Lyme disease-- Problem in the Okanagan?

[matai]

I had two ticks on me last month, and my son had one. This is scary stuff; I will never go hiking on that trail again in the Spring.

Two? That's it? Keep the trail, it's a good one! Here you get that per square meter of trail you walk in the spring!

Especially OK Park in Kelowna. THEY are EVERYWHERE and don't let go easily. But mosquitos are worse. Tens of thousands of billions of them. It made me laugh to see the small tupperware used as the cover on Castanet this morning to eradicate mosquitos in town. lol. If only they knew.

[Xia33]

There is a very good natural doc in vernon that has been studying and working with Lyme disease.

[Bpeep]

Two? That's it? Keep the trail, it's a good one! Here you get that per square meter of trail you walk in the spring!

Especially OK Park in Kelowna. THEY are EVERYWHERE and don't let go easily. But mosquitos are worse. Tens of thousands of billions of them. It made me laugh to see the small tupperware used as the cover on Castanet this morning to eradicate mosquitos in town. lol. If only they knew.

If you read the article and watched the video you would know what you're talking about.

[Silverstarqueen]

There is a very good natural doc in vernon that has been studying and working with Lyme disease.

I wonder what natural test, and natural treatment works for Lyme? I am also wondering the chances that four children would get ticks in their young lives (obviously high), and what are the chances that the parents would have missed tick bites on all four kids in the same family (should be very low)? Our family has been in the bush fairly frequently, and we always check everyone, clothes , dogs after ward. so far no actual bites (except one on a horse and one on a cat, a tick, not symptoms), and no symptoms of lyme. Ticks are not hard to find on a human (much harder on a dog), and they don't bite immediately, so plenty of time to locate and remove. I wonder if there are other insects carrying lyme besides ticks. If it was mosquito born, then that would explain the epidemic here in the okanagan.

[Xia33]

It doesn't necessarily have to be a "natural" test. I have an issue that the test, although founded in BC, is not available here and had to be sent to a lab in the US....and it is something that, being very common, should be able to be tested here. Go figure.

[matai]

Got bite a couple times by ticks too. Pretty gross, I've always removed them using my fingers by grabbing them as close as possible to my skin and pulling once, straight, but firmly. If they're still moving, it means the head is still attached, so it's all good. If that sheit ain't moving no more, you may have broken its head, and it might still be stuck inside your body, and you might need surgery to get it out. Try if possible not to squish it or add any type of oil or liquid on it, as it may vomit inside your body, which creates better chances of getting sicknesses from them.

One of the first symptoms of Lyme disease is a ring forming on the skin around the bite, so be aware, going to the hospital the sooner, the better:

But again, the best protection is to wear long pants when you hike, stay on trails, check yourself regularly for them, as they will crawl up your beautiful legs before biting for a delicious good meal mostly in warm places, and first thing when you go back to your car, dust yourself off and shower when you arrive home, change clothes - all clothes and keep them away overnight, some more you didn't see might be crawling out of them.

[whirlwind]

So if our medical system is not acknowledging this disease or doesn't have the resources to deal with it , what about the families who are faced with having to seek medical help outside of Canada. As the Hrychiw family of the quadruplets in Kamloops have stated, they are loosing their home because of medical bills.I thought this was just an American problem.
I know friends who out of 5 family members, have three diagnosed with Lyme and they too are facing unbelievable medical bills and drug costs. Where does one go for help. They, like the Hrychiw family, had to basically figure out what their medical problem was and seek blood tests outside of Canada. Do we start lobbying our government to acknowledge that there is a very big problem in this area with Lyme Disease? Is it political? If the word got out would it keep tourists away? What is going on? This should not be happening in Canada with our so called great medical system.
I have seen what a tiny tick can do to a body and it is very scarey!

[Silverstarqueen]

For one thing, if you have a bull's eye rash and have been in tick areas, see your doctor, because antibiotics given early work better than later. By telling people doctors won't treat, could delay people from getting the best (early) treatment. If you had such a rash, take a pic (in case it clears ) and the doctor wouldn't prescribe antibiotic, find another doctor. Given that they have prescribed antibiotics for possibe ear infections commonly in the past, it seems unlikely that they would ignore this symptom or cheap obvious treatment. If you didn't get a rash, but have been bitten, keep the tick for testing, and you might still convince the doctor to prescribe if you have your printed out research to give them, or find another doctor. Of course prevention is always the best treatment.

[Glacier]

matai, mosquitoes are not a problem. As a matter of fact, the satisfaction associated with squishing them is greater than the pain of the bite, so the more mosquitoes I have on me, the better I feel. Bug dope is for sissies.

[AwakeFromDreamland]

If I knew someone with Lyme's disease I would show them this information (knowledge courtesy of Rick Simpson)
http://www.naturalnews.com/043834_cannabis_lyme_disease_medical_marijuana.html

There are two levels of handling Lyme with cannabis: managing symptoms well by smoking marijuana, or completely reversing the disease with cannabis oil. Not many are aware of cannabis oil pioneered by Rick Simpson a few years ago. Rick has said that most of the healing qualities of cannabis are lost in the smoke.

Alexis, diagnosed with late-stage Lyme disease, is an example of someone handling symptoms without pharmaceuticals by smoking marijuana. She was on antibiotics long enough for her gastrointestinal tract to be damaged and to be hospitalized with hemorrhagic colitis.

She was taken off antibiotics and put on several strong pain prescriptions that were barely effective while putting her into lower emotional states. Then she tried smoking marijuana.

That routine handled most of her nausea, enabled her to eat well enough to avoid wasting away, helped her sleep better and eased her pain while elevating her mood. She maintains that marijuana has been the best thing for her Lyme disease.Shelly White's Lyme disease was so debilitating that she had endured at least 10 seizures daily for a year and a half. She began smoking marijuana from a pipe and then switched to inhaling it through a vaporizer. Just from that, her seizures had stopped. Then she decided to go to the next level of using cannabis oil.

After a month of the oil, she was able to return to work and school. At the time of writing her story, she was happy to announce that she could now move out and live on her own and enjoy a normal social life. [2]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=307cbbKw0xM - Shelly White's story.
Research cannabis oil, Rick Simpson ,Phoenix tears . Rick Simpson's website is - http://phoenixtears.ca/

[AMANDAERDELY]

Was just diagnosed with Lyme today. Had blood test and results today came back positive. I live in west kelowna

[Silverstarqueen]

Was just diagnosed with Lyme today. Had blood test and results today came back positive. I live in west kelowna

This is unfortunate, did you catch it early, did you have a bite and or a bull's eye rash? or how was it diagnosed? How expensive is the treatment, and how complicated? I am wishing you a full recovery.

Here is info from the B.C. Center for disease control, about why some labs in the U.S. return a false positive (not saying yours is) on almost every test sent in. People should save the tick that bit them, and certainly notify their doc if they have a bull's eye rash, so they can begin treatment early perhaps pending blood test results.
I can see how marijuana might help with the symptoms of long standing or untreated lyme, but I would think people would use the standard treatments of antibiotics first and not risk leaving the disease untreated in the initial curable stages. If some people are getting nearly 100% positive results from some U.s. labs, I would want to get info from the lab as to the percentage of negative results they get overall, since obviously there can't be near 100% true positive.
http://www.bccdc.ca/resourcematerials/n ... easeBC.htm

[zzontar]

Was just diagnosed with Lyme today. Had blood test and results today came back positive. I live in west kelowna

That's horrible, do you know where you picked up the tick?

[Silverstarqueen]

I'm not sure why medical treatment would be so expensive as to bankrupt a family. Even if they sent blood tests to a U.S. FDA approved lab, the treatment, an extended prescription for antibiotic, is not that involved (compared to many other much more costly conditions).

(quote)"For prevention of Lyme disease after a recognized tick bite, routine use of antimicrobial prophylaxis or serologic testing is not recommended (E-III). A single dose of doxycycline may be offered to adult patients (200 mg dose) and to children ⩾8 years of age (4 mg/kg up to a maximum dose of 200 mg) (B-I) when all of the following circumstances exist: (a) the attached tick can be reliably identified as an adult or nymphal I. scapularis tick that is estimated to have been attached for ⩾36 h on the basis of the degree of engorgement of the tick with blood or of certainty about the time of exposure to the tick; (b) prophylaxis can be started within 72 h of the time that the tick was removed; (c) ecologic information indicates that the local rate of infection of these ticks with B. burgdorferi is ⩾20%; and (d) doxycycline treatment is not contraindicated. The time limit of 72 h is suggested because of the absence of data on the efficacy of chemoprophylaxis for tick bites following tick removal after longer time intervals. Infection of ⩾20% of ticks with B. burgdorferi generally occurs in parts of New England, in parts of the mid-Atlantic States, and in parts of Minnesota and Wisconsin, but not in most other locations in the United States. Whether use of antibiotic prophylaxis after a tick bite will reduce the incidence of HGA or babesiosis is unknown.

Doxycycline is relatively contraindicated in pregnant women and children <8 years old. The panel does not believe that amoxicillin should be substituted for doxycycline in persons for whom doxycycline prophylaxis is contraindicated because of the absence of data on an effective short-course regimen for prophylaxis, the likely need for a multiday regimen (and its associated adverse effects), the excellent efficacy of antibiotic treatment of Lyme disease if infection were to develop, and the extremely low risk that a person with a recognized bite will develop a serious complication of Lyme disease (D-III).

Prophylaxis after I. pacificus bites is generally not necessary, because rates of infection with B. burgdorferi in these ticks are low in almost the entire region in which the tick is endemic. However, if a higher infection rate were documented in specific local areas (⩾20%), prophylaxis with single-dose doxycycline would be justified if the other criteria mentioned above are met.

[Lady tehMa]

I'm not sure why medical treatment would be so expensive as to bankrupt a family. Even if they sent blood tests to a U.S. FDA approved lab, the treatment, an extended prescription for antibiotic, is not that involved (compared to many other much more costly conditions).

I know of 3 people in Kelowna with Lyme. What I understand is that the effective treatment of Lyme generally comes from Naturopaths rather than regular doctors, and while a visit may be covered the medications are not.

One friend was taking a concoction that had to be assembled after it came over the border, because the finished product was not allowed to be imported for human use. Yes it was effective, but expensive and not covered. Another friend told me that 2 years into her treatment they're $20,000 in debt. Yes, she has results. But again, her treatments aren't covered.

Canada is lagging behind in the treatment of Lyme.