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NEW JERSEY
Maureen Albertson
- My story is on my website at
www.scottsbt.com/maureen/momisc/lyme/lyme.htm
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Bill Bamert -
Started treatments 10 years ago. Had started to try to find out why
I was in pain 20 years ago. Been on antibiotics on and off but on
for the last 5 years now. Tried a number of alternative treatments.
Some have helped but none have been a cure. Just trying to survive
until they find a cure or I find one.
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Ralph Russo - I have been
suffering from Lyme for the past 3 years with no end in sight. I go
to a LLD (Lyme Literate Doctor) and she has helped me a lot. But it
(Lyme), doesn't seem like it will ever go away completely.
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Glenroy Barrett Wolfsen - I have
had Lyme disease for about six years. I say about six years, because
I don’t know when I got bit or where. I was taking care of my wife
who was suffering from MS, so I didn’t go very far from home or for
too long a time. If I had to guess, I would say it might have been
while watching my dogs in a little fenced in area or mowing the
lawn, especially behind the pool where there was underbrush and some
low hanging tree branches in our yard on Taylor Street in High
Bridge. I know the deer were in all our back yards or that street
that year, and they are there this year, too. Like many others, I
never had the classic “bulls-eye rash” that allows doctors to
identify a tick bite as transmitting the Lyme organism. But I was
lucky. One day, when going to my pharmacy to get supplies for my
wife, I told my pharmacist, Frank Clark, at Grayrock Pharmacy, how I
had been feeling. Frank immediately raised his eyebrows at me and
without a moment’s hesitation, suggested that I had Lyme and should
get to his doctor in as soon as possible for testing. This year Lyme
disease is proliferating at a rapid rate. The entire Northeast is
affected by this disease, and it is now showing up in states that
have rarely seen it before. In fact, there is an unexpected and
surprising 30% rise in tick-borne pathogens in Rhode Island this
year that indicates some undiscovered factors in the environment
that make prediction difficult. The CDC indicates that there were
just 17,730 reported cases of Lyme in 2000. But many cases of Lyme
are not reported, and the guidelines for reporting are limited in
its definition of the disease. Doctors on the front line of fighting
the disease say that now it is more likely that yearly cases are as
high as 200,000, with as many as 20 million people in this country
currently infected. New Jersey is one of the states with the highest
rates of infection, with Hunterdon County on the top of the list.
How can you protect yourself from Lyme? Use a DEET insect repellant
such as Shoo-Bug on your clothes. Tuck pants in socks and wear long
sleeves. Stay away from brush, dead leaves and heavy undergrowth.
Treat your dogs with Frontline. Check yourself for ticks after hikes
or camping but keep in mind that ticks carrying Lyme can be as small
as the point of a pencil and very hard to find. If you do find a
tick, remove it with tweezers by grasping the jaw area and pulling
it straight out. Place the tick or ticks in either a glass jar or
resealable sandwich bag, date it, and put it in the freezer. Don’t
irritate the attached tick by using alcohol, insecticides, or
petroleum jelly, or burning it with a match. The tick can be checked
later for infection.
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