Don't Tick Me Off!
Greets, I am a real person living in Marion County, southern Illinois. My name is Dottie.
Please read my story and you will learn how i came to educate
about Lyme and other related nastiness.
Listen my children and you shall hear
Of the midnight ride of Paul Revere,
On the eighteenth of April, in Seventy-five;
Hardly a man is now alive
Who remembers that famous day and year. ~Longfellow
-Just like Paul, i ride
~ * ~
I go by Freethinker (on the net) i.e. noun: -'thi[ng]-k&r : one who forms opinions on the basis of reason independently of authority. Please don't confuse me with "New Age" Freethinkers, I am a traditional one, and I am a Christian and believe Jesus is my light. I hold an Associate in Applied Science and several Certificates in Networking and Data Processing. We build computers on the side and my candy dishes are filled with pieces parts……alas no candy o_~
I just wanted you to know, I do not baaaaah like a sheep and I am not uneducated.
My story begins with myself and my sons attending a simple birthday party for my sons' friend, who lived in northern Marion County, Illinois.
The party was held under a huge tree. Several days after the party, i was coming out of the bathroom with a towel on my head and around my body. Usually i do not do that, but i was late for class. My son gasped "what the heck is that on your back mom?" My life has not been the same since.
The tick had lodged below my left shoulder blade and was about a quarter sized. Mortified, i looked in the mirror in disbelief.
My son was freaking out and said he could get it off. He took a cigarette and laid it on the intruder for a minute, which seemed like an eternity. Accidentally he burned me, and i started to cry and he got frustrated and went into his room.
Still clinging there, gross and big as all get out, i sat weeping. Then all of a sudden i felt something hit my foot. Looking down, omG there it was, the culprit just smiling at me. It was so big you couldn't see its legs anymore. I estimate it was there around 1 week & ½ since the party. Since then, I have looked at pics and discovered it was a deer tick. GROSS GROSS GROSS!
Wanting to torture and mutilate it, i simply picked it up in a tissue and a burial at sea was its destiny. I never thought once to have it tested. I have always heard of Lyme disease, but just dismissed the idea in a split second. I worked 40 hours a week as purchasing agent, attending college full-time and widowed raising 3 teenage sons; i was so busy i never dreamed i would get so sick. I actually showered and dried the little &$*# !
My bouts with "Anxiety" came about 2 weeks later after the initial bite. Being a widow and not having a partner to check my back, i never knew if i had the bullet rash or not. When the EMT came to rescue me, with the first attack, he said, "don't worry, you're not going to die, you just are having an anxiety attack." He asked me if i did anything different lately. I told him i had been bitten by a tick. They never tested me for the antibodies, not one time.
Over the next 3 years there were endless trips to the same hospital. I saw 35+ different doctors and specialists. All testing came back I was A-ok and the tests were negative for everything. The last straw was: i had a bad anxiety attack, off to the hospital i went. Low and behold, there sat the same EMT that took me in the initial ambulance ride, 4 years earlier, at the nurse's desk! He asked me why was i there. I told him my symptoms, he glanced at the board and said, go in bed 4 so nonchalant, and condescending. I am sure he remembered me.
I heard the nurse say, why are you sitting there to him, and who came in. He said he put someone in bed 4. There were 3 other beds with other people in them. I sat there for about an hour. I saw the nurses helping the other people in the beds. NOT ONE PERSON CAME to me and even asked how i was, let alone take a vital. I was moaning and crying. I thought i was dying. I actually heard myself asking for "someone to help me."
Fed up, i called my son and told him to come and get me NOW. When i left that hospital, NOT ONE PERSON SAID anything to me, like hey lady where are you going....nothing, nada. They just let me walk straight out of there.
I drove myself down to the next town's hospital. I had blurry vision, motion sick, lights hurt my head, sick stomach, shaking, tingling in my hands and feet, one of my pupils were bigger then the other, and other numerous symptoms. I was just so sick. I was crying to die.
They were all so nice to me; the sweet little aid even asked me if i needed a glass of water. What a difference this hospital was. They straight away got me a wheelchair and whisked me off to a private room. The doctor came in, and i noticed he walked with a limp and was paralyzed with one hand. I believe he also had a glass eye.
He was soft spoken and asked me my symptoms and ordered a simple blood test. I dozed on and off over the next several hours, and when the results came back, he said i have the Lyme disease antibodies in my blood. He said to be sure i will order a Lyme Panel and then prescribed Doxycycline for 42 days. 100 mg tabs. Later i had realized of course I had the ELISA test.
During the first 3 to 4 days after taking the Doxy, i was back to my old self! WOW, i did have Lyme and now i am so much better! Miraculously i was healed, like someone anointed me on the head and i was cured.
I waited 7 days for the lab results. Since he wasn't my primary care doctor, i had trouble getting the results from him. I never get sick so i didn't have a primary doctor. Finally, i got one of his nurses in his office to tell me the test came back negative.
There i sat in disbelief. I had all the symptoms, except the bells' palsy. I discontinued the Doxycycline after all; the test came back negative for Lyme. My little voice told me to seek more help, so the very next day after i stopped the doxy, i went to a rural health care facility and saw another doctor.
She told me, the same thing has happened to her husband, and why did i stop the Doxycycline? She told me the testing is bunk, and her and her husband had to pay out of pocket to have another test done for him and send it out to a different lab in California.
I went back on the Doxycycline that day. Wow, someone who knows that I am not
nuts! July 11, 2007 was my last day of doxy. Here i was thinking i am fine now
and all is well in my little world.
That was far from the truth.
On August 7th, 2007 i was at work when i had a major “Anxiety” attack (i do not call them this anymore) and back to the hospital where they found the antibodies i went. I told them about my recent bout with Lyme and they merely dismissed it and told me i had "heat exhaustion"! I have had 5 or so attacks since.
I can feel this movement, a twitching if you will, in my head and then the “anxiety/panic” hits me, and hits me hard. There is a movement for at least 6-10 seconds in my brain, then a crawling sensation, terrible headaches, tingling hands and feet, lights bother me, and o so much more, why go on, you all know.
I had an appointment with a Neurologist August 8th for a sleeping disorder i have, so i decided to tell him about the Lyme antibodies in my blood and he prescribed a 21 day supply of Doxy for me. 100 mg tabs. I am into day 12 with them and I still am having all the symptoms.
So back to the rural primary doctor i went. This time i saw the gentleman that practices with the doctor i initially saw. He said to me; let's fix you from having the anxiety attacks in the first place. Here is some "free" Lexapro. Take 10 milligrams per day, and i will see you in 3 weeks. I told him i was going to see a Neurologist the next day.
As i was leaving his office, i thought to myself....they are just going to mask my attacks and that's not right. It just didn't settle right with me. Besides, i don't like man made stuff.
Upon seeing the Neurologist, the first words he said to me was, "did your primary give you a HAPPY PILL?" i was just stunned, i sat there like a deer in the headlights. I meekly stuttered, a yes. Then he said, "for the scratching in your head, i want you to take 20 milligrams the first week and then up it to 30 milligrams the 2nd week, and since Medicaid (Illinois state aid) only covers 20 milligrams, I will see to it you get it from me through my office." He would SEE TO IT i would get the other 10 milligrams in samples from him! I also told him my primary ordered another Lyme panel. He asked me, "Why did you have another Lyme test, In 3rd World countries we don't have any testing, we rely on what the patient tells us." He did however, put me back on a 21 day supply of doxy, but apparently he was NOT really listening to me.
And wouldn't you know it, as I was checking out of his office the receptionist told me that the primary man doctor and the Neurologist are good 'ol buddies and they used to work together for years. So go figure. I felt so mistreated by people i thought i could trust.
I cried all the way back to my office and then some. I am sorry but i would not give that Lexapro to my dog, let alone take it myself! Lexapro is a psychotropic mind altering drug and may cause brain damage. It would just mask my problems, they think i am a sheep, and that is far, FAR from the truth. Documented truths I do know: I carry the antibodies for Lyme disease; do they really think our bodies can fight off such a terrible disease all by itself?
The next day, i wasn't crying anymore.....I WAS MAD! So very MAD!
I got on the internet and found a vast supply of information and started making phone calls and emails with others like me. That is how i came to you today. i have been MAD ever since.
I found out by calling The State of Illinois Health Department, that there were only 110 documented cases of Lyme in Illinois in 2006. And only 1 case in my county! The Health Department here in Illinois, says there aren’t even any deer ticks in Southern Illinois! I know what it looked like, it had black legs and it was tan in color, no spots. If I have to go out to the place where I contacted the tick and collect 6 of them, box them up and send them to the health department, then guess what? That is what I will do. The Lyme disease bacteria (Borrelia Burgdorferi) is found in ALL ticks, not just deer ticks. The bacteria is now found in mosquitoes and house flies and other biting varmints.
Mulling around all the information i learned, i asked the proverbial question, "Why me Lord?" And his response was, "Dottie, how can you help others, if you don't know how truly devastating this disease is?" I made a promise to him and myself; I will not/can not let this happen to anyone else. That is why i do what i can. Now in retrospect, that really is the way it is....IF YOUR NOT INFECTED----YOU DONT HAVE A CLUE to how sick you really are.
I can not wait to go back to the Neurologist and rural doctors and ask them, "Just how many Lyme patients are you treating now?" I really hope they try to lie to me. One hematologist told me, "the reason they removed those bands from the Western Blot is: they are not specific enough and are not needed." That is so far from the truth. He needs to be educated on this topic. I have a vast amount of information to bestow upon them.
I thought to myself…..I am sure others are being swept under the rug as they are trying to do to me….little did I know, it was affecting MILLIONS of people around the world.
This is such a travesty to mankind. I thought doctors took an oath to help me get better, NOT MAKE ME HAPPY I’M SICK. It would be so different if it was one of their loved ones or they were being treated in this manner.
Since the light bulb, finally turned on above my head i can honestly say i have become so passionate about being an activist. I set up information booths at various outings around the area. I also go door to door with a flyer i made of my story and other important information. Not one person has ever been mean to me or shut the door in my face. Actually, i have spent several hours at some houses, others just smiled and took the information. I do enjoy going the door-to-door because it brings me closer to the heart of the problem, as i don't want anyone to ever get as sick as me. Now, one of my my goals is to educate the doctors in southern Illinois. I have to tell all the people i can, I made a promise.
Thank you so much for reading my lengthy story. May God bless you and yours.
Ticked off in Southern Illinois,
Dottie L. Heffron
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Please sign our petition below:
http://www.lymecryme.com The whole world goes by the CDC recommendations. Some of those same CDC officers own patents and vested interests of the diagnostic recommendations. Patents are for PROFITS!
My colleagues and i estimate this pandemic has infected millions. Of those millions who can actually test (PRE 1994's changes in the diagnostic standard) CDC positive are being misdiagnosed because they took out Bands 31 and 34 in the current standard. Read lab owner Dr. Nick Harris' explanation of the removal of the bands, he was at the 1994 Dearborn Conference, he knows what they did. They are committing scientific FRAUD against the world.
Please help us end this tragedy. Please read about The 1994 Dearborn Conference..... You will be very upset, when you see for yourself what they have done and continue to let happen.
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In Jesus name, i pray.