Well that's... stupid.

That is stupid. Should still be getting vaccinated for it. >.>

Yup. But the mentality was that it was eradicated. They forgot that they weren't actually vaccinating the ticks that carry Lyme, just the people that could get it.

According to wikipedia, there's Lyme disease (which can still become a chronic disease) and Chronic Lyme disease, which are apparently two different terms. The first is the one spread by ticks, the other one is probably the one that doctors mean when they say it doesn't exist anymore. There may have been communication issues with the doctors, like the kind that occurs when a doctor has already filed you under "hypochondriac" or "believes everything they read" and just doesn't listen anymore ...

Chronic Lyme (or Post-Treatment Lyme Disease Syndrome) is when you retain symptoms sometimes months after a successful treatment of early caught Lyme.

With active Lyme, if you go more than a month without treatment you're more likely to have a harder time with the treatment and treatment is less likely to work. The reason it gets harder to treat the longer you go is because Lyme is a constantly adapting bacteria. With my friend, she went 14 years untreated and has now been through about 7 or so years of treatment with multiple different antibiotics and still has active Lyme.

With the vaccinations, they started them and they worked. So there had been no reported case of Lyme in like 10+ years. For some reason this lead them to stop producing the actual vaccination. Along with that, a lot of the symptoms of Lyme are symptoms of other things so doctors thinking Lyme was beaten and we're just looking at each individual symptom and not the symptoms as a whole.

It's only been in the past 5 or so years that Lyme has resurfaced and people are sharing their stories and majority are the same story. Doctors not listening, looking at the individual symptoms, and just passing them off as hypochondriacs. All because they thought Lyme was no longer an issue.

Sorry this turned into a bit of a thesis paper. I've done so much research on this the past few years, been with my friend for doctor visits and seen her breakdowns from not having answers or having doctors brush her off. She literally thought it was going to kill her before she hit 25.

Holy crap. That's one of the reasons I hate the current medical system (Western medicine, anyway). Doctors Just Don't Listen. And not just medical doctors but psychiatrists, too. I once saw a psychiatrist who, after I said something would tell me that I actually meant this other thing, which was usually the opposite of what I said. (And as someone who actually spends a lot of time analyzing myself, my behaviors, the causes for those behaviors, that drove me absolutely up the wall)

My current doctor blames pretty much everything I bring up on my weight. Weird periods? It's cuz I'm fat. (Never mind that they've been inconsistent for 20 years and I haven't been overweight the whole time.) Body aches? Fat. Breathing difficulties? Fat. It's a minor miracle that she actually listened when I told her that I think I have fibromyalgia.

Holy cow! The one doctor who should literally just be listening! That's insane. I'm sorry you had that experience.

But yeah. Doctors like to blame everything on weight now a days. It's ridiculous. They seem to think that if they fix the weight issue they'll fix everything like magic.

It's like yes you went to med school for many years and got that fancy degree, but I've lived with my situation for years and if you could look past my body weight and the weight of your own ego and prejudices maybe you could actually figure out what the cause is.

Nic you need to find a new doctor! I had a doctor recently blame my pain on my depression!!

I honestly feel like the world just needs better doctors in general. Like I wish you could have someone's medical license taken away for not actually listening to the patient.

I would LOVE to have a new doctor! But there's a shortage here, so I'm stuck with what I got.

That reminds me of this thing I heard years ago. What do you call someone who graduated from medical school at the top of their class? Doctor. What do you call someone who barely graduated from medical school? Doctor.

Also "weight of your own ego and prejudices" is an amazing phrase, I love it.

Too true. You can graduate at the bottom of your class and still become a doctor. The real issue though is that a good bedside manner cannot be taught and it seems like most doctors don't have it anymore.

I had a wonderful, wonderful doctor for over 25 years, but his mother became ill so he left his practice to spend time with her before she passed away. I keep praying that he will come back somewhere to practice!!

Oh that sucks. But I get how that is. I refused to change my primary even when I was three hours away.

I miss my doctor that I had growing up, he was great. Awesome bedside manner, not a pill pusher, and actually listened to what you were saying. Sadly I moved away, and even if I moved back, he's retired now.

I really miss my Dr. E. He was so wonderful.

Should have been the same as here. At least all my saved dream avies tell me it was. Although there may have been an underscore between the first and last names.

My memory isn't as good as it used to be, I'm getting old LOL.

Lols. It's all good. I wasn't 100% sure cause I used to use a different name but due to miss the old places and having grown since then I used this one. Which is the name of my bird brained harpy in an old D&D campaign.

I have to run an errand to Walgreen's. I'll be back soon

Toodles!!! Have fun!