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Dr. Joseph Burrascano's 2008 Lyme Disease Treatment Guidelines
Dear Editor:
Please count me in as
one of your readers who finds your publication valuable, well done, and
offers information not readily available
anywhere else.
I too have learned form
your articles, and have referred many to PHA.
Bravo, and keep up
the good work!
Dr.
Joseph J Burrascano
guidelines
posted with permission
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Standing on the Edge of a Dream
Realizing the Benefits of Long Term Treatment
& Reclaiming a Life the Disease Had Stolen
by Dawn Irons
My journey with Lyme disease has been a long, arduous, and hard fought battle. There were days when the thought of dying would have been a welcomed relief just to escape the pain, but I knew enough of the disease process and cycling effect of the Jarisch-Herxheimer reaction to know that this season of pain would cycle through to better days. But there were days I wondered if I would ever see the other side!
When I was diagnosed with Lyme disease in November of 2005, that was a welcome relief which gave me a NAME to call what I had been battling since 1987 that sent me into a medical mystery that specialist after specialist could not figure out and kept passing me on to the next medical specialist. Getting a diagnosis was like winning the grand prize at a power lottery!
My life as I had known it ended in 2005. I physically could not perform the most basic functions of life. Getting out of bed and getting dressed was an energy draining task that would leave me exhausted and needing a nap just to recover from the effort. By March of that year I stopped homeschooling and put the kids in school as I could no longer teach the children. I was lost as lost could be. My whole world-- my health, my role as wife and mom and teacher just crumbled before me. My husband was worried. My kids were scared. I was a hollowed out shell of who I used to be.
But then there came the diagnosis! I was thrilled beyond measure to receive a diagnosis! I can fight a war when I know who the enemy is! I was amazed to learn that Lyme disease was in the middle of medical controversy as I was being diagnosed. I looked at both sides of the argument--actually tried both sides of the argument--and when one failed, I went with the only remaining option on the table… long term treatment. What did I have to lose?
Since that time the doctors have still raged on in their ivory towers about ideology and conflicts of interests, but as a patient who "chose the path less taken" I am now 3 years into treatment, getting my life back, and now standing on the edge of a dream! I have seen my darkest days and they are behind me. That does not mean I don't still have a bad day, or a herx every now and then, but as I continue treatment it is only getting better and better.
I am weeks away from starting graduate school. If you had asked me 3 years ago if this day would ever been possible I would have told you a resounding NO--not in a million years! Yet here I am standing on the edge of a dream…with my student ID in my hand!
I am pursuing my Masters degree in counseling. If there is one thing Texas needs, it is a Lyme literate therapist! We have patient support groups in Dallas/Fort Worth, Austin, San Antonio, Houston, Victoria, Denton and people writing me at the PHA almost daily looking for support groups in areas of Texas where there are no established support groups at all. Still our doctors in Texas say we do not have Lyme disease in Texas while our Department of Health and Governor say we do! Go figure!
Dreams come in all shapes and sizes. I have mine in my sights. I will battle my Lyme battles as they arise. I am just thankful for my doctor who was willing to think outside the box and treat my symptoms as long as we needed-because Lyme, for me, is only a battle now--it is no longer a WAR. I am touching my dream. It is in my grasp! I am living my life again.
I still have my Lyme battles. Even now I am battling the pseudotumor cerebri issue that is common with Lyme disease. My spinal and brain fluid has increased to the point it has put too much pressure on my intra cranial space and is causing a significant hearing loss in my right ear. We are waiting to see if the diuretics will work at taking the fluid off before going in for a spinal tap to drain the excess fluid… these are battles I will continue to battle until I see a complete remission or complete healing. But these battles are nothing more than irritants. I deal with them. They don't steal my life like the disease did before when it was left undiagnosed and untreated or undertreated.
I am standing on the edge of my dream! I can handle the battles! In the bigger picture, the war has been won because of a doctor who was willing to treat the patient-- not a set of guidelines (that were later proven to be riddled with financial conflicts of interests I might add!) Dr. Forester, my beloved physician, who calls on
The Great Physician for guidance, I'd be lost without you! You're my hero!
I thank God, most of all, who was ever-so-faithful to direct my path to Louisiana to find the exact medical care I needed to save my life!
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