Hi Elia!!!

Español aquí

So far I have told you my personal experience (and about other people's cases)  regarding Lyme disease, but I have never explained exactly what it is, what is all about, its symptoms and how it is acquired. Basically, I began to write the blog following my sensations, symptoms and according to my capacity mental in every case, but  now I think that is a good time to explain the “theory” of the disease hehehehe.

Let’s see, when looking for a definition for  Lyme disease one finds it always explained the same way …. ticks, spirochete bacteria… blah blah blah. It truly bores me to death seeing the same explanation everywhere. So I’ll try to give you shorter, Interactive, funny (yeah, funny XD) and visual explanation  that can help you to remember it better. 

Meeting Borrelia Burgdorferi

Lyme disease is caused by a  very very very "nice" microscopic bug. It is called Borrelia Burgdorferi and it's a bacteria  that comes from the spirochete family. Say hi to our new friend “Elia!” (Yeah, Elia comes from Borrelia, I’m not very creative XD)

So why is it a spirochete bacteria? Because “spirochete” is the name of the bacteria that has this peculiar spiral or drill form, as I call it.

Left: Borrelia Burgdorferi 3d image / Right: Borrelia Burgdorferi microscope image/ Images from http://www.bayarealyme.org and cvmdl.uconn.edu

Another  well-known bacteria from the spirochete’s family is the Treponema Pallidum, the bacteria that causes Syphilis. The two of them are like cousins because they don’t only share the same morphology, but also the way they both  proceed and attack the body.

Thanks to this drill form, Borrelia Burgdorferi is capable of going through every tissue of the body in order to arrive to the bloodstream and making its way all over the body  invading organs, cells and confusing all of our systems.

This is why, Lyme produces at the same time other diseases, symptoms and lot of  other health problems. As years go by so does a consequent chronification of the disease that highly incapacitates the Lyme’s carrier keeping him/her living in agony.

Borrelia Burgdorferi attached to a tissuy trying to go through it
Image from http://neurowiki2012.wikispaces.com

This is how Lyme turns into a multisystemic disease since it attacks  to the whole body and, literally, invades it. This is why  it’s known as “the great imitator” because of its ability to create and develop other diseases in its guest as time goes by throughout the worsening that the infection causes in the body.

This fact complicates  greatly a suitable diagnosis because all this aleatory symptoms and illness turns crazy to the medical staff who don’t understand why the patient becomes  a "diseases’s collector". Although if things worked properly, this “diseases collecting” wouldn’t be any more than a clear sign of  a possible chronic Lyme, to the doctors.  But we’ll talk about this in detail next time.

For now and in order that you to become familiarised with the spirochete, here you have a clear example! This is the way the Borrelia Burgdorferi moves.

Can you imagine this little, "nice and twisted worms” travelling all over  your body, running in your blood, intercepting your neuronal connections up to the point of driving you crazy,  knackering your nervous system up to the point of causing paralysis, pains, etc…?  In a few works… Could you get imagine your body turning inside out  in all possible ways? Could you imagine that nobody saw or felt all these things but still  judge you for it? Could you imagine you were the only one feeling all these, that you foresaw that you were adrift and your own live was slipping through your fingers and you didn’t even understand what was happening with your body and why? This is Lyme disease, this is Borrelia Burgdorferi. 

WELCOME TO HELL!