I too have Lyme Disease

[occihoff]

(from Wikipedia)

I too have Lyme disease, I've had it for 36 years now. It was not diagnosed for five years, so it became chronic, and no amount of antibiotic treatment was able to cure it. Dr. Prehn gave me the polymerase chain reaction test and said that the result was "equivocal," but ten years ago another PCR test proved that my belief that I still have Lyme disease--and not merely "post Lyme syndrome"--was absolutely correct.

I found Dr. Prehn to be rather conceited, condescending, and a total waste of the huge fees he charged. His treatment was just the same old antibiotics I had been prescribed by others, and similarly useless. Care to say what your experience of Dr. Prehn was like? It sounds like your symptoms are more severe than mine, although I have certainly had some pretty severe episodes in the past. You have my absolute sympathy.

...There was a time when I fell seriously behind financially but I had an advanced case of late stage Lyme disease and could hardly function ... because Kaiser couldn't help I was paying $100/hour to Dr. Preen in the town of Sonoma for help....

[arthunter]

Thank you for your kind statements, occihoff ...

First, the housemates ... this really isn't an attempt at public shaming ... I have not mentioned names and I would not ever do that ... no one in this community. except for my closest friends. would ever know who I live with ... my closest friends are aware of the situation and watching it but I don't always want to burden them with my problems ... I am simply looking for advice because it's a thorny subject and I do realize that my tolerance of the situation might be due to my past experiences and hardships, so outside opinions might be helpful ....

about Lyme and Prehn ( thanks for correcting the spelling ) .... first of all, I'm really sorry that you have Lyme disease ... it's very very difficult to treat late stage lyme disease, but then you know that ...

I spent ten years getting sicker and sicker before this was diagnosed ... I was 38 years old, I was in the middle of a complicated home renovation, and I had a business with 8 workers and 70 regular customers to manage ... and I could barely walk up a flight of stairs or stay awake past 4pm. My husband was going through the same thing and it's now suspected that this disease is sexually transmitted ... we were finally diagnosed after I rushed my husband into Palm Drive emergency room with Bell's Palsy one morning ... a smart doctor there made the right guess ... I remember sitting in the waiting room in a pool of my own sweat and thinking that if I collapsed, well at least I was in the right place ...

I went to Dr. Prehn as a last resort ... though Kaiser was charging me $400. for health insurance, their diagnostic protocol was a waste ... to give him his due, Dr. Prehn knew the correct laboratory ( Rocky Mountain Labs ) for the most accurate diagnosis and I soon had a positive test. Yes, you are right though, after that he pretty much followed the protocol of endless antibiotics, and I was paying for lab tests and all medications out of pocket ... ugh .... Dr. Prehn also neglected to check for candida overgrowth due to so many antibiotics ... look it up ... very serious side affect which can be just a debilitating as the lyme ... he finally gave me a huge dose of anti-fungal medication which had me in bed for three days but eventually led to a return of strength ...

Dr. Burrascano was the authority on lyme disease back in those days which strangely cost him his career ...

https://www.lymenet.org/BurrGuide200810.pdf