Girl, 13, may be paralysed by disease that baffled doctors for six months - but her mother diagnosed

[Celebration]

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/health/article-1035586/Girl-13-paralysed-disease-baffled-doctors-months--mother-diagnosed-internet.html

A schoolgirl who has been left bed-ridden with a serious illness for six months, was only diagnosed after her mother looked up her symptoms on the internet.

..............wnip................................


Danielle, from Whitefield, Greater Manchester, attended various doctor and hospital appointments where she was diagnosed with a variety of possible illnesses, including meningitis, Epstein-Bar virus, a tumour and even psychological problems.

...................................

'The last time she was in, the doctor said there's nothing wrong with her, she needs a psychiatrist, which I knew was wrong, the poor girl could hardly walk.'

..............snip...........................

'I came across Lyme Disease and it just seemed to fit. There's a lot of controversy over the treatment of the disease and over diagnosing the disease.


'I took Danielle to see a professor in Newcastle privately and he diagnosed her with Lyme Disease and three core infections. That's why she was so ill.

[Rabrrrrrr]

1. I thought it weird that a doctor wouldn't recognize Lyme disease, but then I saw this is UK

Not a lot of Lyme disease in the UK, so doctors don't really know to look for it.

In Scotland the number of sufferers went up 35 per cent between 2003 to 2004. In England and Wales there were 97 cases 10 years ago and 320 in 2003. Specialists believe that the true incidence could run into thousands because people, doctors and vets do not know much about it and do not seek treatment.

http://www.canlyme.com/britishincrease2005.html

An average of just over 300 laboratory-confirmed cases are reported annually to the Health Protection Agency Most confirmed cases are acquired in the United Kingdom… About 20% of confirmed cases are reported to have been acquired abroad - in the United States, France, Germany, Austria, Scandinavia, and Eastern Europe.
Estimates suggest that between 1000 and 2000 cases of Lyme borreliosis occur in the United Kingdom each year."

http://www.clinicalanswers.nhs.uk/index.cfm?question=3996


Versus US infection of:

With approximately 20,000 new cases reported each year, Lyme disease is the most common vector-borne disease in the United States.

http://www.cdc.gov/mmwr/preview/mmwrhtml/mm5623a1.htm

[trotsky]

6. Aw, c'mon, that's crazy talk.

The OBVIOUS answer here is that ALL DOCTORS HAVE NO CLUE (they're paid pharma shills anyway) and that you can diagnose yourself and your family ON TEH GOOGLE! And cure anything with herbs and supplements!

[Rabrrrrrr]

7. You're right - I should have embraced the truth that TEH GOOGLE

is a better medical device than those over-learned doctor types, and that no one has anything that can't be cleared up with some bark extract and grass juice.

[patriotvoice]

2. LD is not particularly easy to initially diagnose without patient belief of tick bite.

Lyme Disease can be tricky to diagnose, both accurately and in a timely manner. ELISA returns false positives even after the 2-6 week incubation period elapses. Western Blot works, but only after 6-12 weeks of incubation. By then, the Lyme bacteria could be chronic.

Having said that, the Internet is an excellent resource. With a reasonable understanding of human anatomy, your own activities, and the scientific method, you can self-diagnose quite accurately. Everyone should at least be cross-checking what their doctors' say with published medical information, for their own edification and confidence in their doctors. But, don't ever rely solely on self-diagnosis: seek corroboration from one or more qualified medical doctors.

[samplegirl]

3. I can relate...

In 1978 I was diaganosed wrong for weeks. Thank God for my mother who worked at the hospital to get a good neurologist and did a spinal tap.
Confirmed I had Gullian Barre Syndrome.

[MuseRider]

5. Holy crap they missed Gullian Barre?

Wow. Are you OK now? Did it progress or did it stop before it worked it's way up your body? None of my business I know so do not answer if you do not wish to. We used to see lots of it in the Spring and the Fall, always had at least 2 patients in the ICU. Seems like that would be difficult to miss.

[samplegirl]

11. Hi MuseRider

No I had a servere case. I was age 20 and completely parlyzed. I was on life support and could do nothing but blink my eyes.
I consider myself lucky today though...as I had a full recovery.

[MuseRider]

12. You are lucky.

I don't think I ever saw a case that did not get that bad but then I was working in the ICU. Do you remember much about it? It must have been horrible. You are lucky. Most have some problems later, some not too bad but still, you are lucky and I am glad that you are! That must have been horrifying for you and your family.

[NOLALady]

4. OMG.

Some years ago my husband was hospitalized and they could not find the problem.

I happened to receive a copy of his science mag that happened to have an article on Lyme disease. He had all the symptoms. I gave the magazine to my husband and suggested he give it to the Doctor when she came in. She didn't believe it was Lyme disease as its not common in this area. But, she said she would check anyway just in case.

Sure enough it was indeed Lyme disease. We still do not know how he caught it. He was using the riding lawn mower shortly before he became ill. We think he may have stirred up a visiting bug.

[varkam]

8. Source is the daily mail - so take it with a bag of salt.

The last time we had a DM source in here, it turned out that they just completely made shit up (re: the cell phone towers of death).

[Jim__]

9. It appeared in Metro before the Mail.

It appeared in the Metro on the 15th.

The story also appeared in the Telegraph and other papers.

[varkam]

10. Ah - thank you for the references.

:hi:

[sakabatou]

13. My fucking old psychiatrist though my disease was psychosomatic

I'm sooooo gonna kick his ass.