The Enemy

   Call them bartonella, borrelia, protomyxzoa rhuematica or what have you— they are all enemy invaders.  A simple walk in the woods, a picnic by a lake, or a tear in a window screen could set you up for a lifetime of pain and sickness.

Commonly, vector illnesses are transmitted by mosquitoes and ticks.   They excrete a lubrication to ease penetration and increase blood flow.  It's possible that this natural adaptation can transmit microorganisms but ordinarily we inject ourselves when we slap that little sucker.  Burning a tick off with a match or cigarette is a good way to have their last few meals regurgitated into your bloodstream.  To remove a tick use tweezers to grasp it as near your skin as possible and gently pull it away. Ideally you'll want to remove the tick whole, without leaving tick bits in the bite.

Mosquitoes should be shooed away.  If you have a sense of vengeance then slap that SOB in mid air, but not during the bite.  Wash the area with disinfectant quickly after any bite.

This blog is going to detail my life of illness.  I doubt you care much about me so we both know you are reading this in hopes of reveling causes of your own discomforts— or someone you know.  That's fine.  It's my primary goal to pass on what I've learned/believe.  While there is no sure way to know, I think I have been infected since I was a kid; more than forty-five years.  I know the symptoms, and I can recall them all the way back to grade school years.  I didn't know what was wrong until testing positive for protomyxzoa and toxoplasma gondii in summer of 2011.  My education started then.

Our bodies are designed to fight these invaders.  If you have a strong immune system your symptoms might come and go.  But these microbes are masters of evasion and often hide from both the immune system and antibiotics.  Without extensive and continued effective treatment you can expect a recurrence.  How long of a treatment?  Perhaps years.

I need to express, no one should self-diagnose, especially from this blog or any source on the Internet.  Be smart.  The best way to health is understanding what might be, and intelligently eliminating possibilities.

Realize health care givers are limited.  No one has all the answers.  The day after graduation, they forget 60% of what they were taught . Your best chance is to listen to them and then make competent suggestions.  If I might give a couple examples...

1) When my son was little he suffered severe eye welting and other allergy symptoms.  When he was taken to see an allergist, the doctor avoided several possibilities, stating he didn't think they were the case.  In time my wife insisted he perform a wider range of testing.  Ultimately, my son was allergic to almost every grass and tree in Virgina— where we lived at the time.  Also he had allergies for soy, corn, peanuts and citrus.  None of these had been among the doctor's suggestions.  The doctors experience wouldn't allow him to make those connections.  After the results he admitted he never would have thought any of them.

2) I have gone through seven wrong diagnoses and failed treatments to match.  A dozen doctors claimed psychosomatic causes.  Apparently they were not aware that in the past two decades there have been more than forty new microorganisms discovered.  How could they possibly understand symptoms for those?

I've had doctors who were certain I had an autoimmune disorder, one stating it was likely a compound issue but he didn't want to look for them.  Another top neurologist simply said she couldn't help me.  I appreciated her honesty, but she charged me all the same.

When a doctor is wrong it robs you of any possible chance of recovery.

When a doctor insists you are suffering with a somatoform disorder it's worse than a wrong diagnosis, it effects you emotionally.  Before you get upset you need to ask them for proof.  There will be none.  It is a diagnosis of convenience.  The lack of proof of anything else is all the proof they have.  Once a doctor says psycho anything...find another doctor because that one will never examine you seriously again.

The thing for you to do is stay educated.  Keep an open mind.  You aren't diagnosed until your treatment is working.  Your doctor isn't going to be able to cover all the bases.  Tests are not all conclusive, especially a negative.  I've read an ELISA test for Lyme disease has as much as a 90% failure rate.  Understand, they do not test for microorganisms.  They have to test for specific antibodies or proteins, not only, but they have to test while the immune system is active.  If you're illness is autoimmune suppressive, the pertinent test will likely be negative.  That is why there are so many clinical diagnoses.  The tests can be unreliable.  Look up Lyme Literate Medical Doctor (LLMD).  Even if you don't have Lyme disease these doctors understand microbe inflammations and your chances for a fast recovery might just double.

When you are sick you know it.  Your best chance is to list your most severe symptoms and afterwards answer your doctors questions honestly and briefly.  Think of yourself as a researcher and you are on the clock.  Only being educated will lead you to a proper diagnosis when one of these bugs takes up residence in your body.

Best of luck to you.