What is Lyme Disease?
Lyme Disease (Borreliosis) is the most common tick-borne illness in the United States. When a tick bites a human or animal, it transfers Borrelia burgdorferi bacteria into the host. The disease can also be transmitted via other insects such as mosquitoes, lice, fleas and bedbugs if the insect was feeding on a host that was infected prior to the bite. The most common symptoms of Lyme disease are a bullseye rash (erythema migrans), extreme fatigue, a high fever, Bell's palsy, a headache and severe joint pain. One or more of these symptoms may appear days, weeks or months after a tick bite. If no erythema migrans rash appears (it appears in about 50-60% of people), the individual does not typically correlate the symptoms to a tick bite. Without adequate or any treatment in the acute phase, Lyme disease can turn into chronic Lyme Disease or Post Treatment Lyme Disease. Here is some basic information about Lyme disease. https://www.medicalnewstoday.com/articles/150479.php
This is an example of an American dog tick.
Click here for a Tick Identifier: https://tickencounter.org/tick_identification/tick_species
My Story
I was diagnosed with chronic Lyme disease in August of 2017 along with Rocky Mountain Spotted Fever, Ehrlichosis, Babesia, Bartonella and chronic Epstein Barr virus after I began having numbness in my extremities, 103 degree fevers, blurry vision, slurred speech and syncope. In November of 2017, I was diagnosed with autoimmune encephalitis and Neuro-Lyme disease due to the damage the untreated tickborne illnesses had on my neurological system. After being told there was not a lot I could do given that I had not had initial treatment of these conditions, I sought out Chinese medicine and continued eating a gluten-free, organic diet as well as continued utilizing essential oils and other holistic methods to manage the disease to go into remission. Lyme disease and tickborne illnesses are really misunderstood and most of the time they are “silent diseases.” People with Lyme disease and other tickborne illnesses oftentimes have symptoms that are not able to be seen by others and only are able to be felt/experienced by the person going through it.My social media feed is a collection of information on Lyme disease and other tickborne co-infections and parasitic infections (Rocky Mountain Spotted Fever, Ehrlichosis, Anaplasmosis, Babesia, Bartonella) as well as viral illnesses such as Epstein-Barr, HHV-6, etc. that I have found through my past and continued research....as well as a snapshot of my daily life. I hope that my posts will help you become a better you and find the answers you have been seeking for years if you have suffered from unexplained chronic fatigue, muscle aches/pains, neurological symptoms or other unexplained illness...I have been there and know exactly how that feels. I'm here for you!In Health,The Lyme Educator
