Wonk

Wonk: a person preoccupied with arcane details or procedures in a specialized field;

Lorraine Johnson is a tireless advocate for the Lyme community. She has both law and MBA degrees. Her writings on the issues of medicine and its ethical and legal aspects are prolific. Lorraine currently serves as the executive director of the California Lyme Disease Assn., as a member of the Board of Directors of International and Lyme Associated Diseases Society (ILADS), and as a member of the advisory board of the national Lyme Disease Association.

Lorraine maintains a great blog that presents logical arguments against the ways of the IDSA and the uneducated medical community. The things she writes just make so much sense.

http://www.lymedisease.org/news/lymepolicywonk

A recent post compared the struggles of breast cancer sufferers 30 or 40 years ago to Lyme disease patients today. Breast cancer was stigmatized and not talked about. Women had to pass legislation in several states to be able to choose their course of treatment. Drs. were afraid to perform lumpectomies for fear of losing their licenses.

http://www.lymedisease.org/news/lymepolicywonk/284.html

Lynette had a fun time with Flagyl last weekend. This is the drug that she takes morning and night the last 2 days of each antibiotic cycle. It targets the borrelia that have transformed themselves into a cyst form. This state of borrelia is not susceptible to standard antibiotics.

Lynette has been taking this drug as long as she has been under the care of Dr. J. A day or two after she takes Flagyl, she sometimes experiences episodes of depression that last for a day or two. Other times she has felt no ill effects. She took it at the end of last week. Sunday and Monday she had PMS and it wasn't even close to that time of the month. Then it was over.

Anna's volley ball team won the conference championship and now it's on to basketball. Anna is in 7th grade and she is playing on the junior varsity team. Since her school's enrollment stops at 8th grade this makes her one of the leaders on her team. She has shown major improvement in her skills over last year. But most importantly, Anna is reporting that the pain in her ankles and feet has lessened. We've noticed that she's had less headaches and she hasn't complained about her sleep patterns lately. It sounds like Anna's treatment is working well. She should never have to experience what Lynette went through.