Dear Greta,

You may not know this, but it is very common for whole or partial families to come down with Lyme disease for 2 reasons- 1. shared geography which includes infected tick territory and 2. tissue types

There are certain tissue types associated with Lyme disease, one is HLADR4.
NOrmal people can get bitten and be fine, but if you are HLA DR4 you ARE going to get very sick. Tissue types are genetic- they RUN IN FAMILIES- thus families often have multiple members with the disease. Another haplotype is the tissue type associated with NARCOLEPSY. If you have ever been told you have the narcolepsy gene or tissue type there is a tie-in with chronic Lyme disease.

This is why oyu get people saying, 'Oh, I've been bitten by dozens of ticks and I'm fine." If you are not a susceptible tissue type, many peoples bodies can successfully fight off Lyme with their immune systems. But if you are a susceptible tissue type, you are GOING to get very sick.

You may be unaware that there is no Differential Diagnosis between Lyme & MS. There is literally not a whit of difference betwixt them. If you so a search at Pubmed you can find MRI advisories which say the same thing. Lyme causes brain lesions. LYme is often blood and spinal tap negative in neuro patients. There is documentation supporting every assertion I am making here. Unfortunately, MOST neurologists do now know SQUAT about TBDs and genuinely go by blood tests and spinal taps.

You, your Mom & your brother having Lyme makes it MORE likely than the average MS patient that you actually have Lyme disease. I would find an LLMD and get evaluated. Lyme can be put into full remission.

I am the support group leader for Santa CRuz County, CA, which has the highest Lyme infection rate in all of California. My older daughter also got
Lyme- and she is in full remission. I had MS, Parkie & ALS symptoms, a real neuro mutt, and am 100% symptom free today.

HERE is the true story of a man who got Lyme and then realized that his MOM's Multiple Sclerosis was actually Lyme disease:

http://www.geocities.com/HotSprings/...ersonal19.html

Quote:"One evening, I came home to find my parents both taken by emotion. After asking what was wrong, she told me that the antibiotics were helping her. Throughout the fifteen-year battle to fight her disease, not once did anything help her. After many months on antibiotics, she has begun to move her toes and fingers, something she had lost the ability to do many years ago."

HERE is the true story of a guy who went deer hunting with his cousin, both got tick bites, and they both got diagnosed Multiple Sclerosis within a short time frame of each other, quote,

"Two first cousins diagnosed with MS within two weeks"

& his Uncle began showing signs as well-:
http://www.geocities.com/HotSprings/...personal9.html


Here is Megan Blewetts (of Harvard) Geostatistical Analysis of
Multiple Sclerosis Mortality & Lyme Mortality, just scroll down, this is a visual, and LOOK at the maps, just LOOK:

http://www.canlyme.com/megan_geostat...analysis2.html

In our support group we have had two-fold experience with MS. We have Lyme patients who come in and THEN develop MS after tick bite and we have MS patients, often with no known tick bite history, who come in to be treated for Lyme. We have had multiple people have brain lesions, plaques, go AWAY with longterm IV Rocephin. I myself was on IV Rocephin for 9 months with no gains until the 7th month. Now I am like normal. I was no longer able to walk because I lost my blance, had progressive weakness leading with my left side, and progressive numbness going upward to my calves, and slurred, and had claw hand and chorea with athetosis. In our support group we have had 3 people lose wheelchairs and one person lose a
cane. That is the NICE thing about Lyme- you can get SO much better.

Again, you are MORE LIKELY to have Lyme related MS than the average person in this forum because of multiple family members afflicted!!! So this
diagnosis of your brother could be a blessing in disguise.

Lyme is in almost every single state- and it is epidemic in California- New Jersey- CT- RI- NY, etc. The main test strain is FROM the Shelter Island, New York strain of this tiny microbe, so if you have another strain that is variant enough- like the borrelia bissetti strain which is in CHICAGO and CALIFORNIA, you will test negative, or from WISCONSIN where they have the Kettle Forest strain- which will test negative to standard Lyme tests.

ALSO, there is a sex bias in the Western Blot antibody test. The Dearborn criteria for CDC surveillance have a sex bias- the average man has 6 bands of reactivity, the average woman has 4- adn the CDC set the standard at- 5!!!
So the average woman is more likely to test negative by reporting standards than the average man.

39 kda is Lyme specific so if you have THAT band you have been exposed to Lyme disease, period. You don't need 5 bands if you have 39 kda. So anyone who has ever had a WB, ask for the bands, not just for CDC positive or not- the CDC positive is for reporting standards, not for diagnosis.
ANYWAY,
My phone number is 1-831-662-2895 if you ever want to call and talk. And that goes for anyone- just make sure it is daylight West Coast hours before
7 pm because that's when I start Bedtime Rituals with the kids-
Best wishes,
Sarah