Lyme disease is among the most rapidly growing epidemics in the nation with as many as a quarter million new cases each year. Delayed and inadequate treatment can lead to chronic suffering and disability. In advanced illness, a patient stands about a one in three chance of cure using standard treatment regimens.
In Confronting Lyme Disease: What Patient Stories Teach Us, the struggles of fourteen patients reveal how their lives were changed by debilitating illness and by unanticipated medical obstacles. These individuals, from all walks of life, find themselves caught in the middle of a medical controversy fighting to regain the lives they once took for granted.
Authors Trish Yerges and Rita Stanley, Ph.D., tell each story with compassion and from an insider's viewpoint. The interplay of personal tragedy with medical obstacles reflects how the human spirit rises to try and overcome not only illness, but the challenges of restrictive modern medicine.
Lesley Ann Fein, M.D., MPH, Medical Director of the Lyme Disease Society, had this to say, "This book represents the patients who are seen on a daily basis by physicians, like myself, who treat Lyme disease. I have seen Lyme disease transform brilliant minds into confusion, dementia, and profound depression. I have seen athletes develop crippling pain, weakness, and confinement to wheelchairs. I want to thank the authors for this moving and brilliantly written book."
Jim Wilson, President of the Canadian Lyme Disease Foundation said, "Confronting Lyme Disease intimately portrays the effects of the spread of Lyme disease in North America. American and Canadian lives are ruined while the medical authorities exercise health cost management and control."
Dolly Curtis, cable TV producer and host of Dolly Curtis Interviews, said, "I recognized the similar experiences that most Lyme patients endure-the lack of understanding of such a virulent disease.the suffering both physical and emotional-it is all there in these real stories about real people and pets coping with the pain of Lyme and other tick-borne diseases."
About the authors:
Karen "Trish" Yerges is a prolific author with over 150 published articles on the topics of medicine, history, and art. She has extensive interviewing skills and specializes in writing narratives and biographies. Her work has appeared in newspapers and books. She has advised student writers and has received awards and recognition for her writing accomplishments. Lyme disease personally touched her life when her daughter became ill in 1999. She currently lives in northeastern Oregon with her husband and two children.
Rita Stanley, Ph.D., (Penn State and Ohio State alumna and Phi Kappa Phi scholar) has done original research in the areas of physiology and biochemistry and has published in leading scientific journals such as The Journal of Biological Chemistry, Journal of Neurochemistry, and Biology of Reproduction. She was a Lyme disease support group leader for a decade at Good Samaritan Hospital in Portland, Oregon, and served on the advisory and directors' boards at the Lyme Alliance, Inc. A former Lyme patient, she lives with her husband in Portland, Oregon.
Books details:
Confronting Lyme Disease: What Patient Stories Teach Us
Classic edition (14 black & white photos) ISBN: 1-4196-2165-3 LCCN: 2005910572
Premier edition (14 color photos) ISBN: 978-9764384-1-0 LCCN: pending Available only from The Mitre's Touch Gallery www.confrontinglyme.com
The book, Confronting Lyme Disease: What Patient Stories Teach Us, is now available through Amazon and Booksurge Bookstores. Please visit the official website at http://www.confrontinglyme.com for more information.