Up until the year 2000, I was in phenomenal health. For over 18 years I was a national class athlete - bike racing, swimming 3000 yards 4 days per week, training on my bike with 80 mile rides 5 days per week, scuba diving and having enough energy to hold a full-time, demanding job in a corporate environment. I had just turned 45 and in the last 2 years, feel like I am in my 80's. I have 5 of the infections of Lyme disease.

From 2003 to 2005, I sought medical help within mainstream care and no one could figure out why I was having trouble walking, why my muscles were wasting, why I was having breathing difficulties, sweats, heart palpitations and the loss of cognitive abilities. I found a doctor in March, 2005 who knew how to test for and treat Lyme and that was when I was diagnosed.

I actually suspected I had Lyme in 2004 but the test that the other doctors did was the ELISA. This came back negative but did not account for all the symptoms I had. I was written off by the medical community as having an anxiety disorder. Why is it that one doctor who has extensive knowledge of this tick-borne illness found all of my infections with one set of testing and the others were clueless? Had my health concerns been addressed seriously back in 2004, I might have been in full remission by now. But for me, the Lyme progressed into full 3rd stage neuro involvement.

Currently it is difficult to even take a walk around the block. It's hard to play with my daughter. I have days when I can't even get out of bed. On the days that I can, I dare not leave the house sometimes, in fear of having a cardiac episode. ER visits have become a common occurence, with abnormal EKG's. The list goes on and on...

I have been in treatment for 14 months now and might be just beginning to see some improvements. There is so much more ground to go before I can say that I have achieved some degree of normalcy. But I do know this...if it were not for the help that I did receive from my current Lyme doctor, I would surely have died months ago.

John Shea
Wisconsin