Hello, I would also like the name of a good lyme literate Dr in Loudoun County, or sourrounding area.  I found a tick about 2 weeks ago, and didn’t think to much of it.  Yesterday I had a round circle around the site, itching, redness.  Today I am now having symptoms of red inflamed skin, swelling, pain and extreme tenderness at the bite site.  I went to the er, and was given a prescription of antibotics.  Not much attention was given to the bite itself, or questions of symptoms.  I would like to get started with care at a Dr who is experienced with tick bites and lyme disease.  Any suggestions?

Just wondering if Loudoun residents with Lyme could list a local doctor who has been especially helpful in treating their illness.  Might give someone else out there a head start on effective treatment.

All suspected or confirmed cases of Lyme disease are required to be reported to the Health Department by doctors and laboratories.  If doctors are unsure of how to report cases, they can contact the Loudoun County Health Department at health@loudoun.gov or by phone at 703-771-5829.

Last year there were 223 cases of Lyme disease reported in Loudoun County.  While the number of cases remains too high in Loudoun County, many jurisdictions north of us have higher incidence rates of Lyme disease as do several other counties in Virginia. 

The Health Department is working closely with other county agencies and the community to increase awareness of ways to prevent infection. More information on Lyme disease in Loudoun County is available at www.loudoun.gov/lyme.

I am confident that these numbers are underreported, because my entire family has Lyme - four of us.  However no one to my knowledge -outside of our immediate doctor knows this.  How do the collect reports of Lyme anyway ?  This truly is a scarlet-letter disease within the local medical community.  Education and awareness by both the public AND more importantly, doctors, is apparent.  Thank You Congressman Wolfe for raising the awareness of this disease.  LOUDOUN IS 3RD IN THE COUNTRY FOR LYME !!!!  WHAT MORE CONVINCING SHOULD ANYONE NEED ???

The level of bed english in these rambling comments are unpossible! Comment FAIL.

Are these hypothesis correct ?
A wave of chronically disabling viruses swept through the Loudoun County schools during early 2000’s.  The young ones rebounded - but afflicted parents (middle age) lacked the rejuvenation characteristic of youth.
EQUATION:  what does this equal -

Lyme Disease + CMV virus + Ebstein Bar virus + HHV-6 virus + + stress hormone + steroid medication = ?

ANSWER: infective mental illness; the equivalent of a bad acid trip. 

Consider that unstable or anti-social behavior may be the result of pathogens, and not bad parents or bad schools, or genetic disorders, or benign personality disorders.  In the draconian era of BUSH, such way of thinking disappeared.  Hospitals were replaced by prisons. 
There will always be another plague.  There will always be other administrations in denial; unless of course the pharmaceutical lobby in Washington can find a profit scheme.

Why was there an explosion in Lyme disease in the region over the past decade or so?  Historical accounts are absent of any local mystery diseases.

Recall the massive aerial Gypsie Moth pesticide spraying campaign that was conducted in the late 1980s - early 1990s to save the trees of Loudoun & Maryland, using re-built WWII era bombers ?
What was really being blanket sprayed over the County and others ?
After that - the crickets stopped chirping; the fireflies almost disappeared, the field mice were not so plentiful, and ant colonies dwindled ..... did that county-wide insecticide spraying act as the catalyst for the proliferation of deer ticks, as their natural predators were extinguished by the poisons sprayed from the planes ?????

Just some thoughts to consider -

I have been treating lyme for 5 months now.  Same symptoms as above. Extreme fatigue, memory/cognitive problems. I had it 5 years ago and my Dr, a well known lyme researcher (and who appeared in the documentary Under Our Skin) said it could have very well been laying dormant for all that time waiting for an opportunity to re-emerge.  With me it is looking like that opportunity may have been when I got a high mercury load in my body which may have weakened my immune system. (You think Lyme is difficult to find help for try mercury poisoning.)

I was originally put on 4 months of tetracycline and was just switched to Plaquenil and Biaxin. A cocktail he created and has good success with. He is talking about a year or more to get rid of it.  Oh, and I also tested negative for lyme both times and am being treated based on the symptoms by someone who knows what he is doing..

I arrived at Bethesda Naval Hospital hospital in tow behind my calm yet very concerned mother. Luckily for me she had started working there after our move from Andrews Air-force Base to Potomac Maryland and my fathers new employment flying VIP’s around as Learjet Pilot. My mother started back to work after some lean times, she was a dedicated mother and wished to stay with her cherished children to look after them, but necessity dictated her return to the work force. She was a poor farm girl who had worked her way through college on the work program at Buerea College, with a degree in Immunology she eventually settled into a lab at Navy Med, of course my mother attracts friendships like some kind of karmic beacon point, she is an embodiment of a singularity within any environment she finds her self. The clarion call soon went out that beloved Doris’s child had some kind of serious problem, and soon the best and brightest of the men of science and medicine beset upon solving this problem. I certainly had no idea of what was going on in the landscape around me at the time, especially since once the tests started they continued, and continued when they were over, something else would happen and they would continue again. X-ray, blood tests, spinal taps, barium enemas, more blood, I was quite sure that I really wanted to not be sick at this point at all costs, as anyone under the constant invasive medical testing of 30 years ago will tell you. I was always the center of attention during rounds, “well Dr. Johnson here is an interesting presentation what do you make out of this? Call the Specialist and ask him, I heard he saw something like this once. ” I overheard the Doctors collaborating, forming a brain trust to bring to bear on what single minds could not. At 12 years old it all seemed magical and esoteric, I felt in good hands by people who legitimately cared. These were men of a special cabal of learning they wore white coats they expressed true empathy these were the present day magical Shaman of the displaced natives only better since the discovery and rational thinking of science had given them instruments to peer into the true nature of matter, they could actually see into worlds hitherto invisible only decades ago. This would soon be over once they trained the technologies and bio-chemistry of true knowledge toward the problem. Discovering what I was ailing from they would surely conjure a cure from the esoteric knowledge they possessed and if one didn’t exist they could even synthesize new molecules through the understanding of bio-chemistry and create what nature lacked. Literally and figuratively the aspects of gods fell at their learned disposal. Once the battery of testing was over we arrived at the crux of the problem through the process of elimination, it was decided it can’t be anything else but this, you sure what about? Nope got to be this there is no other explanation..NONE. Thus so the pronouncement came own, and the naming of my disease uttered for the first time. I was suffering from Juvenile rheumatoid Synovitis, a form of arthritis that for some strange reason in some small sections of patients appeared as a negative rheumatoid factor stating that you did not have it. However since the consensus of opinion was that the symptoms matched so closely it simply could be nothing else. Assuming you know everything on heaven and earth, this is a completely and totally rational decision right? That assumption must be in place for it to be considered rational. If the first assumption it is not in place then the decision is altogether subject real problems, since it could be littoral anything in existence that man does not know about. I am not a doctor but I understand nature to the degree that I know it’s secrets are subtle and prone to a delicate teasing in order to reveal them. Hell, trying to tease a Trout from it’s natural environment using artificial means, using the most carefully thought out full proof tested fly, tied by the most tedious and careful of artisans was enough to drive the most intelligent man into a state of apparent madness by his inability to match wits with a humble trout. Unless, unless he was a true fisherman who had availed himself of the invisible college replete within all systems of nature. Fishermen who study nature, excise the skills eeded from observation of holistic systems, you can not discern and adapt without understanding all dimensions involved. Understanding is looking, it is nothing less than clever observation of as many seemingly invisible processes as possible, one has to use their imagination to enter into the being of nature. Or such was the philosophy that I chose to take from my love of fishing, and it bestowed some confidence on my ego as well. Relief, relief finally, hope, a feeling of thank God I do not have to be sick anymore, I will be OK, the pain will stop, I can go back into the woods and participate in the world around me. This sunk into my distressed child psyche and comforted the ever present mother distressed over her child’s pain. At last we could apply a cure! A cure for what is MUST be! The “cure” in this case was a progressive application of medicines which to everyone’s chagrin changed absolutely nothing, nothing at all. Super High-Dose Asprin, Motrin, Penicillamine, Anti,Depressants, Opiates when the pain was too great, finally a radical treatment of heavy metal poisoning with gold salts instead of lead was injected on a weekly basis into my ever-present pincushion of ass cheek. Weekly blood tests to monitor the heavy metals in my system. Yet still every other week I would wind up back in the hospital pleading with the doctors to please remove the fluid on my knee and take away the pain. They would caution me to stop being so active, you simply can not be doing these things that exacerbate your condition, no sports, no running around the woods and the most ghastly thing of all stop running around all day fishing. I tried to comply as best I could but a child’s world does not know limitations, nor should it, being a child is about finding out and exploring what and who you are and I was finding out in short order that I was categorized as disabled, sick, ill and should act and be treated differently. I recoiled at being treated differently, I recoiled at acting differently, I pushed the envelope of what was doable and paid the price in exchange for my participation in life. I was quite positive in the beginning I became the youngest Certified Arthritis Foundation Certified Self Help Instructor in it’s history. I had worked out trick to my condition that helped, I understood the dynamics and mechanisms of pain and the cycle it set in place. The pain cycle is a very tricky thing because it works like water, slowly over time, it starts to exploit the tiniest weaknesses of the body and the cognition of the one in pain. It is like the millstones of fate that do not grind fast but grind exceedingly fine. Being a youthful lad, my positive outlook soon turned to a much more grim settling in. I was young and had yet to build up a store of knowledge or endurance for this type of subtle battle. It weighed heavily on my Mother, Father and Sister and I knew, I didn’t have to think, I knew I was the cause of distress to people around me. They were distressed out of love, burdened with monitoring my health and constantly concerned as I assumed the role of felt pariah and rebelled in no organised or specific direction. This is a very dangerous place to be as a child, I was cursed with life instead of blessedly delivered into the cradle of nature I once found myself in years earlier. The medicines, the treatment, the social ramifications of cruel teenagers took there toll and I was separated from the healthy humans, most of which didn’t give a rats ass about my problems or I theirs. A disease as firm as their apathy to my plight took place in my apathy toward the them, the same disease, the exact same disease that was so thoroughly entrained in modern society and culture took hold in me. The disease I thought I was fighting was child’s play compared to what was to come with this new sickness. I mean at least I could name mine, no one, no one has a name for this other cultural polarizing disease that fosters the prejudices and apathy and like water seeps into the cracks of the system, it becomes a system with a built in disease for both sides. No one is at fault here it is simply that the baser natures of humanities wayward spirits have lost some real abilities to heal or even know that we have a very subtle disease. This does not effect all but does elude treatment since it isn’t easy to apprehend even to those suffering from it the most. The cure is so simple most discount it as being too simplistic for rational consideration. This is the disease I suffered the most excruciating self administered pain from and it is the disease we see everyday in every aspect of the most crucial problems of the world.We have incorporated into our being at an individual level a prejudice toward our own species so invasive we find it everywhere. It is institutionalized, it is legislated against, it is misunderstood and it is wholly and completely treatable since to have this disease you have to voluntarily take it into the fabric of your being. The cure is also a voluntary prospect and I have chosen only now to declare my freedom from it and to convey the message and cure through sharing my story. Ignorance and apathy are diseases within the so called healthy, one only has to have a crippling disease to see how “healthy” we all are.

Lyme, has been a 20 year battle that I am still fighting because of the damage, the financial damage alone cut one off at the end from any worthwhile healing. I am still fighting this now, financially with the IRS, without medical help, and without any defined way to climb out of it so late in the game, perhaps it will haunt the rest of my life, but at least I understand the journey now.

I was diagnosed with Lyme a few years ago and placed on antibiotics for a couple weeks, retested, and told my subsequest tests always came back negative. I also lost a dog to Lyme Disease and complications from it.  I am still often fatigued and continue to have various joint pains…pains that my doctor usually just blames on “getting older”. He usually tells me to take some Aleve, exercise more,  and sends me on my way.  I’m in my late forties, but sometimes feel like I’m much older than that because of joint pain. It’s frustrating…I feel like my doctor doesn’t take my symptoms seriously and can relate to some of the comments posted here. Among my joint pains was a persistent pain in one of my hips.  When I finally (after 2 or 3 years) insisted on getting tests done, it turned out to be torn cartilage.  I really don’t know if my other joint pains are due to Lyme, but I do think that some doctors really don’t take our complaints seriously enough or trust us when we say “something’s not right” .....or want to take the time to figure out what’s really going on. I can understand people who feel like they, then, have to resort to doing their own research online.

You can help raise money and awareness of the disease by participating in the Loudoun Lyme 5K on May 15 at the National Conference Center in Leesburg.  The 5K will also have an educational fair.  To register go to www.loudounlyme.org.

Consider yourself lucky if the test for lyme comes back positive.  The test is known to be wrong and there is nothing new on the horizon to take its place…insurance companies don’t want to pay for another disease.  It is amazing that we live in such a heavy Lyme area and our doctors are so uninformed.  It can take years and very serious symptoms before one is diagnosed. I know firsthand how devastating lyme can be and it can present in more than one area, ie: neurological and in the joints.  I have real doubts about the number of reported cases…I think it may be at least 5 times higher than that.  I wonder if that is only the number of positive test results that get reported.  This is such a reality for so many Loudoun residents that there should be required training for our Loudoun physicians…their lack of knowledge is adding to the devastating consequences.  Thank you Frank Wolfe and the lyme panelists who are bringing this to the forefront. Everyone should watch Under Our Skin when it airs on PBS in the next couple of months.

@falsepositives—
12 tests absolutely can come back negative. Lyme in the brain is hidden from the immune system, and won’t generate antibodies.
no antibodies, no + test.

All three of my kids have tested positive for Lyme disease in the last 4 years.  If you suspect your kids have Lyme disease make sure you request the Lyme test.  We had a terrible time getting one of our kids tested as the doctors swore up and down it wasn’t Lyme disease which turned out to be incorrect.

All three received antibiotics and the symptoms cleared up.

Pets are also susceptible to Lyme disease and the majority of pets tested in at least the Great Falls area are testing positive.

This could not have come at a more perfect time.  Our son was just diagnosed with Lyme Disease on Tuesday.  We did not find a tick, nor did we ever see the bull’s eye rash.  We took our son in because he’d been experiencing mysterious joint pain and inflammation for a few months.  Our doctor was immediately concerned, thinking it was rheumatoid arthritis, but thankfully he also tested for LD, and the results were overwhelmingly positive.  We have an appointment with a pediatric infectious disease specialist next week, but I’m a bit nervous about that after all that I’ve read.  I’m not sure how to go about finding a doctor who is Lyme literate who also accepts our insurance.

As a Loudoun County resident with Lyme (undiagnosed for at least one year), I feel especially glad to see this article focus on Lyme disease in a very real way. Let’s not forget, though, about co-infections as the reason for ongoing symptoms, and that many, many people NEVER see a tick or bulls-eye rash, or any rash. I was misdiagnosed by a Loudoun County family doctor, and I tell everyone who will listen to run far and fast from any MD who will not take your complaints and questions about Lyme seriously. If the MD does not explain the controversy and tell you to do the research, then FIND ANOTHER DOCTOR QUICKLY! If the MD says 10 days of antibiotics are enough, and only if you are symptomatic, THEN FIND ANOTHER DOCTOR QUICKLY! I also didn’t see much emphasis on testing and how Lyme bacteria can evade standard testing after they move from your blood into your tissues, and for other reasons. A negative Lyme test means NOTHING. A positive Lyme test is a blessing. For more info, go to ILADS.ORG. Learn about Lyme and what you NEED to do to protect your family from this disease that steals lives.

..as described above, beware of “specialists” hawking dramatic cures and never ending tests. Not all symptoms for Lyme are actually caused by the disease! Like many auto-immune related disorders, its no surprise the number of miracle cures and predatory physicians willing to jump on the Lyme bandwagon.  Be a smart medical consumer…@ticked off, if *12* tests come back negative, maybe that’s your answer! Treating symptoms is a smart approach.

Unfortunately, denial of chronic Lyme is still the norm for doctors in the US. We have documented dozens of stories from lyme patients and they all had the same experience. 2 great sites to untangle the lyme controversy are -

http://www.lyme-disease-research-database.com/
http://www.ilads.org

What I found was that despite having all the early symptoms, headache, stiff neck, fatigue, stiff joints and EVEN the bulls eye rash, they refuse to admit it is Lyme Disease.  Not to mention that there are only a few strains that they test for when there are well over a couple hundred strains out there.  In my experience, you always have to inform yourself and advocate for yourself.  Although doctors go to school and learn a lot, not a single person knows all.  We all are not created equally when it comes to how our bodies fight infections.  Our immune systems differ as much as our personalities so we cannot count on the “one size fits all” treatment as the CDC guidelines are outlined.  We need treatment offered according to each individual’s needs.

You forgot to mention the people that have Lyme and for years and the tests come up NEGATIVE.  I have Lyme and probably have had it since I was a teen, I am 50 now.  I have had 12 Lyme tests over the last 6 years and only ONE of these test came back with IGM 23 Positive, but Lyme neg.  I have Lyme, but like Raechel Macpherson, I had cramped hands, inflammation from head to toe and a body pain that increased daily. I was referred to an infectious disease specialists. The original diagnosis was rheumatoid arthritis. Many of my friends were coming up positive for Lyme.  I went to a Lyme specialist who loaded me up with so many herbal drugs and injections of B12, it almost destroyed my kidneys and liver.  Finally, after finding a wonderful doctor who treated me for Lyme on THE SYMPTOMS of Lyme, I have been feeling much better.  Please post the name of the Dr. in Washington, because the ones in this area are not informed or qualified to handle Lyme.