The Buried Truth:
How is it that a ‘difficult to catch and easy to cure’ disease can claim so many lives? The answer is, at once, so simple yet extremely complex. It is this very dilemma that keeps the truth buried.The simplicity relies upon the fact that Lyme and other tickborne associated diseases can be lethal. They are stealth pathogens that invade the body and wreak havoc on every inch of its systems. They know no boundaries, pass through all barriers and essentially use the patient's own immune defense forces as ammunition against them.
The complexity lies within the bacterial, viral, protozoan or microbial ability to become covert and therefore evade the most common diagnostic criteria and most standard treatment protocols. ‘Lyme disease’ for most infected patients is rarely only the bacteria known as Borrelia burgdorferi. We are now finding that most patients harbor a collection of multiple diseases that can be contracted by a single encounter with the most notorious vector- The Tick.
We are also finding that ticks are not the only vectors that carry these multiple diseases. Mosquitoes, lice, biting flies, fleas, chiggers, mites and sand flies are only a few of the known carriers. We also know that some tickborne diseases can be passed from person to person via sexual transmission, by congenital means, through blood transfusion and with organ transplants.
Animal to human transmission is also reported via exposure to infected animals such as squirrels, dogs, cats, birds, sheep and cows among others.
Tickborne diseases claim lives in many ways. The length from infection to fatality varies widely with the nature of each disease and with each patient. Some diseases are quick to claim lives and others linger at length until the patient’s body gives in to the devastation or the patient’s spirit gives in to the desperation.
It is not uncommon to see another cause of demise listed on a death report for the tickborne disease infected patient. Once the body becomes immunocompromised and multi-systemic infection occurs, the door is left wide open to other possible conditions that complicate the patient’s original diagnosis and prognosis.
Even under the most optimal conditions: with a swift diagnosis, the best of possible protocol plans and attentive physicians, the eradication of tickborne diseases is subject to the individual’s response to treatment.
Unfortunately, most patient care does not fall into the optimal condition category. Many go for weeks, months, years and decades before a proper diagnosis is made and a treatment plan is initiated.
These patients have endured dozens of physicians still clinging to misinformed protocols backed by misguided political forces. They have also been ravaged by inconceivable insurance nightmares that have led to extreme social, financial and personal loss.
The truth of what plagues their lives has been lurking underneath multiple misdiagnoses, indescribable pain to mind, body and spirit, denial of the patients' own experiences and the continued prevalence of a simple myth that pleads to be uncovered and recognized for exactly what it is…The Buried Truth.
-Melanie Reber
"Three things cannot long be hidden; the sun, the moon, and the truth."- Confucius
© 2006 The National Lyme Disease Memorial Park Project
