My wife keeps getting Lyme disease! and she seems defeated

Hello, like i said, my wife seems to get Lyme every summer for the past three, four years. We live in upstate new york, which seems to be Lyme central. Specifically we are in Rosendale, Ulster county. Its in between Kingston and Nwe Paltz. Backround info: we live near many small wooded area and see deer on an everyday basis. We have four cats and four kids. We plan on keeping the kids, but the cats are another issue. Oh, and we have a dog, too.
I missed the last month round of frontline b/c of money issues, and I'm kind of kicking myself for it. I'm still in the whole moneywise, so I can actually go out and get some. It's expensive (which drives me crazy!). I don't understand why it wouldn't be more affordable in such a high-risk area, but just about everything having to do with Lyme confuses me.
It's hard to find a doctor that is very familiar with Lyme, so I'd love some feedback on this issue. Plus, it is really expensive getting the bloodwork done w/o health insurance, which of course she doesn't have right now. We've already spent alot of money trying to fight this thing more effectively. She's gone through rounds of both dysocycline (sp?) and amoxicillin. Today she just started Amox, b/c she's breastfeeding.
The problem with the meds is that she has a very difficult time dealing with the side effects. ?She gets kind of dopey, and really tired and weak. Worst of all is the psychological effect. She wants to move out of the area b/c of ticks. They are EVERYWHERE around here. I should definitely be giving regular frontline, but all of us have had one crawling on us just from walking around w/o our animals...even with the right clothing!
We check ourselves regularly, but they can be so insanely small. My wife found one three days ago on her breast, directly under one of her nipples, and it was so tiny! It was attached, but not engorged. She's can't be sure how long it was there. Then yesterday and today she's been hit with extreme fatigue and a mild fever. So she went to her general pract and he put her on the amox. She got bloodwork taken yesterday and they said results would be in about 5 days.
I can give any information that would be helpful. I just would like some help from somebody here. I'd appreciate it so much. I'll be trying to take care of her in the meantime.
Thanks, Matt

It would be very difficult to tell if your wife was getting re-infected with Lyme or if she was just never over her initial infection. Certain symptoms of mine get worse during the summer.

Have you heard of Herx reactions? If not, look these up. This is probably the issue that your wife has while on antibiotics. You can't eliminate herx reactions, but you can help to lessen their effect.

Can I ask what your wife's general lifestyle is? Does she stay at home, or does she work outside the home during the day? Are there any lifestyle changes that you can think of during the summer?

I can sympathize with living in a "deer zone". I'm in one too. I've found deer ticks on me just walking to the mailbox. They can't be avoided. With the housing market the way it is, I can't really move either. There's just no way around it.

Hello Ihawkot!
Welcome to our forum! I am sorry however to hear about your & your wifes' issues. I can really understand - I haven't been able to figure out if I keep getting reinfected or just reactivated ....& I live in North Central Arkansas!! Every friggin year I go through the same thing!! ACK!!! It's not like I go hiking through heavily wooded areas (I wish I had the energy to go hiking!)- I'm just out in my yard!!!

One thing I didn't see posted yet was how stress affects those of us with tick-born illnesses. It's one of our worst enemies, I believe. It's so easy to get too stressed when one is living with tick-born infections. I had to realize that even a little bit of worrying about my daughter when she was in her 1st year of college was making me much sicker. I'm sure I'm not telling anyone anything new by saying that pregnancy, birth & breastfeeding, although are very wonderful things for both mother & child, they are still stressors on the body. Not to mention any other conditions your wife may be dealing with.

Another thing I didn't see mentioned yet is detoxing. I (& some others) believe detoxing is incredibly important in order to heal from tick infections, as well as many other things. It's a pretty easy thing to do & it will give your wife a really good reason to 'go soak' for 30 minutes!! ((grin)) Everything you need to know to get started is talked about in the thread at the top of the forum titled "new to Lyme?...Start here". Deejavu is our "expert" here & she convinced me of the need to detox & I'm sure I would not be hanging on as well as I have been had I not started detoxing. Most likely you have the things you will need already in your home!

BTW, glad to hear you are keeping the kids!!! Giggle!!!

Hi lhawkot,

Welcome!  Wow, I used to go trout fishing in Kingston as I live in NY also and met people all over the U.S., Europe, Canada, and even South America who became infected with lyme, thus anyone can get infected no matter where they live. 

What I found out years ago is the "host" of most lyme bacteria is the White Footed Mouse and whatever blood-sucking vector feeds on these mice then carry the bacteria thus transmitting it to humans.    So it can be mosquitoes, fleas, black flies, spiders, mites, etc.  (I became infected with lyme from a spider bite according to skin biopsies).   Spiders will trap one of those bugs and eat them so then the spider carries the bacteria.  

Anyway, so sorry to hear your wife is suffering but glad you are going to keep your kids! 

I became well using alternative medicine (specially, Dr. Jernigan's protocol which consists of taking botanicals and lots of detoxing which I still continue to do). 

Since your wife is having so many side effects from conventional medicine, my only suggestion is to buy Dr. J's book and read it, it's a real eye opener!  The only place right now the book can be book is here (softcover less money compared to hardcover):

http://hansacenter.com/beating_lyme_disease.php

http://hansacenter.com/index.php

Hope this helps,

Denise