Lyme disease

I was glad to see Sam's post indicating some high level interest and focus on Lyme Disease.  It's a wicked, tick-born malady that can be extremely serious.  Outwardly, many of its symptoms are similar to Lupus.  The writer, Ami Tan, was treated for Lupus for three years before it was realized she actually had Lyme Disease.

I've told this before but it's worth a re-tell.  When, in the summer of 2003, and very ill with something, I finally succumbed to family  pressure and went to a doctor, I stumbled and fell into our rose bush on the way to our Jeep.  My face was scratched.  Thomas and I together went to the reception desk where the Anglo lady, looking at us, exclaimed loudly, "You've been fighting!"  This was obviously racial stereotyping and, while I have my father's patience, there are limits.

"Madam," I said in an icy tone, "the last time I was in a physical fight was when I was 26 and that was a long time ago, (For the benefit of readers, it was with a scab-herding s.o.b. in Arizona.)  Thomas, grinning, said helpfully, "He's my grandfather."

I don't know if she believed us.  But I told her I wanted a "tick doctor."  This wasn't illogical.  In my pre-dawn hiking in the high hills, I usually wore Levi shorts and a light shirt in the late spring, summer, and early fall.  I had figured my illness might have something to with ticks.

The woman was mystified.  When I raised this very early on with doctors, I was told repeatedly, "There's no Lyme Disease in Idaho. There is in Utah but not here."

To one, I responded rather curtly, "Well, that's a typical white man's reaction.  A deer with ticks would stop at the Idaho border."

In a way, it turned out we were all somewhat correct on ticks-in-Idaho.  I found that the state health department did have a "Lyme Disease Desk" -- probably, under the circumstances, just a telephone -- and about six or seven cases occurred yearly along the southern tier.

But, as part of the world knows by now, I didn't have the tick disease.  A dozen docs eventually concurred with the "full blown Systemic Lupus" diagnosis -- and that was, unfortunately, right on target.  Lyme Disease, treatable with heavy doses of anti-biotics, and, again, a very wicked malady that warrants much study and focus, would have been for me much, much easier.

H


HUNTER GRAY [HUNTER BEAR/JOHN R SALTER JR] Mi'kmaq /St. Francis 
Abenaki/St. Regis Mohawk 
Member, National Writers Union AFL-CIO
www.hunterbear.org  (social justice)

See the new expanded/updated edition of my "ORGANIZER'S
BOOK." It's the inside story of the rise of the massive Jackson
Movement -- careful grassroots organizing, bloody repression, sell-out 
and more.  It also covers other organizing campaigns of mine through
 the decades since Mississippi. It's replete with grass-roots organizing
examples and "lessons."  And it has my new 10,000 word 
introduction.  Among a myriad of positive comments and reviews:
 ". . .a local activist's important account of the deleterious effects
the involvement  of national organizations can have on indigenous
protest movements."  (Historian David Garrow.)
http://hunterbear.org/jackson.htm

See the related:  http://crmvet.org/comm/hunter1.htm

Stormy Adoption of an Indian Child [My Father]:
http://hunterbear.org/James%20and%20Salter%20and%20Dad.htm