Under Our Skin Page #5

have to do six to eight months"

"of antibiotic therapy.

"We'll have to put a catheter in,

"you know, to your superior vena cava,

and then you're

gonna probably get worse."

So I said,

"Well, by worse, do you mean,

like, emergency room worse?"

And he said, "Yeah."

Let's just do one at a time.

Let's do this one,

and this is as needed, right?

Lorazepam, and then here,

your supplements, that's fine.

These are all fine.

What I sense is that we're

at the beginning of something

that's gonna be huge,

just like I had that feeling

20-some years ago with HIV.

I've been seeing people

from all over the country.

They're sick.

They've got a complex illness.

They're being ignored.

It's gonna be

an explosive area of medicine,

and we're gonna learn

a lot about chronic illness,

and I think that's gonna help health care

in general tremendously.

I have seen probably 30, maybe

more, doctors.

- 30 doctors.

- About 15 doctors.

I've spent over $100,000 out of pocket.

- $150,000.

- $75,000 to $100,000.

I was misdiagnosed for 3 years.

- 5 years.

- 14 years.

15 years.

It's hundreds of thousands of dollars.

I'm guessing that my case,

which could have been

controlled with, probably,

a single bottle of doxycycline

at the time I was bitten,

probably would have cost

something like $25 or $50 total

plus the doctor visit.

As it is, I'm guessing

that my case has now amounted

to $75,000 to $100,000.

My concern is that

the majority of the patients

that I see here in this office,

this very office,

who come to me

because they've been treated

for chronic Lyme disease,

is that they don't have any evidence

of ever having had

Lyme disease once, ever,

not now, not a year ago,

not five years ago.

They didn't have the rash.

They never had a positive blood test.

They never had anything.

You see, class,

my Lyme disease turned out to be...

psychosomatic.

No, that means she was faking it.

No, actually, it was a little of both.

I was originally told

at the very beginning

that I had a very deep

psychological problem.

They were telling me it wasn't real.

They said I needed to see a psychiatrist.

"You need

to see a psychiatrist."

He told me, "No, it's not Lyme."

You don't have the rash.

You are depressed."

"You're faking it.

You need to get mental help."

"You're a teenager.

Get up and walk."

"She doesn't want to go to school.

You know, she's just depressed."

You think you're crazy, but I'm not.

I know I'm not crazy.

This thing screws you up big time.

Tallyho.

Let the drag begin.

Well, where we are now

is a town in Cape Cod,

and Cape Cod is considered to be

endemic for Lyme disease.

I'm good.

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