A Day in the Life of a Little Lymie*

A Day in the Life of a toddler with Lyme Disease would be gut wrenching to most people  


Jacqui van Teulingen from New South Wales has had a gut full of health officials … 


"We sure as hell don’t watch our kids with cancer suffer and walk away – 
                                     
                                                          AND DO NOTHING!!

Maybe a Health rep would like to hold my screaming 3 year old when she has her next blood taken -


we are up to about number 36, or perhaps try to console her sobbing for an hour afterwards.

Or maybe they'd like to be around at 3am in the morning comforting her while she is writhing on 


the floor in agony waiting an hour for the ambulance. 

Perhaps they'd just hold her hand when she is limp and hooked up to heart and breathing monitors 


in ICU on her 15th visit to hospital.

Or if that was all a little too distressing … maybe they'd just hold my hand while I sit outside a 


hospital theatre for 4 hours waiting for news they'd stopped her haemorrhaging.

Gee, if all that was even too much maybe they'd just like to be with us in the Dr's room - Igenex 


positive Lyme Results in hand - when they say, ‘no she can't have Lyme disease, we don’t have that 


here’

I'd give anything for a Politician / Health Official to walk this path with us … I'm damn 


sure it would not be acceptable if it was them and their child.”

After Sophie's first visit to Hospital with Tick borne Relapsing Fever ... Age 1

Sophie has been diagnosed through the USA Igenex Labs as Positive for Lyme Disease with Bartonella Co - infection the same as her mother.  Sophie has not left Australia 

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Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull what will you do to address Australia's growing Lyme disease crisis?

There are over 200 doctors Australia wide now treating our families with Tick borne diseases, but much more needs to be done.

Only 3 of the 200 doctors are fully Lyme Literate.  These Doctors follow the ILADS Treatment Guidelines.  

If all Australian Doctors were able to recognise the  clinical signs and symptoms of the various Tick borne diseases - when a patient first presented in practice - then early detection and early treatment would mean a cure instead of disability, loss of income and increasing dependence upon health services and welfare.

The development of improved blood tests, that identify the Australian strains of Borrelia involved in our current Lyme disease crisis would make a huge difference.

However, there are some real concerns being raised over the Lyme disease Research at the Murdoch University which is currently receiving Government Funding.

The issues raised by the Chief Investigator professor Peter Irwin was that the research parameters might be too narrow. Further discussions are needed to expand the research parameters in order to find the Australian strain of Borrelia involved.

So for now, for patients and their treating Doctors, the clinical diagnosis is the most important.

Our Doctors need to know about Lyme disease. What it looks like and what the various co-infections look like.