Here is a link to the article written by dubious reporters Trine Tsouderos and Patricia Callahan.
http://www.chicagotribune.com/health/ct-met-chronic-lyme-disease-20101207,0,5671843.story?page=1
They need to stick to reporting about subjects they are familiar with like cupcakes, cakewalks, bake offs, Oprah and celebrity love affairs. Topics they might actually be able to lie about with out appearing to be so transparent.
The facts in their article about Lyme disease are far from the truth. I believe they are meant to be misleading and are continued myths about Lyme disease generated by the IDSA. The IDSA is the same organization that is suppose to care about the public's health not harm it further with misinformation.
The ghost of Betty Crocker might appreciate the Chicago Tribune article but anyone who has suffered with persistent Lyme disease in a cold world where medical insurance claims are turned down daily and unfairly I doubt would. Most people dealing with persistent Lyme disease have spent a majority of their savings for various medical treatments while trying to obtain health. Persistent Lyme disease is often not recognized by doctors or our society. I often hear the comment "But you look well". Rarely does anyone in my local community ask me how I am doing in regards to my disease. I am given no support of any kind including emotional support locally. Healthy friends just don't understand what I am going through. It is not like some other well known disease that they understand more about.
Lyme disease and the co-infections that often come with the disease are very difficult to diagnose due to the purposely misleading guidelines written for diagnosing by a corrupt IDSA and the CDC. The IDSA recommends unreliable testing. I know because it took thousands of other patients and myself years to get correctly diagnosed while suffering with life altering horrific symptoms in the mean time.
I experienced intense neurological symptoms, panic attacks, nonstop anxiety, and insomnia just to name a few of my symptoms. I often had agoraphobia and was afraid to leave my home. I had no idea what was causing me to feel like I was losing my mind. I often felt like I could not breathe. If I had known borrelia spirochetes were causing my symptoms it would have been a huge relief from the unknown. I had doctors blame me for having anxiety. Try living with the shame that comes from feeling you are going crazy. You feel like you are mentally ill when in reality you are not. You just have spirochetes wrecking havoc in your body and in your brain. You can't do anything about it because you don't know what is causing the horrific symptoms. If only I had been diagnosed years earlier it would have saved me years of suicidal thoughts, shame, humiliation, and mistreatment by family members especially my sister who relished in the fact that I was not doing well because it made her feel better about herself. She took delight in telling me I was crazy. The whole time my sister's boyfriend was probably also suffering with Lyme disease after his MD refused to test him when he went to his office while presenting with a bulls eye rash. He suffered from deep depression along with suicidal thoughts. After he and my heartless sister were married he died at age 53 of a brain tumor. According to Dr. Klinghardt Lyme disease can often mimic a brain tumor.
The misinformation Trine and Callahan included in their article will make it even harder for other patients to get correctly diagnosed if any of their lies are believed by readers. Here is a link to just some of the reasons why it is a hard disease to diagnose.
http://onlinenewswebsite.com/medical/lyme-disease-the-facts-revealed/10777/
Sadly thousands of other people world wide are walking around improperly diagnosed and not getting their answers because many countries use our CDC guidelines for diagnosing.
Here is H's story about the shocking road she had to take in order to get diagnosed. No one should have to spend time in a mental hospital instead of being properly diagnosed. We need to bring this disease out of the dark ages before this happens to anyone else.
http://iamnotlymedisease.blogspot.com/2010/12/heathers-lyme-disease-is-not-idsa-lyme_6182.html
Regarding the purposely biased reporters Patricia Callahan and Trine Tsouderos who wrote the latest delusional piece for Chicago Tribune's article on Chronic Lyme Disease all I can say is who is paying them to weave such purposely misleading information the IDSA, the CDC, our military, or government, Big Pharma, insurance companies that don’t want to pay out for long term healthcare or corrupt politicians or all of the above?
According to Dr. Stephen C. L'Hommedieu “Trine's sister, Danielle, has co-authored several studies with the FDA's Robert Ball”
The article Chicago Tribune article is full of misinformation. Here is one of the article's most blatant lies:
Just one among many reasons why the media is trying to spoon feed us lies about Lyme disease.
"A document on the website of Colorado State University revealed that Lyme was being studied in a top-security BSL-3 lab there. (4) Biosafety Level 3 is used for some of the most dangerous pathogens known, which additionally pose a major biowarfare hazard because of transmission by the airborne route. It is only one step down from BSL-4, the highest level of containment, reserved for those agents for which there is no known vaccine or treatment."
You can read more about the fact that Lyme Disease is a bioweapon at this link.
Just don't eat the bogus cupcakes or plums from Plum Island.