FARMINGTON -- It took eight different doctors before the ninth one finally diagnosed Randy Sykes with Lyme disease.
In between his first visit and his last visit, he was diagnosed and treated for pneumonia, fiybromyalgia, chronic fatigue syndrome, the beginning stages of leukemia and multiple sclerosis.
Chris Montes had to see nine different doctors as well, and suffer through a few years of thinking he had Meuniere???s disease, restless leg syndrome and the possibility of brain mass.
The difficulty of diagnosing and treating Lyme disease is what has brought the two men, in conjunction with the Greater Hartford Lyme Disease Support and Action Group, to host its first major conference on Lyme disease this Saturday.
"What we have in Connecticut and across the country is a pandemic problem whereby patients are being under-diagnosed, certainly under-treated, and moreover misdiagnosed and then sold a line that they are going to have to live with whatever they have," said Montes, the town???s director of youth services and a resident of Unionville.
Connecticut still ranks No. 1 in terms of per capita increases of lyme disease, however, but the process and requirement for reporting new diseases are still flawed, Montes said.
Based on the number of people who show up to the monthly support group meetings, 45, as well as the number of people connected with the group, more than 300, the problem is sizable. Every one of the people who come to the group were diagnosed with something else before they were diagnosed with Lyme disease, Sykes said.
The problem is that there is not an accurate blood test for the disease, Sykes said. Most doctors will treat patients who test positive for it with a few weeks of antibiotics. For many patients, Lyme disease symptoms can persists, as well as dozens of co-infections that a tick bite can leave.
"People can have this cocktail of diseases that get passed on by the tick and they don???t know what they have," Montes said.
So far, doctors and patients are coming from across the nation for the conference, including Dr. Garth Nicholson, president and chief scientific officer of the Institute for Molecular Medicine in Huntington Beach, Calif.; Dr. Jo Anne Whitaker of Tarpon Springs, Fla.; Dr. Bernard Raxlen, a Greenwich psychologist and Dr. Steven Phillips, internal medicine and lyme disease researcher and specialist from Wilton.
Book signings will also take place by authors Sue Vogan, who has written "No Compassion Observed," and Karen Vanderhood-Forschner who wrote "Everything You Need to Know about Lyme Disease."
The event will begin at 8 a.m. Saturday at the Farmington Community/Senior Center, 321 New Britain Ave., Unionville. The cost is $30 for registration at the door and includes morning coffee and pastries, lunch and beverages.
Questions may be directed to Sykes at658-9938 or Montes at 673-8759.
popped on could there be a connection. Yes Shingles. That would explain why pumping her with percocets and antiinflamatories never worked. Dr said it is extremely rare to see 2 cases of shingles occur at same time. They given valtrex and will be fine. I plan on having a long talk with girlfreind to bring issues that we have with each other out on the table so we can come to some kind of compromise. She was in a previous abusive relation ship and needs more time to open up. I think the most frustratng thing to do is to try and get her to tell me was bothering her so we could work things out together. i keep telling her needs to let the past go and learn from it other wise its going to hold you back in the future. For some people its easier said then done
