{"id":813,"date":"2019-05-06T08:00:22","date_gmt":"2019-05-06T13:00:22","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/cobertphotography.com\/blog\/?p=813"},"modified":"2019-05-06T09:37:50","modified_gmt":"2019-05-06T14:37:50","slug":"share-six-green-lyme-disease","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/cobertphotography.com\/blog\/share-six-green-lyme-disease\/","title":{"rendered":"Share Six | Green: Lyme Disease"},"content":{"rendered":"

This month’s theme is green in honor of Lyme disease. I chose this theme because 1. it was only fitting as we have several family members with Lyme disease, and 2. May is Lyme disease awareness month.<\/p>\n

Here’s a little intro to Lyme disease:<\/p>\n

Lyme disease is a spirochete bacterium that is transmitted by ticks. It is the fastest growing infectious disease, and is 1-1\/2 times more common than breast cancer and 6 times more common than HIV. If treated with antibiotic therapy soon after transmission, the probability of successful treatment is much higher. If it goes untreated, it can infiltrate a person\u2019s body and wreak great havoc. Untreated Lyme disease is known to attack the heart and central nervous symptom. The numerous symptoms mimic other chronic illnesses such as ALS (Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis), MS (Multiple Sclerosis), ADHD (Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder), Rheumatoid Arthritis Parkinson\u2019s Disease, Lupus, Chronic Fatigue Syndrome, as well as many others. Because of this, many patients with Lyme get misdiagnosed and go years not being properly treated, therefore furthering the progression of Lyme disease. Awareness of this disease is imperative, as there are over 300,000 estimated new cases of Lyme disease each year in the United States alone (according to Johns Hopkins Medicine). It was once believed that you always got a bullseye rash if you contracted the disease from a tick bite, but we now know that is not the case. Not everyone presents with a bullseye rash. Without a bullseye rash (and even with one), many people don\u2019t connect their symptoms to the tick bite. The more awareness we can bring, the better people can understand and know what to look for when searching for answers to their health problems that were unknowingly caused by a fateful tick bite. Please join us this month in spreading awareness.<\/p>\n

_____________________________________________<\/p>\n

So here’s a little run down. My aunt has Lyme disease, my mom has Lyme disease, my son has Lyme disease and I have Lyme disease. While my mom remembers her fateful tick bite and bullseye rash, the rest of us don’t. \u00a0In fact, not everyone presents with a bullseye rash. \u00a0We may very well have though, as my son and I are magnets for bug bites and have had our fair share over the years. \u00a0Not to mention we have found numerous ticks on our dogs and belongings.<\/p>\n

To give you a little history. My mom was bit years ago and was oblivious to the fact that she needed treatment. As the years went on, she developed what doctors thought was arthritis, fibromyalgia, and psoriatic arthritis (just to name a few). \u00a0She went on medicine to treat those things, but saw very little successful results. There were days when she could barely walk. Fast forward several years…my aunt gets tested and diagnosed after developing weird symptoms and making the connection that her dogs had similar symptoms and tested positive for Lyme. \u00a0My aunt reminded my mom about that tick bite so many years ago. \u00a0So my mom goes in and sure enough, she gets diagnosed with Lyme. \u00a0Guess what?? She went on long term antibiotics and all of her symptoms went away. \u00a0She had so much energy, she could walk again, and her psoriatic arthritis cleared completely up. \u00a0Unfortunately though, the doctor didn’t want her on antibiotics for too long, so she had to stop. \u00a0After ceasing treatment her symptoms came back. \u00a0She got a sinus infection and went on antibiotics for that. \u00a0Guess what, all of her arthritis, fibromyalgia and psoriatic arthritis symptoms went away AGAIN. \u00a0She felt like she had her life back. \u00a0It is amazing what this disease does and it’s amazing how simple treatment can be for some people…if they could just find a doctor that is willing to treat.<\/p>\n

My pictures for this theme are of my son, but I’m only going to go into his story briefly, as this whole ordeal that he as endured over the course of several years has made him very sensitive. He doesn’t really like people knowing about all that he has gone through.<\/p>\n

In a nut shell, a few years back he was constantly getting sick. He kept coming down with mycoplasma pneumonia. He started getting horrible migraines. He also said his brain felt like it was on fire. \u00a0He had one migraine that lasted for more than 4 days. \u00a0The doctors were getting ready to schedule a spinal tap for the following day. \u00a0Thankfully he woke up that following day and the migraine was gone. \u00a0He started having short term memory loss, as well as some sensory issues and debilitating OCD. We had no clue what was going on. The recurrent mycoplasma continued as well. \u00a0We stopped going to our homeschool functions and even went to church sparingly during the winter months because he caught every bug that was going around. \u00a0We took him to doctor after doctor trying to get answers. \u00a0Since I’m his teacher, I noticed all of the changes in his academic abilities. He lost some motor function, which was evident by his regression with his handwriting. \u00a0He started to not be able to remember his math facts anymore. \u00a0This went on for years. \u00a0Thankfully one day my aunt suggested we have him tested for Lyme. \u00a0So we did. We figured we didn’t have anything to lose. \u00a0A few weeks later we got a call from the county health department needing to document his case. \u00a0He had tested glaringly CDC positive for Lyme. \u00a0You know what the kicker is? I heard nothing from his pediatrician. \u00a0I called their office and asked if the doctor needed to see him so he could be treated and they said no. \u00a0So we were on our own. \u00a0I had to now research doctors who knew about Lyme and how to treat it. \u00a0Meanwhile I was dealing with my own achy joints, legs and fingers that would randomly go numb. \u00a0My legs would feel like they had dozens of bugs crawling on them at random times throughout the day as well. \u00a0I developed an irregular heartbeat. My thyroid went all crazy and I’ve developed severe fatigue. \u00a0I briefly got treatment along with my son, but our insurance plan is awful and things add up quickly. \u00a0So for now I’m putting my treatment on hold to focus on getting our son to a good place. \u00a0He recently had four weeks of IV antibiotics. \u00a0With our infectious disease doctor, IV antibiotics are standard treatment for Lyme that is attacking the nervous system. Being that our son was young, he started him off with oral antibiotics, but they weren’t cutting it. He has finished his round and now we wait. \u00a0We were told it can take 18 months before we see full recovery and know if the IV antibiotics worked. \u00a0So now we wait. Quite frankly though, I’m sick of waiting. I’m sick of this being strung out for all these years. \u00a0It’s so hard to watch your child be sick and go through what he has gone through. \u00a0I’m just ready to be past it all.<\/p>\n

\"IMG_5223_web\"<\/a><\/p>\n

Thankfully we were able to do his daily infusions at home (especially since his doctor is almost 2-1\/2 hours away). \u00a0So every day around 11, he’d get comfortable and we’d hook up his antibiotics. \u00a0They took about a half hour to infuse.<\/p>\n

\"IMG_0026_web\"<\/a> \"IMG_0028_web\"<\/a> \"IMG_0029_web\"<\/a> \"IMG_0032_web\"<\/a><\/p>\n

Here they are taking out his PICC line. \u00a0This was his reaction to how long it was.
\n\"IMG_0755_web\"<\/a><\/p>\n

I know I have not even remotely covered everything I should have, and even planned to cover. \u00a0Honestly, I’m not even sure if you all would even read it, or if you’ve even read what I did write. I know this post isn’t my best writing. \u00a0I’m extremely exhausted at the moment and can’t even think straight. \u00a0It’s been a long several weeks. No, it’s been a long several years.<\/p>\n

Please learn from us. \u00a0Learn the symptoms of Lyme, learn how to prevent tick bites, learn about proper treatment (a 10 day course of antibiotics is not going to cut it). \u00a0We’ve been doing our best to spread the word and have even helped two people find the answer to their illness – Lyme. \u00a0We have a friend whose son suddenly started losing his hearing after a camping trip. I thought it could be a long shot, but asked them if he had been tested for Lyme. \u00a0He hadn’t. \u00a0She took him to get tested and sure enough, he tested glaringly CDC positive as well. \u00a0He’s been receiving treatment and has most of his hearing restored. \u00a0I’m telling you, this disease is ruthless. \u00a0The reason the symptoms are so different for people is because the bacteria is a spirochete with no cell wall and infiltrates wherever it feels like going. \u00a0For some people it’s the joints, for some it’s the heart and for others it’s the nervous system. \u00a0If you know someone who is dealing with any of these symptoms and isn’t getting answers, you may want to encourage them to get tested for Lyme. \u00a0I will say though, EVERY doctor has told us, if you’ve had Lyme for a decent amount of time, your immune system can become taxed and stop producing enough antibodies to yield a positive test result. \u00a0So just because you test negative, that doesn’t mean you don’t have it. \u00a0Try treatment, see if that helps. You might be amazed.<\/p>\n

On another note related to Lyme disease…if you find a tick attached, don’t pour anything on it, or light a match to get it to back its head out. \u00a0Doing those things can agitate the tick and cause it to regurgitate whatever diseases it may be carrying, and those diseases will get regurgitated right into you. \u00a0The best way to remove a tick is with needle nosed tweezers. \u00a0Grab as close to your skin as possible and pull straight up firmly. \u00a0You want to be sure to get the head out. You also don’t want to squeeze the body of the tick as that will cause it to regurgitate as well.<\/p>\n

Well, thank you so much for stopping by. I hope you have learned something about Lyme disease. \u00a0If you have any questions, please feel free to comment here. I’m more than happy to answer any questions you may have.<\/p>\n

Head on over to Ceri Herd’s blog by clicking here<\/a>. \u00a0I’m sure you’ll enjoy her images. \u00a0She is incredibly talented!!<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

This month’s theme is green in honor of Lyme disease. I chose this theme because 1. it was only fitting as we have several family members with Lyme disease, and 2. May is Lyme disease awareness month. Here’s a little intro to Lyme disease: Lyme disease is a spirochete bacterium that is transmitted by ticks. … <\/p>\n

Continue reading “Share Six | Green: Lyme Disease”<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":814,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":true,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2},"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[1],"tags":[102,42,91,93,92,13,16,33,20,35,22],"class_list":["post-813","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-uncategorized","tag-east-moline","tag-lyme-disease","tag-midwest","tag-qc-photographer","tag-qc-photography","tag-quad-cities","tag-quad-cities-photographer","tag-quad-cities-photography","tag-quad-cities-portrait-photographer","tag-quad-cities-portrait-photography","tag-rock-island"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/cobertphotography.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/05\/IMG_5223_web.png","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p3dW5G-d7","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/cobertphotography.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/813","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/cobertphotography.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/cobertphotography.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cobertphotography.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cobertphotography.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=813"}],"version-history":[{"count":10,"href":"https:\/\/cobertphotography.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/813\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":829,"href":"https:\/\/cobertphotography.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/813\/revisions\/829"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cobertphotography.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/814"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/cobertphotography.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=813"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cobertphotography.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=813"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cobertphotography.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=813"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}