For anyone having trouble accessing the site, a few quotes:
Lyme disease? Isn’t that something you get from a tick?
For most people, that’s all they know about a complicated and devastating illness that has unhappily been my bedfellow for the last five years. Hopefully, following recent media coverage after singer Avril Lavigne discovered she had it, and the Phones 4 U founder John Caudwell and his entire family were diagnosed with it, there will be a slightly higher level of awareness and understanding –- and consequently fewer people affected to the degree I have been.
My own grim journey started six months after I graduated in 2010. After an initial bout of flu-like illness, my health gradually started to decline. I developed migraines and started having extreme fatigue attacks, initially once a week, and then daily. After about six months, I began having a five-day bout of “flu” roughly once a month. I also developed a total intolerance to alcohol and became severely photophobic.
Incredibly, it took four years of endless doctor appointments for the words “Lyme disease” even to be offered as a possibility. I saw 15 specialists in that time, from a number of fields, and none of them suggested it.
The psychological impact of this illness, if it is not properly diagnosed and treated, is colossal. To what extent that is because of the bacteria attacking the brain, or simply the result of the desperate situation people find themselves in is unclear, but over the past 1,112 days I have spent at home I have been through virtually every negative emotion possible. I’m not helped by a cruel mind that constantly imagines what I would be doing if it weren’t for this illness; how much interest and excitement there should have been in these years, rather than the daily struggle that has been my reality.
Source:
The Telegraph (UK paper)
The Telegraph does offer 15 free articles per month per device if you're using a regular computer/laptop. I think tablets might be more limited.
@ukxmrv — you should be able to access it on a PC/laptop. If you still can't, let me know and I'll PDF you a full copy. The Telegraph's paywall only kicks in after a certain number of reads each month. I'm pretty certain it is in the printed paper, too.
@duncan - the Telegraph is politically very big-C Conservative (I read the online Telegraph and the Guardian every day, on the grounds that the truth is probably somewhere between them!), but it can be quite bold in its non-political coverage. I've felt for a while it might be the first mainstream UK paper to jump ship on me/cfs and psych theories. Maybe lyme will be the first domino.
As Justy says, the coverage of John Caudwell's situation is a big factor. Like it or not, big money and profile get the papers interested. John C has been devoting a lot of resources to making people sit up and listen. I'm sure there will be a backlash, but so far it's mostly been positive.
It's definitely a positive that The Telegraph is taking an interest. Whether one likes its political stance or not, it's the UK"s 5th largest newspaper by circulation and the biggest non-tabloid by some distance.
In case anyone missed it yesterday, I posted a link to another Telegraph lyme article (Sunday Telegraph), which is factually a bit wobbly but still a step towards a wider conversation:
http://forums.phoenixrising.me/index.php?threads/sunday-telegraph-article-on-lyme.40454/
.
