We are just about half-way through Lyme Disease Awareness Month!  If you have been watching my lyme awareness videos, you have learned that many Lyme disease patients do not respond to a conventional 30-days of antibiotic treatment.

I have explained some of those reasons why, and how incredibly difficult it is to find effective alternative treatment when this happens.

Lyme disease can take a debilitating toll on the body with Exhaustion, pain, and anxiety.

➡ Many Lyme patients are unable to work, drive, or take care of themselves, resulting in a dire need for caregivers and financial support.

➡ Patients who were unjustly left undiagnosed and untreated face YEARS of recovery.

➡ Unfortunately, Lyme disease is not considered a “disabling condition” according to the US government, making it very difficult to receive disability payments.

💚 If you know someone with Lyme, BELIEVE them when they say their symptoms are debilitating 💚

➡ Getting out of the house takes extreme effort, and they are probably hiding their symptoms so they can appear as “normal” a possible. Lyme is sometimes called an “Invisible Illness” or “Invisible Disability”

❤ Thank you for your patience and understanding for those who have chronic Lyme disease! ❤

How has Lyme disease affected your ability to live life?

It’s Lyme Disease Awareness day 14, and today I’m talking about Lyme Disease co-infections

When you are bitten by an insect that carries the lyme disease bacteria, there is a good possibility that that insect is also carrying other diseases. These are called co-infections

➡ These infections are not all bacterial- some are viral and parasitical, meaning that antibiotics will not kill them.

➡ If antibiotics failed to treat your lyme disease, it could be because you have a co-infection💚

➡ Co-infections of Lyme include:

▫ Babesia ▫ Bartonella ▫ Mycoplasma ▫ Rocky Mountain Spotted Fever ▫ Anaplasma ▫ Rickettsia ▫ Ehrlichia

If you have Lyme, there’s a good chance you are carrying other tick-transmitted diseases. More advanced Lyme tests will be able to test for co-infections.

It is EXTREMELY important to know if you have had these co-infections because they can affect you for the rest of your life.

I had the Lyme co-infection babesia, which is a malarial-like parasitical infection

If you are ever diagnosed with babesia, you are banned from donating blood for the rest of your life. Even though I no longer experience symptoms, I can never donate blood because of this previous diagnosis.

Babesia is not really something blood donations check for, and some people have gotten infected with it from donated blood. There is also a chance that babesia can be transmitted through an infected organ, so please consider this when you opt to be a blood or organ donor if you have ever had Lyme+co

💚 LYME PATIENTS: What co-infections do you have? 💚

You will be surprised to learn how many famous people have had lyme disease!

Avril Lavigne @avrillavigne (she actually wrote a song about struggling with Lyme disease called “Head Above Water” have a listen, it’s very powerful)

Justin Bieber @justinbeiber

Yolanda Hadid @yolanda.hadid (She wrote a book called “Believe Me: My Battle with the Invisible Disability of Lyme Disease)

Bella Hadid @bellahadid

Alec Baldwin @alecbaldwininsta

Shania Twain @shaniatwain

Debbie Gibson @debbiegibson

Kelly Osbourne @kellyosbourne

Ally Hilfiger @allyhilfiger (check out her book “Bite Me: How Lyme Disease Stole My Childhood, Made Me Crazy, and Almost Killed Me”)

If there are any more celebrities with Lyme disease that I missed, please share in the comments!

Welcome to Lyme Disease Awareness day 11. Yesterday, I went over how some doctors will not test for Lyme because they falsely believe lyme disease does not affect their location. Today, I am talking about another reason why some doctors refuse to test for lyme: because of a lack of a tick bite or bullseye rash.

Many doctors believe that without a tick bite or bullseye rash, there is no need to test for lyme.

But half of the people who have tested positive for Lyme do not recall a tick bite or had a bullseye rash!

➡ Ticks can be so small that you never notice them, some as small as a poppy seed.

➡ Lyme disease is associated with the classic “bullseye rash” 🎯 However, fewer than half of Lyme patients report this symptom.

➡ Transmission of Lyme from tick to human takes place in a matter of minutes.

➡ Lyme is reported in areas without ticks, suggesting other insect bites (mosquitoes!) carry the disease.

💚 I was bitten by a dog tick when I was 12 years old. I was told this type of tick does not carry Lyme, but I did live in an area with deer ticks. I didn’t experience any symptoms until I was 15.

I was sick for 6 years before I was accurately tested for lyme disease.

If I had been tested for lyme when I first got sick, it would have been a lot easier to treat.

So, if you never had a tick bite or rash, do not rule out Lyme!

💚 LYME PATIENTS: Do you recall a tick bite? 💚

Welcome to Lyme Disease Awareness Day 10! There is still so much that I have to say about Lyme disease, so please continue to follow and subscribe and like, because this information is so important to know!

So, many doctors will refuse to test a patient for Lyme disease for various reasons. One of these is location.

Don’t ever let a doctor tell you that you can’t have Lyme because of your location!

➡ Lyme disease has been reported in ALL 50 states and 6 continents.

➡ So unless you live Antarctica, Lyme disease is always a possibility! NO one is immune from Lyme because of their location.

➡ If your doctor refuses to test you, it’s time to find a new, Lyme-literate doctor (an LLMD).

I recommend looking for Lyme Disease groups on facebook for your area. They will be able to find a doctor for you!

Tomorrow I am revealing another reason why some doctors will refuse to test for lyme.

💚 LYME PATIENTS: Where do you live? 💚

I was living in Illinois when I got sick with Lyme.

If you have been watching my Lyme Disease Awareness videos this month, you have learned that there is no official treatment for chronic lyme disease patients.

When a patient does not respond to the typical 30-days of antibiotic treatment, they are usually just told then that there is nothing more than can do for them.

When conventional medicine fails you, you have no other choice but to seek out alternative treatments that are not covered by insurance.

My family was spending over $10,000 a year to find treatments that could help me.

This is why it is so important that, if you can, to contribute to chronic Lyme disease research and help families get effective treatments!

Here is a list of some Lyme disease organizations on Instagram that you can donate to, to help raise awareness, research, and grants to suffering patients:

💚 @lymelightfoundation

💚 @focusonlyme

💚 @projectlyme

💚 @livlymefoundation

💚 @lymediseasechallenge

Please share in the comments any other Lyme organization that is out there helping others! These organizations are helping so many people, they need to be highlighted and need funding, please help raise awareness!