For two and a half years, my wife has been fighting Lyme disease, and today we received two pieces of good news about her battle. The first bit of good news came from a mailing list of people in Connecticut that are dealing Lyme disease that Kim is part of. There is a bill in the Connecticut General Assembly
To allow physicians to prescribe, administer or dispense long-term antibiotics for therapeutic purposes to patients clinically diagnosed with Lyme disease.

Unless you have dealt with people with chronic Lyme disease, that may seem pretty insignificant. Of course doctors should be able to prescribe, administer or dispense whatever medication is appropriate for the therapeutic needs of their patients. Yet unfortunately, there are many hurdles to prescribing long-term antibiotics for people with Lyme disease. Some people believe there is no such thing as chronic Lyme disease and insurance companies don’t want to spend money on antibiotics if they can avoid it.

For bad cases, intravenous antibiotics is often called for, and that can get pretty expensive. Sure, it isn’t much compared to the cost of caring for other long-term illnesses, but it can still be pretty steep. Even with insurance, the last round of intravenous antibiotics took up a third of Kim’s take home pay.

It isn’t just the expense of antibiotics that is so difficult for people with chronic Lyme disease. A recent study found that Chronic Lyme disease patients often have comorbid psychiatric illness. Put more simply, people with chronic Lyme disease tend to be more likely to be depressed, anxious, have problems sleeping and other ailments.

It isn’t surprising. Walking around for weeks with an IV in your arm, unable to do many tasks you used to be able to do can be pretty depressing and can make it harder to sleep. When you add in concerns about if you will ever feel better, or how you will pay for your medicine, anxiety seems pretty reasonable as well. Who knows how all of this further affects the brain chemistry. I hope that the pressure to address chronic Lyme disease will go beyond simply permitting physicians to prescribe, administer or dispense long-term antibiotics.

This takes me to the second bit of good news. Today, Kim had another Doctor’s appointment to track how things are going with her battle against Lyme disease. The latest blood tests came back showing no current signs of Lyme disease. Now, we’ve had the all clear before followed by another bout of fighting Lyme disease, so who knows what will happen next. But at least right now, Kim doesn’t have an IV in her arm and she is sleeping better.

Some of this, we believe, is thanks to a doctor that aggressively treats chronic Lyme disease, so we are thankful right now and hope that others find good doctors that aggressively treat chronic Lyme disease. Perhaps the legislation now being considered in the Connecticut General Assembly will help make it easier for others.