Munchausen's syndrome by proxy and Lyme disease: medical misogyny or diagnostic mystery?

Sadly, this is an on going situation around the world.  Mothers who are concerned for their child's health are vilified by the very people who should be helping to regain the child's health. 

Abstract: Dr VT Sherr.
Chronic, tertiary Lyme disease, a vector-borne infection most accurately designated neuroborreliosis, is often misdiagnosed.

Infectors of the human brain, Lyme borrelial spirochetes are neurotropic, similar to the spirochetes of syphilis. Symptoms of either disease may be stable and persistent, transient and inconsistent or severe yet fleeting. Characteristics may be incompatible with established knowledge of neurological dermatomes, appearing to conventional medical eyes as anatomically impossible, thus creating confusion for doctors, parents and child patients.

Physicians unfamiliar with Lyme patients' shifting, seemingly vague, emotional, and/or bizarre-sounding complaints, frequently know little about late-stage spirochetal disease.

Consequently, they may accuse mothers of fabricating their children's symptoms--the so-called Munchausen's by proxy (MBP) "diagnoses."

Women, following ancient losses of feminine authority in provinces of religion, ethics, and healing - disciplines comprising known fields of early medicine, have been scapegoated throughout history.

In the Middle Ages, women considered potentially weak-minded devil's apprentices became victims of witch-hunts throughout Europe and America.  Millions of women were burned alive at the stake.

Modern medicine's tendency to trivialize women's "offbeat" concerns and the fact that today's hurried physicians of both genders tend to seek easy panaceas, frequently result in the misogyny of mother-devaluation, especially by doctors who are spirochetally naïve.

These factors, when involving cases of cryptic neuroborreliosis, may lead to accusations of MBP.

Thousands of children, sick from complex diseases, have been forcibly removed from mothers who insist, contrary to customary evaluations, that their children are ill.

The charges against these mothers relate to the idea they believe their children sick to satisfy warped internal agendas of their own. "MBP mothers" are then vilified, frequently jailed and publicly shamed for the "sins" of advocating for their children.

In actuality, many such cases involve an unrecognized Lyme borreliosis causation that mothers may insist is valid despite negative tests. 

Doctors who have utilized MBP tactics against mothers are likely to be unaware that in advanced borreliosis, seronegativity is often the rule, a principle disagreed upon by its two extant, published, peer-reviewed, Standards of Care.
These are guidelines for Lyme disease management--the older system questioning the existence of persistent Lyme and the newer system relying on established clinical criteria.

Mothers must be free to obtain the family's preferred medical care by choosing between physicians practicing within either system without fear of reprisal.
Doctors and mothers together may then explore medical options with renewed mutual respect toward the best interest of children's health.

PMID: 15925450 [PubMed - indexed for MEDLINE]

Lyme disease: A multi-systemic disease

There are many more symptoms for Lyme disease than the ones listed in this link. This is because Lyme is a multi-systemic disease. Aches and pains come and go and move about the body with consistent inconsistency...!!

This information is only meant to help you decide if you need to seek medical treatment to increase the quality of your life.
Just remember tho, a bit bite is not something to be ignored. The sooner you can get treatment, the less chance you have of developing Neuroborreliosis.

http://www.lyme-symptoms.com/1Lyme-Symptoms.html


Lyme is often Misdiagnosed as other Diseases and Disorders.
This is because it tends to mimic about 300 different illnesses which makes it very important to rule them out.
If you have ever experienced bites from ticks, fleas, mosquitoes, lice, biting flys, do not discount them.
You will do so at your peril !

http://www.lyme-symptoms.com/LymeMimics.html


Comparison of Lyme disease and co-infection symptoms.

http://www.lyme-symptoms.com/LymeCoinfectionChart.html

Tick-borne encephalitis or meningoencephalitis: is a bacterial infection of the brain, such as Lyme disease. The symptoms of encephalitis range from mild to severe and can be life threatening. Possible symptoms: Fever, headache, nausea, decreased alertness, malaise, visual disturbances, stiff neck and back decreased consciousness, tremor, seizures. Encephalitis can last from a few days to several months. Permanent neurological consequences may follow recovery in some cases. Consequences may include personality changes, memory loss, language difficulties, seizures, and partial paralysis. Tick-borne meningoencephalitis is caused by a virus and may be a coinfection of lyme.

Lyme Meningitis inflammation of the membranes surrounding the brain and spinal cord called the meninges. It often occurs when an infection elsewhere in the body spreads through the blood and into the cerebrospinal fluid (the fluid that circulates in the spaces in and around the brain and spinal cord). One form of bacterial meningitis is related to Lyme disease. Lyme meningitis is generally less severe than other forms of bacterial meningitis and is not fatal. Lyme meningitis may be the first evidence of Lyme disease, occurring without a history of erythema chronicum migrans or flu-like illness. Symptoms in milder cases of encephalitis usually include: headache, fever, stiff neck, sensitivity to light, nausea, sleepiness, confusion.

Chronic meningitis is a slowly developing inflammation of the subarachnoid space (located within the layers of tissues covering the brain and spinal cord) associated neurological involvement affecting the lower extremities. The infection and inflammation develop more slowly, over weeks and months that lasts a month or longer. If symptoms have been present for a month or more, meningitis is described as chronic. People may have a fever, a stiff neck, a headache, double vision, or difficulty walking, or they may become confused. Headache lasting weeks to months persistent/severe/ head pressure /congestion /burning. Burning in the brain and sometimes the neck and spinal cord or parts of the head, forehead or most of the head.

Aseptic meningitis(The space between middle and inner layers of tissues covering the brain and spinal cord (meninges) is inflamed.) Sometimes aseptic meningitis is diagnosed when meningitis is caused by bacteria that are hard to identify, such as the bacteria that cause Lyme disease, syphilis, or tuberculosis. Symptoms Headache, stiff neck, malaise, nausea and muscle aches may develop over days. Usually, aseptic meningitis causes symptoms that are similar to those of bacterial meningitis (fever, headache, vomiting, sluggishness, and a stiff neck). However, people do not become as ill. People may not have a fever, particularly when the cause is not an infection.

http://www.lyme-symptoms.com/2Lyme-Symptoms.html#meningoencephalitis

Do you believe you could have Lyme Disease (Lyme Borreliosis) ?

Do you think your symptoms seem very Lyme like...? Have you had a Lyme test and your doctor has told you the test was Negative? Not all tests that come up with a negative result are in fact 'Negative'. There are several reasons why you may well have Lyme disease but tests show up as negative. This is my favourite link which explains so well how this can happen.

http://www.anapsid.org/lyme/lymeseroneg.html


Still wondering what the heck to do... ??

Follow your gut. Be informed, learn as much as you can about this horrible illness that South African doctors in general don't believe in, and DEMAND proper testing and treatment !!

My GP basically laughed at me when I told him in 1996 that I was 100% sure I had Lyme disease. He told me we don't get Lyme in South Africa...!! I suggested it had another name... he told me I was way off line... It was either, MS, Guillain-Barr, Sjogren's, Lupus, etc., etc... For 16 years I had no treatment from him despite feeling so ill all the time. I had the odd dose of antibiotics but only for about 3 or 5 days and never tetracycline.

You can imagine how angry I was in Feb 2010, when at my absolute lowest I was diagnosed clinically with Lyme disease and the blood test confirmed this with several co-infections. Medical people tell you, you cannot get the strain of Lyme bacteria here in SA (Borrelia burgdorferi)... well, despite never having set foot in either Europe or the USA, I have the Borrelia burgdorferi strain from the USA and Borrelia garanii strain from Europe. Imagine That !!

In the meantime, I have lost the ability to work because I did not receive proper treatment all those years back. I suffer awful neurological problems - I've gone from being 'a pretty sharp knife in the draw... to a pretty blunt one' !!

No one understands what it is like to feel your life force draining from you and there is nothing you can do. People berate you, they speak behind your back about how useless you are... You will even find that if you try to claim a disability grant or policy, they will tell you, you will be well in 3 months and they don't pay disability in cases of 3 months or less. You look fine on the outside so WHY can you no longer do what you were pretty darn good at before...

During the last 6 months of my employment (December 2009 to May 2010) I was unable to function as a School Administrator at a local SA University. I got ZERO support from the University and financially I am now in the DWANG with only enough money to live for another year... I have been following various forms of treatment now for 3 years. What happens if I do get better now... I won't have enough money to live on...

LYME STEALS YOUR LIFE IN EVERY WHICH WAY !!

PLEASE DO NOT ALLOW THIS TO HAPPEN TO YOU. I KNEW NO BETTER.


I know it is not easy to fight back when you are not well. I believe I would have had a strong case had I taken matters further either via CCMA or legally, but I did not have the fight or financial means to do so. But FIGHT as much as you can to get back your health from this Lyme!!

There is nothing worse than being stripped of your mental capabilities - you become a 'Mere Shell' of the person you were before.
People like to talk you in circles, or make out you are an idiot, unable to reason. They say your illness is 'in your head'... Yes, that is so! The Lyme bacteria can cause Brain disease.

My story is about what the Lyme bacteria can do to you, if left to take over your body unchecked for all those years!!


This link has some very useful information as well.

http://www.lyme-symptoms.com/

When ALS is Lyme disease...

When ALS is Lyme :
Examining the link between ALS and Neuroborreliosis.

"FACTS DO NOT CEASE TO EXIST BECAUSE THEY ARE IGNORED." ~ Aldous Huxley


THE IMMUNE SYSTEM CANNOT KILL THE BORRELIA IN THE BRAIN...
See Page 149 of the above link.

"The brain is am Immune-privileged site. T-Cells do NOT circulate in the brain - they are not able to pass the blood-brain barrier. So that's it ! The bacteria are in the brain and they are there to stay !!...

This is NOT good news for us... !!

On page 151 - there is comment as to why Neuroborreliosis does not show up on Lyme tests which is also very interesting. Ms Kathleen Dickson, has always maintained that what we know as Lyme is in fact Relapsing Fever.

Kathleen Dickson is a Analytical Chemist who used to work for Pfizer.

http://www.als-cure.com/ALS.pdf

Lyme disease is physically, emotionally and financially draining!

"In 1989, a doctor published an article in the Toronto Star saying if we don't deal with Lyme disease now, it is going to become an epidemic."

I am not a doctor, but today 7th July 2011, I am sticking my neck out and saying if South Africa is not careful and does not Face up to and deal with Lyme disease (also known as Lyme Borreliosis / Neuro Borreliosis) and it's co-infections soon,  it is going to become another epidemic, here in SA, much like HIV/Aids!

Most South African doctors don't believe you can get Lyme disease in South Africa.  In 1996 I told my GP I was 100% sure I had Lyme disease based purely on symptoms.  He told me it was IMPOSSIBLE to get Lyme in South Africa.  I recall telling him well if it wasn't called Lyme here, maybe it had another name. He did not listen to me and I just went from specialist to specialist.  I had another bladder opperation, I was hospitalised on traction for a week, four times in 1999.  Underwent a cervical manipulation under anaesthetic due to the sever neck pain in 2000.   I missed a neck fusion as the neurosurgeon felt I was 'too borderline' !! I was treated for 'epilepsy' for 5 or 6 years..., diagnosed as an asthmatic in June 2009...! 

I battled with my health for 16 years until I my final collapse in November 2009.  Thankfully I found a Lyme Literate Medical Doctor (LLMD) who diagnosed me with Rickettsia conorii, Q Fever (coxiella burnetti), Mycoplasma pneumonia and you guessed it !!  Borreliosis (Lyme Disease).  I have lived in South Africa since a baby and was bitten by ticks in my own garden in Johannesburg.

               PLEASE!!  WAKE UP SOUTH AFRICA !! 

LYME DISEASE IS HERE - THE TIME BOMB IS TICKING !!!

Why is Borrelia so hard to kill ?

This is a very informative video put together by Connie Strasheim.  I finally understand what Biofilms are now. :-)