Under Our Skin Page #4

even though almost everyone agrees

there are problems

with the current tests.

About 50% of people

who actually have Lyme disease

are negative in their test results

with existing methods.

If you're unlucky

and you have real disease

but you test negative,

your disease is still real,

and you still require treatment.

When I got diagnosed

with Lyme, I thought, "Great."

"Fantastic.

"Finally, finally, I'm gonna

get rid of this thing.

Course of antibiotics,

I'll be good to go."

I could never have imagined

that it would be this long

with the possibility of being forever.

The more you see, the less you know

The less you find out as you go

I knew much more then than I do now

Go for Dana.

Neon heart, Day-Glo eyes

A city lit by fireflies

We're advertising in the skies

I'm very scared of...

Actually when the tour ends,

because I feel like my body

will collapse.

I'm a little...

You know, I'm definitely going

on adrenaline,

and the pain's getting worse and worse,

and I'm getting, you know,

more twitchy neurological things.

This is a brilliant distraction.

It's so weird, you know?

When you're a kid,

you think of what your life's gonna be,

and I'm 36.

I'm gonna be 37,

and by now, kids and a house

and, you know, it's not what I expected.

Lyme pushes you to the point of,

"What do you want?

What are you living for?"

It's not enough just to be alive.

I mean...

This is the height

of the season for baseball,

summer vacations, and Lyme disease.

The disease is now being

reported in almost every state,

and it's reached epidemic levels

in some parts of the Northeast.

The newest research indicates

the tiny bacteria

pose a special risk during pregnancy,

since an expectant mother

may not know she's infected.

We have examples of the infection

causing miscarriage.

We have examples of infection

causing death of the baby

at the time of birth

or shortly after birth.

I've had four miscarriages,

two of which were positive

for Lyme disease,

and we had an 18-week loss

that at 15 weeks was healthy,

genetically fine, and at 18 weeks,

the loss was proven

to come from the Lyme infection.

Elise came to me with Lyme disease,

and it just so happened

that as she was finishing up

the treatment, she got pregnant,

and we followed her with the pregnancy,

and she was doing fine initially,

and all of a sudden, she miscarried.

Two weeks later,

the OB came back and said,

"You were right.

"It was Lyme disease.

The baby was infected.

The fetus and the placenta

were infected, Elise,"

and concluded that

that's what took the life

of this baby at 18 weeks.

In utero fetal transmission

of Lyme disease to a fetus

is something that has been

of concern to patients

and physicians for many years.

We've looked carefully at that.

There have been numerous studies.

There's not been one documented

case of congenital Lyme disease.

Well, that's nonsense plain and simple,

and it's not only nonsense,

there's significant,

peer-reviewed articles

showing transmission transplacentally

and at autopsies.

It's just nonsense.

How could that not be?

It doesn't even stand up physiologically.

That makes no sense.

Trying to have another baby

has been very frightening.

When I get excited about having a baby,

I squish it.

I don't let myself get excited,

because I'm so afraid

of setting myself up

for that disappointment again.

And a day for me is like a lifetime,

and every visit to the doctor

is filled with fear.

Every time I listen to that

Doppler come down to my belly,

I wonder, "Is there going

to be a heartbeat today?"

At this point, I have had many women

who have gotten pregnant

who've lost the baby

or they give birth to a baby

that has Lyme,

and the babies don't have...

The developmental growth may be off.

Their IQ may be lower.

They may develop seizures

or some other type

of neurological problem,

and it's not picked up

because the mother

was not known to have Lyme.

You can't imagine this.

How could you?

You just can't.

Hi, my name is Jared.

Before my Lyme disease

got so bad, I was able to talk.

Now I have to use a communication device.

I wasn't a real healthy

pregnant mom with him.

Well, in retrospect,

I realize that I was sick.

I had Lyme disease,

and I did not realize

that that's what was going on.

I knew something wasn't right

from the time he was born.

I knew it.

I kept getting pooh-poohed

by the doctors.

They said, "Just let him be,

and it'll all work out,"

and it didn't work out.

At age six, we got the news

that he had brain damage,

and they didn't really know why.

They thought it was something

that happened in utero

and that the damage was done,

and then we were to just keep

moving forward,

but he didn't move forward.

He kept moving backwards.

Need you to bend, bud.

Lyme disease happened to be

everywhere around us by then.

It was as if every neighbor

was coming down with it,

and it was, like,

hitting me from every direction

as if, you know, "Wake up, dummy."

"You're not paying attention, you know?

There's Lyme disease

everywhere."

There's a gentleman that lives

right up on the hill up here,

and his previous wife passed away.

She had Lyme disease,

and now he's remarried,

and his new wife has Lyme disease.

This man here was very ill

from Lyme disease.

And the house over here to your right,

those people had it,

and the same

with the lady that lives here.

She has it.

I had put a lot of faith in the doctors.

I believed them.

I want to just shake them and say,

"How many more kids

"are you going to let go untreated

because you're not recognizing

what's happening here?"

I've never seen a child

who's had late-stage

neurologic Lyme disease.

We just don't see late

neurologic disease in children.

I used to do ballet,

and I was in The Nutcracker

a bunch of times.

That time of year

was always really crazy and...

Running around,

going to rehearsals and stuff,

but I loved it.

Her ankle was bothering her,

then her right knew blew up,

and they tapped into it,

and they found

that she had late-stage Lyme

and it was in her brain.

She just went downhill

very fast all of a sudden.

She couldn't pick up a knife,

pick up a fork,

couldn't write with a pencil,

and this all transpired

in the timeframe of overnight.

They insisted that she's making it up

and that she was gonna have

to go on psychiatric medication

if she didn't stop it.

Rock bottom, to me,

was that summer

before we went to see Dr. Jones.

She couldn't hold her head up.

She couldn't sit up.

She couldn't talk anymore,

and not knowing

if they were gonna keep her

on the medication,

'cause they kept saying to me,

"No, only 28 days,"

and I said,

"Well, I'm going to Connecticut,

and I'm gonna see this other doctor,"

and them fighting me and saying,

"Well, he's controversial,"

and something in me just

kept saying, "No, you're going."

The thing that gives me most joy

in treating

Rate this script:0.0 / 0 votes