lyme disease?

[KaroSnowQueen, RN]

I have a friend, woman, age 42, has always been slim and active, looks younger than her age. She contracted Lyme disease over ten years ago, maybe as many as fifteen, I'm not certain. Anyway, she has had it for a long time.

I hadn't seen her in about three months. In that time period, she has had a flare up of lyme, and she has lost over thirty pounds, her beautiful thick glossy red hair is coorifice, lost its luster, is thinning terribly and greying.

Does anybody know anything about lyme? Will this reverse or will it keep on going? She said they have done a thyroid panel, and a 24 hr urine as well as some hormonal tests to be sure there's nothing else going on but haven't got the results back yet.

It breaks my heart to see her this way. :o

[VickyRN, MSN, DNP, RN]

All I know is that it is caused by a spirochete and has three stages (similar to syphilis). If it is caught early (in the first stage), it is relatively easy to cure (a round of PO antibiotics). After the first stage, the organism begins to invade organs and inflict irreversible damage and is much more difficult to eradicate.