> Do you dispute that take? (Legitimate question.)
I don't have much knowledge one way or the other. I have no reason to doubt you though (:
My main direct experience is with someone who did have normal Lyme's, and then also had chronic health issues afterwards. Maybe today that would be called "Post-treatment Lyme disease syndrome," though this was decades ago and the terminology was not so specific (as I recall, at least).
----
Agreed w/regard to the difficult position doctors are in. They don't want their resources to be abused. But then if the 1% (or whatever) genuine person who needs it comes through, they might get wrongly turned away. Sucks all around!
I'd be surprised if your friend had too much resistance if they were documented as having been treated for Lyme's disease. Not shocked, sadly; but surprised.
Also, I think it is more than just abusing the resources of the doctors. Without perfect knowledge of what you are looking at, studies have shown that more testing can lead to more procedures without necessarily increasing conditions. Look into xrays and back pains. Noting that my knowledge may be out of date, but my understanding is that xrays do not help people recover from back pain. They do lead to patients getting more surgeries, though.
Even this story, how many of the tests and treatments that this person has gone through were useful? It sucks, because I don't think we want to shame people for searching for answers. I do think tracking every pain that you feel could oddly lead you to feeling more pain, though. Look into how focusing on tinnitus makes it worse.
Which is to say, doctors probably get more success than we want to consider by telling people to hang in there and keep trying. We can call it reverting to the mean experience, and that probably is accurate enough. But it greatly complicates this situation.
I don't have much knowledge one way or the other. I have no reason to doubt you though (:
My main direct experience is with someone who did have normal Lyme's, and then also had chronic health issues afterwards. Maybe today that would be called "Post-treatment Lyme disease syndrome," though this was decades ago and the terminology was not so specific (as I recall, at least).
----
Agreed w/regard to the difficult position doctors are in. They don't want their resources to be abused. But then if the 1% (or whatever) genuine person who needs it comes through, they might get wrongly turned away. Sucks all around!