It’s not uncommon for more than one person in a family to have Lyme+. One family I’m familiar with had 5 members who were sick – Dad, Mom, and all 3 children. But like it’s been with me, sometimes it’s hard to pinpoint exactly when it began.

My daughter has had numerous health challenges over the years.

For the first few years of her life, she developed rashes frequently (hives, german measles, hand foot mouth disease, etc etc.).

At 9 years old, she developed a rash all over her body, diagnosed at the time as pityriasis rosea – she was sick with flu like symptoms for about 8 weeks and then on and off for the next 8 months.

At 10, she had severe digestive issues and was sent to the pediatric arm of Stanford.

At 13, she developed a thyroid condition called Hashimotos.

Migraines, anxiety, sensitivities (light, sound, food, chemicals, etc), skin conditions, pain, tachycardia & irregular heart rythm – the symptoms continued to build, similar to the way mine did, slowly over time – coming and going over and over.

We fully believed she had Lyme disease, but we also knew the challenges that come with getting proper treatment and fought local doctors for years. While I think the world of my Lyme doctor, she (and I) didn’t feel like he was the right fit for her.

She’s seen several different naturopaths in the last couple of years – some have helped, some have wanted to go directions we weren’t comfortable with. Finally, we chose to see Dr. Rajan Patel, a doctor who specializes in chronically sick patients who are sensitive to treatment.

He had numerous labwork done for her and has issued several diagnosis’.

• Babesiosis (labwork showed this excessively high)
• Lyme disease
• Hypothyroidism
• Autoimmune thyroditis (hashimotos)
• C. Pneumonia
• Abnormality of red blood cells
• Viral infections

In addition to those, he has several others he strongly suspects and is beginning to treat, but will wait for official diagnosis until additional labwork is done:

• Bartonella – we know she has this – Dr. Patel said “it’s bartonella until it’s proven otherwise”, we are running more specific blood panels to look under the microscope for it
• Mold toxicity – this is also a given, several blood markers for mold are high, but we are narrowing them down to prove it is indeed mold and not something else
• PANDAS (Pediatric Autoimmune Neuropsychiatric Disorders Associated with Streptococcal infections) – she was previously diagnosed by another doctor with this condition and Dr. Patel agrees with the diagnosis but wants to validate with some additional bloodwork

Many of these conditions are clinically diagnosed (meaning the diagnosis is primarily through symptoms – labwork can confirm, but not rule out). Nonetheless, it’s helpful to have the labwork in order to manage things like disability and insurance – so we always push to get as much physical evidence to support the diagnosis’.

Treatment Options:

Because her body is so sensitive to everything, treatment will be slow going. He is starting her on several detox protocols (primarily for mold at this time) – at very low dosing, along with some supportive supplements.

We opt for natural treatments as much as possible. Dr. Patel supports this as well, but acknowledges that some prescription medications may be necessary at some point.

He also wants her to be seen by a cardiologist to rule out structural heart problems. She gets a very high heart rate at times – last week it was up to 198 (at rest). Scary stuff!

Note to Moms:

YOU KNOW YOUR CHILD BETTER THAN ANY DOCTOR! If you suspect something more is going on – don’t let doctors convince you otherwise. Fight. Get a 2nd, 3rd, 10th opinion! Find the doctor that will take you seriously – and that will respect your motherly instincts and decisions for treatment. Those doctors are out there – you just have to fight the system to find them.