I happened to see this last night when it aired and then noticed that it was one of their highlighted local stories on their website this afternoon.
I think what impressed me most is the links that they have: Lyme Disease Assoc. and Columbia Lyme Center! Perhaps coverage and understanding are improving?!
Julie
Posts: 307 | From Byfield, MA | Registered: Jan 2004
| IP: Logged |
bettyg
Unregistered
posted
5 Members Of Family Say They Have Lyme Disease Mass. Lyme Disease Cases On Rise
POSTED: 5:28 pm EDT June 15, 2007 UPDATED: 6:24 pm EDT June 15, 2007 *********************************
HAMILTON, Mass. --
A large increase in new cases of Lyme disease cases in Massachusetts is prompting renewed warnings from public health officials.
NewsCenter 5's Lynn Jolicoeur reported that five members of a Hamilton family said they have the disease.
"I had a lot of joint pains -- ankles, knees. With gymnastics, it makes it really hard," said Amanda Getchell, who is undergoing treatment for Lyme disease.
"I would have a hard time remembering things, have headaches very often," said Dan Getchell, who is undergoing treatment for Lyme disease.
Last October, a New Haven, Conn., specialist diagnosed the Getchell siblings with Lyme disease after performing western blot tests. Initial antibody tests had come up negative.
For a year, the siblings were seeing Boston doctors who gave diagnoses from attention deficit disorder to depression to asthma. Amanda said she found a tick stuck in her skin.
"She could not walk up the stairs, carry her book bag, missed the beginning of high school, was so fatigued," mother Barbara Getchell said.
The Getchell's father was diagnosed with Lyme disease 10 years ago. Barbara Getchell said she suffers from joint pain and exhaustion.
But she hasn't gone through extensive testing because she said the family is paying for care outside their insurance network that has totaled about $20,000 in the past eight months.
Barbara Getchell said she has learned by word of mouth that hundreds of Hamilton residents have Lyme disease, including several families with multiple people infected. She said many of them are going out of state for treatment.
"You would think that science would be caught up by now. But this particular disease just has it baffled," she said.
The Getchell children have been on antibiotics since October.
Copyright 2007 by TheBostonChannel.com. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.
IP: Logged |
bettyg
Unregistered
posted
good story especially quoting how $20 K costing her family for outside of network charges.
IP: Logged |
lymeladyinNY
Frequent Contributor (1K+ posts)
Member # 10235
posted
Loved the story.
The floor doctor at the hospital where my little nephew just got dismissed as psychosomatic told me that hardly anyone with Lyme gets disabled by it.
It's so frustrating!
-------------------- I want to be free Posts: 1170 | From Endicott, NY | Registered: Sep 2006
| IP: Logged |
"Illnesses, hover constantly above us, their seed blown by the winds, but they do not set in the terrain unless the terrain is ready to receive them."---Claude Bernard. Posts: 131 | From US | Registered: Dec 2006
| IP: Logged |
The Lyme Disease Network is a non-profit organization funded by individual donations. If you would like to support the Network and the LymeNet system of Web services, please send your donations to:
The
Lyme Disease Network of New Jersey 907 Pebble Creek Court,
Pennington,
NJ08534USA http://www.lymenet.org/
UBBFriend: Email this page to someone!
![[cussing]](graemlins/cussing.gif)
![[Mad]](mad.gif)
Printer-friendly view of this topic