I had Lyme and Babesia. It was diagnosed as autoimmunes for almost three years, in that time my body went through about what you'd expect being run over with a bulldozer would do. Lost about 50% range of motion in most my joints, more in my hands and feet. Lost 60 lbs, lost most my hair, my skin hardened and tightened in different spots. Finally happened upon a nurse who refused to believe I had anything other than Lyme, as she was from Martha's Vineyard which has seen lots of Lyme cases and lots of them do weird things. Pushed me to see a Dr she knew and I did, she started treating me for Lyme and things started getting a lot better. Gained all my weight back, my hair is almost back to normal, all my joints are back to 100% except for my hands and feet, they're still improving day by day. I have permanent nerve damage in my feet and I suspect a lot of what people label as chronic lyme is in fact nerve damage, but that's just my hunch.
In Maine, most Dr's are now giving people 7 to 10 days of Doxycycline if they pull a deer tick that's attached to them as a safety precaution. They're starting to think a tick might not have to be attached very long at all to transmit the Lyme. There are a few dozen co-infections you can get in addition to Lyme as well, and most Dr'sthat do the lyme test don't test for the other co infections you can get, so a lot of people go untreated and/or get diagnosed with an auto immune, a mystery illness, or are labeled crazy. Ticks are no joke and they are going to continue to become a bigger and bigger problem. Not everyone gets the rash and the tests aren't always accurate....you can get both false negatives and positives.
Lyme disease is still being studied and I think what they think they know about it today will be different from what they actually know about it in ten years. For anyone that hasn't lived through it, I wouldn't wish it upon my worst enemy.
