has to argue with his daughter about treating a disease that almost killed him because he was so late in getting diagnosed.  She obviously would much rather believe the PCP and take the Percocet. Who would want to acknowledge a life threatening disease when they can be stoned on Percocet?  

Do you live in the suburbs?  Or visit them?  Or walk thru sand dunes?

Go read about the symptoms: 

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lyme_disease#Signs_and_symptoms

Treat it early on and you will be fine.  Delay treatment and you run the risk of years of nerve problems, loss of motor control, and soul-crushingly slow progress.

Main-stream medicine has failed us in the identification of this disease and it’s treatment.  Don’t put yourself on the treadmill to the ALS ward at the MGH where they will make you comfortable until the end.  Be your own advocate.  Get treated.