Good Riddance!

We went to the Lyme Rally in Columbia, SC on Thursday. It was very calm. No one was chanting or waving signs or banners. There was no tear gas, no pot smoking hippies. It was very civilized.

I enjoy the speakers. They included the Lieutenant Governor of South Carolina, along with a couple of folks from a Lyme advocacy group in Greenville, SC. One of them was a preacher from Loris, SC named Scott Seckman who has Lyme. He was quite entertaining. The guest speaker was a tick infection doctor from Naples, FL. He has written over 25 books about Lyme disease and other tick borne illnesses. He is a working physician who treats patients.

The primary message that I got by listening to this Dr. Schaller is that every patient is different. Some patients have Lyme, Bartonella and Ehrlicia. Some patients have Bartonella and Babesia but no Lyme but they may have grown up in an area with a lot of industrial chemical plants. Other's may have a genetic predisposition for digestive issues or allergies or sensitivities to fragrances or cleaning products. A tick borne illness may tip their health over the edge.

Each of these people require individual care focused on the health issues they are experiencing. Many of these people have some degree of immune system dysfunction. They can have hormonal imbalances. They can have organ dysfunction. They need specific applied treatment for their condition. It's impossible that some panel of "experts" can say that you'll be cured with 10 to 28 days of oral antibiotics. That viewpoint is much to simplistic.

There is so much medical science to dispute the one size fits all treatment for Lyme and other tick borne illnesses. But the word needs to get out to the public that the IDSA is blocking the science. I continue to hear news of more challenges submitted in opposition to the current IDSA guidelines. According the settlement reached in the Connecticut Attorney General's anti-trust case against the IDSA, the IDSA has agreed to have their guidelines reviewed and rewritten by a panel who holds no financial interest in the outcome of the review. I have a lot of hope in the outcome of this case.

We spent yesterday evening in Burlington. My mother in law Beverly arranged a showing of Under Our Skin at her church. There wasn't a big crowd, but I am happy to see more people exposed to this issue even if it is just a hand full at a time. We had a few minutes of discussion after the showing of the movie. Lynette, Beverly and I know a lot about this stuff and we can answer a lot of questions!

The best part of the visit to Burlington was was the booty we had in the trunk of Lynette's car. The contents included a toilet seat with handles and a bucket, a shower seat, a collapsible walker and a four footed cane. It was a challenge to get them all to fit in the trunk of the car. It was a blessing to leave them behind.

Good riddance!