Why Can't I Get Better? Solving the Mystery of Lyme and Chronic Disease

Hope is a central human emotion, misunderstood and often mistaken for optimism, as Jerome Groopman reminds us in The Anatomy of Hope.

Checking an FSH, LH, estradiol, progesterone, testosterone, and free-testosterone levels, as well as sex-hormone binding globulin (SHBG) would help rule out this possibility. Is she hyperthyroid?

True hope is seeing a viable route out of the darkness while acknowledging the obstacles that might impede your journey.

ELISA (enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay, and a Western blot, through a reliable laboratory), with confirmatory evidence of other tick-borne diseases as well.

Depending on your score, you may want to follow up with blood tests for Lyme disease IFA (immunofluorescent

Babesia microti, a malaria-like illness that could explain the fevers, chills, and day and night sweats and that account for some of their resistant symptoms. Once treated, some patients using wheelchairs could stand and walk. Next was the discovery of cat scratch disease symptoms, or Bartonella, which could explain their resistant neurological sym