What if you woke up one morning, so swollen and achy you couldn’t get out of bed and no doctor could figure out what you had? Welcome to my daughter’s life for ten years. This was the beginning of her chronic Lyme saga. She also wondered, is Lyme disease curable?’
She was confined to the couch and unable to go to school. I would make her breakfast, then take her to many doctors to try and figure out what she had. The thing about this disease is that it’s hard to diagnose and difficult to treat. Signs of Lyme disease can vary and be confused with other conditions.
It can feel scary and uncertain if you or someone you love has Lyme disease. You might wonder, is lyme disease contagious? Can you fully recover from it?
The good news is that Lyme disease is not contagious via human to human contact. There are effective ways to overcome grief and hope for recovery even if you are taking on late stage Lyme disease treatment.
Here are the top things you should know if you think you or a loved one has Lyme:
Lyme Disease Symptoms:
According to lymedisease.org, “Untreated or undertreated Lyme can cause some people to develop severe symptoms that are hard to resolve.” Experts call these cases “post-treatment Lyme disease (PTLD) or chronic Lyme disease (CLD).”
When bit by a Lyme carrying tick, not everyone will get Lyme disease rash or the bulls-eye. Some people don’t even show immediate signs. Early-stage symptoms of Lyme disease can include fatigue, fever, chills, headache or flu-like characteristics.
Individuals react differently depending on their immune system response. If the illness progresses, long term effects of Lyme disease can include rashes, fatigue, pain and swollen lymph nodes. Chronic Lyme disease symptoms can also be headaches, dizziness, fever, night sweats, sleep disturbances and achy, stiff, or inflamed joints. There may be neurological impacts like cognitive decline, decreased short-term memory, reduced ability to concentrate, sensitivity to light, vision changes, skin outbreaks, heart problems and mood changes.
Catching Lyme Early
If you know you have a tick bite, remove it as fast as possible. The CDC estimates that an infected tick needs 36 to 48 hours before its host can be infected with the Lyme disease bacterium.
The way you detach the tick is important so you don’t further infect yourself while removing it. This useful guide explains how to remove a tick to limit the risk of leaving its head stuck in your body. If possible, try to remove it alive. This will help scientists get a true analysis. Once removed, save the tick and get it tested. IGenex offers a mail-in Lyme disease test that can let you know if the tick carries Lyme.
Lyme Disease Treatment:
The standard early-stage Lyme disease treatment, according to the Mayo Clinic, is a 14 to 21 day course of doxycycline. If combated with antibiotics soon after a Lyme tick bite, most individuals will likely be able to fight the infection. Yet, many people have symptoms later on. Approximately 300,000 people per year are diagnosed with Lyme and at least 20% become chronic.
What if you still feel sick?
Unfortunately, western medicine doesn’t have a foolproof plan for people who don’t improve after doxycycline treatment. So, it is completely understandable to wonder, ‘is Lyme disease curable?’ Many people seek out a Lyme Literate MD and continue with oral or IV antibiotic treatments and additional supplements. When Individuals are still treating the complex Lyme disease for a long time without lasting results, it can bring on feelings of isolation and hopelessness. My daughter had no idea when she was bit or how long the infection had resided in her system when she became ill. By the time she was diagnosed, a year and a half later, she already had a late-stage chronic case.
We tried both conventional and natural remedies for lyme disease. There are more than 30 alternative therapies including acupuncture, Chinese herbal medicine, ozone, vitamin and mineral supplements, nutritional diets and stem cells.
There isn’t enough research to substantiate many of these options. For my daughter and I, it felt like the wild west of treatment experiments. Many of the things we tried had been quite successful for some people. We hoped they would work for her too. Unfortunately, a lot of the alternative protocols we tried didn’t result in a significant decrease of symptoms.
To answer the question, ‘is Lyme disease curable?’ you can get better. Everyone’s body is unique and it can take some experimentation to find the action plan that works. After countless hours of research, trials, meditation, consultations and treatments, my daughter has regained strength and is living an enriching and full life. There is hope, but the road to recovery can be long and hard.
To learn more about my daughter’s transformational journey to health order Dancing in the Narrows today.