I’ve lost several friends in recent years to cancer – and I’ve seen friends battle and fight and suffer that cruel disease. I have nothing but respect for anyone who has been in that trench. I do not discount the terror that comes with a cancer diagnosis. It is horrible, it is painful, it is a level of suffering that is impossible for loved ones to watch.

The HIV/AIDS epidemic brought on battles in the political and medical fields where patients had to fight for solutions, for treatment protocols that made sense and actually provided some relief. There should never be a sickness where politics and finance are more important than the patient, but it was so for AIDS and it is now for Lyme.

My heart breaks that Lyme disease does not get the same compassion and understanding that cancer and AIDS get. No, it’s not the same. But the suffering can be just as horrific and just as hard to battle. And while Lyme disease doesn’t kill at the rate of cancer and aids, it does kill, and it makes many people just as sick.

I am angry that we are fighting the same battles HIV and AIDS patients have had to fight. Why did we not learn our lesson? Doctors wanted nothing to do with AIDS in the 80s and here were again begging for help from a medical community that is generally blind and deaf to our suffering.

The most sickening part of it all is that unlike cancer and aids, if Lyme is caught early, more often than not it can be easily and effectively treated.

I do not understand why so many in the medical field are fighting so hard against this sickness? There are political battles happening right now over diagnostic and treatment guidelines. Battles that delay much needed help for the long term suffering of so many.

I am sick of seeing potential treatment protocols and new cures for Lyme. Trust me, if it’s out there, my stellar doctor team (in SF and Kansas), long time experts in the field who have spent their careers studying and researching, will know about it before Facebook does. I honestly believe that while these articles of potential cures may raise awareness because it uses the term, these reports discredit the seriousness and extreme symptoms of this disease because they lead people to believe there is a quick and simple cure.

Get your information from reliable sources who truly know what they are talking about. Make sure they have some affiliation with ILADS and/or lymedisease.org. Chances are if they don’t, they aren’t as legit as they’d have you believe.

There are lots of things that work for some people and some things that work for lots of people. But there are lots of people who are still extremely sick and in intense pain after trying lots of different treatment protocols.

I am one.

PS: I often write about my disdain for the medical industry as a whole – however I want to note that I also know a small group of doctors who have compassion and love in great amounts. They listen to their patients. Quite frankly, that’s the one big difference between the two groups. To those of you who truly listen, thank you – I know your fight against the rest of the industry is one that you battle for people like me. You are a true hero…and you do not get enough credit for being one.