Pediatric Lyme Disease Foundation

Doctors, researchers, and insurance companies who do not acknowledge chronic Lyme Disease have now invented a bogus label for people who still have symptoms after a short course of antibiotics: "Post-Lyme Syndrome." Patients abused with this diagnosis are either told that nonliving bacterial toxins are keeping them ill, or worse, that remaining symptoms are psychiatric in nature and they should see a shrink who treats hypochondria and paranoia.
So, many patients end up attempting to treat a raging bacterial infection with talk therapy. The truth is that chronic Lyme Disease is in fact a real condition, caused by an active bacterial infection, and largely disparaged by conventional medicine. The conclusion that chronic Lyme Disease is not a valid medical condition is so preposterous, so irrational, so unscientific that one can't help but question whether the presiding research organizations are actually pursuing truth or instead, acting as puppets beholden to a political or medical agenda.
There is simply too much research to ignore. And as time goes on, instead of behaving rationally and slowly examining new research and moving toward adoption of chronic Lyme Disease as a real condition, the regulatory agencies seem to be going in the opposite direction and becoming more adamant about their erroneous conclusions.
The doctors who recognize chronic Lyme Disease, and are willing to treat it, are few and far between. LLMDs use extended courses of very powerful antibiotics, sometimes in combinations of two or three drugs simultaneously, at much higher than FDA approved dosages, to try to help people with chronic Lyme Disease. Doctors who treat chronic Lyme Disease are heroes with good intentions, coming to the rescue when no one else will.
But even if patient and LLMD are able to connect, there are still additional obstacles. One of the main obstacles related to chronic Lyme Disease is the cost to treat it. That is where the Kiwanis Pediatric Lyme Disease Foundation comes into play. The foundation pays for the treatment and/or medication of a child with chronic Lyme Disease through the issuance of grants. The grants are issued in the child's name and draw against it for payment made directly to the provider of service. This year the grants will be between $125,000 and $145,000. For the first time in the 16 years that I have been doing this I am afraid that the foundation may not be able to meet its obligations and turn away children who need the help.
So I am asking if you do not have a Brittany Fellowship please consider buying one. If you have one please consider the next level which is the Emerald Brittany. If you have both, why not consider the Joseph Michael Wuest Fellowship for your club. If you are among the group that has them all maybe you would consider a small donation to the foundation.
In any event, I will continue to do my best to raise the funds necessary to meet our promise to these children and their parents that Kiwanis will always be there for them.
If you have any questions or concerns about Pediatric Lyme Disease please feel free to give me a call. As always, remember that the main thing is to keep the main thing the main thing and in this case the main thing is to help children with chronic Lyme Disease.       

Column Posted on Web Site February 4, 2017