This is written by a member of a Wheaton Terrier support group (?) and sent to a friend of mine who was kind enough to share it with me...
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I continue to use Frontline on my dogs and wish there was a Frontline for people!
I am currently getting over what appears to be Stage 3 Lyme disease (terrible debilitating arthritis for several months) having never found a tick or had a rash, and testing positive for only reactive inflammation, and I was tested for absolutely everything!
I decided to treat myself for Lyme disease with 30 days of Doxycycline because I know too many dog people who have successfully treated Lyme disease similar to mine and one person who was NOT treated and is practically crippled now and may never recover.
After doing a lot of research and discussing this with various doctors including my rheumatologist who is the head of rheumatology at a large NYC hospital, I don't think the medical community knows very much about Lyme disease.
I sure as heck don't think, that although it's said repeatedly, that it actually does take 36-48 hours to become infected should a tick take hold.
I also know that the Infectious disease docs at my husband's hospital (he's Chief of Pathology there) went ballistic when my husband asked what the human dose for Doxycycline was and told them my story.
They definitely have a bias that to me is dead wrong!
My vets however, felt that maybe there are strains of Lyme disease we don't even know about yet and can't test for, so what harm would there be, when faced with severe arthritis that could very well be advanced Lyme disease, in treating a person with an antibiotic with not a lot of serious side effects that's inexpensive and effective.
My Rheumatologist went along with me, and I felt markedly better when treated with Doxy.
I still wouldn't give my dogs a Lyme vaccine that's so iffy and could cause side effects while not being effective.
Both at different times have been tested for Lyme when there was a question (both were negative).
Frontline and grooming every night, especially during tick season, seems to work for them.
Vigilance apparently didn't work for me!
Posted by Carol in PA (Member # 5338) on :
quote:Originally posted by 17hens: "I also know that the Infectious disease docs...went ballistic when my husband asked what the human dose for Doxycycline was and told them my story."
So the person who wrote that account was a doctor's wife, someone who usually gets the absolutely best care available, and she still got that crap.
Ugh.
I don't see how the rest of us stand a chance, until there is a HUGE turnaround in the way doctors think.
Carol
Posted by kidsgotlyme (Member # 23691) on :
unbelievable....I don't understand what they are so afraid of.
Posted by arkiehinny (Member # 26546) on :
It's like there is this invisible brick wall marked "eyes wide shut" when it's mentioned. The level of total, raging denial is unbelievable. I'd like to call it "intelligent ignorance".
Maybe we should have a nation wide day of prayer for our cause, with all praying in one accord at the same time all over America.
Posted by ladycakes (Member # 12619) on :
It's weird, I worked for a vet for awhile, and they are WAY more knowledgeable about Lyme Disease than your average people doctor.
I didn't tell them I had it for awhile, and hid my PICC line under long sleeves. But the doc thought it was kind of strange when a girl would ask "does heparin go before or after the antibiotics", and I'd tell her "heparin after, to keep it from clotting" on my second day of work.
He asked me how I knew so much, and I told him I'd been doing IV antibiotics at home for months. They seem to have a deep respect for how debilitating and serious an illness it can be
Posted by manderson7185 (Member # 27787) on :
I can absolutely agree that there should be a frontline for people. And I do use the lyme disease vaccine on my dogs every year - Anything I can do to prevent them going through what I went through is worth it.
I think all dog owners become a little more neurotic after getting the disease themselves. We don't want our animals to contract it, and we certainly don't want them bringing ticks into the house that could end up on us. But I've never known a vet that understood how bad it can truly be because a dog can't tell you what it goes through.
Posted by 17hens (Member # 23747) on :
My vet told me that he had a duck call him to find out what he (the duck) could do to treat his wife who had lyme. Scary.