Monday, January 14, 2019
I am terribly sorry to hear of the death of your son Adam! My sincere condolences on your loss. The BBC ran a video on him. What fearful suffering he endured, and thank God it has ended. Watching the video, I was struck that his physical pain began after he started soccer, including uncontrollable neurological hand symptoms. That, and his acid burning pains throughout his body sound very much like Lyme Disease and/or other tick-borne disease, which is widespread in Canada. I know he was diagnosed with Somatic Symptom Disorder, but I truly believe the doctors misdiagnosed him. Due to my own 15 year journey and suffering with Lyme Disease and co-infections, and running a support group in my area for 6 years with hundreds of attendees, I have heard dozens of stories of patients (including myself) being misdiagnosed and told that the symptoms were some form of mental disease. I have studied mental illness for years also, and none that I know of include such terrible pain. I am almost certain that your son was misdiagnosed, and I wanted to assure you that his suffering was not a result of mental illness, but rather untreated physical illness: a bacterial infection caused by a tick or other vector. If only doctors had discovered this in time! In my 15 years of experience with these infections, I have been shocked and appalled at the extent of doctors'' ignorance in the area of tick-borne disease.Having had great respect for and implicit trust in doctors, I wouldn''t have believed it if I hadn''t happened to me (I was misdiagnosed for 10 years) and if I hadn''t heard so many similar stories. Dozens of people I''ve talked to were diagnosed with psychiatric illness instead of the true cause. I am appalled that this happened to your son. Aggressive antibiotic therapy could have saved his life had any of his doctors thought of Lyme and referred him to a Lyme-literate M.D.. Our medical system desperately needs education on tick-borne infection, and many doctors are woefully ignorant. Please see lymedisease.org and ilads.org for more information, and feel free to contact me at virward@sbcglobal.net. What you have endured is inexcusable, and as a parent of 3 grown children, I can only imagine your heartbreak. I hope you can join me in spreading Lyme Disease awareness so that more people don''t have to suffer needlessly as your son did.
