The Lyme literate M.D.(LLMD) who diagnosed me is of the opinion that fibromyalgia and chronic fatigue syndrome are "garbage diagnoses", when the doctor can't figure out what really is wrong. He said that, at that time, over 83% of his fibromyalgia and chronic fatigue, and even MS referrals, actually turned out to have Lyme and/or coinfections.
Lymerick
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Insane or Infected?
The Allie Brinks Story
by Laura Wild

Several years ago, Allie Brinks was a dramatically different person than the one she is today. Locked up in a psychiatric ward, against her will, Allie’s world had fallen completely apart. Cut off from her family and friends, and abandoned by the healthcare system, Allie Brinks was simply known as patient number 962 at the local psychiatric hospital.

Allie was a vibrant redhead, who loved her job as a wedding photographer. A single mother to Alan, her 4 year old son, Allie was a dynamo, always multi-tasking and a real go-getter. She ran her own photography business from her home, doing all her own printmaking and spending many late nights bringing images to life in her darkroom studio. Allie’s life was pretty normal and comfortable back then. Unfortunately, thanks to a tiny tick, her life did not stay normal and comfortable much longer.

The word summer usually garners up dreamy images of fun in the sun. We often think of green grass, lying in the sand at the beach, barbeques with friends and family, and sipping lemonade under a backyard tree. Allie used to feel that way about summertime, but now, she has far different feelings and images about summer. “I really fear the warm weather now, because I know the ticks are everywhere.” Allie remarks.

Allie’s life took an alarming turn for the worse in the summer of 1999. A few days after photographing a wedding on a grassy lawn, Allie started feeling sick. She assumed she had the flu, and decided she better start sleeping more at night. The next day she awoke with a horrible sinus infection, stiff neck, fever, and what she described to me as “pain and tingling all over my body.”

Her family doctor prescribed a “Z-pack” which is 7 days of the macrolide antibiotic Zithromax®. Much to her relief, Allie’s sinus infection and fever went away in 4 days and she felt much better and went on with her busy life.

Everything seemed to be perfectly normal until the autumn leaves began to fall in October. Allie’s sinus infection returned, and with it, the aches and pains, fever and neck pain. She figured she had the flu again, one she figured she contracted from her young son or his play dates full of children’s germs. She grew tired, and irritable, moody and increasingly anxious.

SNIP