{"id":30009,"date":"2022-01-02T17:16:30","date_gmt":"2022-01-02T23:16:30","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/wholehealthchicago.com\/blog\/?p=30009"},"modified":"2022-11-14T13:48:24","modified_gmt":"2022-11-14T19:48:24","slug":"root-causes-of-chronic-fatigue-part-10-the-tick-bite-you-dont-remember","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/wholehealthchicago.com\/blog\/2022\/01\/02\/root-causes-of-chronic-fatigue-part-10-the-tick-bite-you-dont-remember","title":{"rendered":"Root Causes of Chronic Fatigue, Part 10: The Tick Bite You Don\u2019t Remember"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

You\u2019re 11 years old. Or 16. Or 30. Like most Chicagoans, you regard Wisconsin and Michigan as places that exist to rent us cabins for fishing, swimming, and hiking in the woods. But after a weekend breathing the fresh air, you return home and find yourself feeling sick: headache, fever, achy. Also, you\u2019ve got a skin rash.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Doctor looks you over and says \u201cMight be Lyme disease. Get bitten by a tick?\u201d You\u2019re horrified and answer no. She gives you a couple of days worth of antibiotics anyway, saying everything will resolve in time.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Feels like when you had the flu, though. Odd. Summer\u2019s not flu season. Oh well. After a couple of weeks, true to the doc\u2019s word you\u2019re pretty much on the mend, back in school or back on the job, and you forget all about it.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Flash forward<\/strong><\/h3>\n\n\n\n

Years later you start to perceive something\u2019s not right with your body. Your joints really hurt and the doctors you\u2019ve been seeing think you might have some kind of arthritis, maybe rheumatoid arthritis or another autoimmune disease.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

And you have no energy. Zero. Your friends are going out in the evenings and you have to say no because you\u2019re exhausted and achy, and you may be running a fever. You\u2019re getting headaches, too, you can\u2019t focus, and you\u2019re even getting some skin rashes.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

All your tests return negative results and you\u2019re diagnosed with chronic fatigue syndrome.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cSorry, no treatment. By the way, ever bitten by a tick?\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

You answer no.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

They run a screening test for Lyme. The result is \u201cequivocal\u201d and they tell you this means it\u2019s negative or a false positive.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Fibro, chronic fatigue\u2026or chronic Lyme?<\/strong><\/h3>\n\n\n\n

You might be diagnosed with fibromyalgia or chronic fatigue syndrome, but what\u2019s most likely going on is chronic Lyme disease, an illness whose existence is simply disbelieved by a majority of physicians in the US.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

There are two reasons for their disbelief.<\/p>\n\n\n\n