Chapter 11 - thoughts

[Pistachio]

The more patients grouse, and the longer they’ve lived with an MS diagnosis, the more exasperated, and jaded, neurologists become. After all, there is a straightforward blood test for the Borrelia burgdorferi bacteria (the most common Lyme disease culprit in North America), and for late-stage disease, “100%” of those tested will have positive antibodies according to this seminal 2011 study. Curious. I guess to be technically correct for 2022, that rate must have dropped to 99.99999% (i.e., 100% minus 1 Dave). So, it shouldn’t have come as a complete shock when a family of crickets were suddenly birthed after I informed my neuro of my discovery.

+ 1 on that, Dave. Plus one! I also tested negative for Lyme despite the fact that I literally pulled the tick off, got the bullseye rash, the swollen lymph nodes, the knee swelling, the brain lesions, the leg tremors. In fact, I tested negative TWICE - three years apart. These were the standard ELISA tests. However, once I sent my blood work to Germany I tested positive. But, hey, no Canadian doctor puts any stock in, "those German tests". This, despite the fact, that the German lab is run by the world's leading expert in Lyme disease.

Plus, some people actually feel worse on antibiotics and develop new symptoms. Consider the downsides.

The medical term for this is the Jarische-Herxheimer reaction, or, "Herx" for short. This occurs when you take antibiotics and you actually DO have Lyme. The treatment is creating a big, old cytokine storm that is causing inflammation and giving off toxic gases as those little Lyme bastard spirochettes die off. To hear a doctor say that you "get worse" but not reveal the "why" of it is gross negligence. Herxing is actually GOOD! Feeling bad, initially is GOOD! It means that the antibiotics are appropriately killing off the bacteria.

Reading your story makes me pretty upset with the medical establishment.