Category Archives: Teens & Children

Highest Confirmed Lyme Cases: Boys Ages 5-9

Lyme Basics, Teens & Children, Ticks: Where It all Starts July 7, 2016 Leave a comment

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This graph is frightening: Our boys and girls are most at risk. I’m guessing that’s because they spend so much time exposed to ticks: playing outside, playing sports on grassy fields, and rolling around with beloved pets that may be carrying infected hitch-hikers.

Bear in mind these are the reported cases at the moment; many experts believe overall numbers are much higher due to under-reporting and testing that is 50% inaccurate. I bet there’s an update soon from the CDC’s current number of 300,000 reported cases year.

We need prevention, prevention, prevention—and we need solid diagnostic testing and treatment. What can we do? Raise awareness by writing local and federal government reps and newspapers. Take what we learn to our primary care docs. Advocate for research funding.

Kids should not be disabled, losing out on school, friends, family time, music lessons, sports, first dates, homecoming and more because of a preventable illness.

Yo, Journalists!

Lyme Basics, Teens & Children September 15, 2014 Leave a comment

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“All the news that’s fit to print”? Then why isn’t there constant press coverage in the NYT and every other news outlet about Lyme and other horrific diseases carried by ticks? Where’s the reporting about the lack of proper diagnosis and treatment and the latest research results?

We’ve asked this question thousands of times. We have plenty of topics: Raising awareness. Emerging science. Suffering patients. Impacts on families, businesses, the economy.

Just recently I heard yet another story that should be told, about a group of boys in my area who found a way to connect with each other. These young kids have been housebound, some for years. Continue reading →

Video: Young Freeskier Makes Comeback Following Lyme Treatment

Battling Isolation, Lyme Basics, Recovery: The Picture of Health, Staying Positive, Teens & Children, Video August 28, 2013 Leave a comment

LymeLight – The Story Of Professional Freeskier Angeli VanLaanen Living With Lyme Disease from NEU PRODUCTIONS on Vimeo.

Considering that I can’t even walk my dog around the block right now, this story of an amazing athlete’s return to health was an especially great find.

Freeskier Angeli VanLaanen made this film because she wants others with lyme know that they are not alone—and that recovery is possible.

Click on “play” above to hear her talk about how she was probably infected with lyme disease as a ten-year-old girl by tick bites she got in Wisconsin; Angeli was misdiagnosed during many years of dealing with various symptoms.

Continue reading →

Video: Rachel’s Story: What It’s Like to be a Teen with Lyme

Recovery: The Picture of Health, Staying Positive, Teens & Children, Video May 30, 2013 Comments: 3

I like so many things about Rachel’s YouTube video, I hardly know where to start. She’s so earnest, so honest, so insightful.

The details she gives of life with lyme at 14 along with her perspective at age 20 reveals so much. Her juxtaposition of “then” and “now” is simply brilliant.

Continue reading →