New Brunswicker tackles Lyme disease issues
Stephanie Stoneleigh… “Just want you to know I have sent this letter this morning to about 75 contacts in hopes that they will sign the Petition put forward by Randy Hillier, M.P.P” ….
Dear Friends, Relatives and Co-Workers in my Health Battle:
I need to let you know that I am sending this email to a number of Media outlets as the Issue is far too important for any of us to ignore so if you REPLY ALL you will be reaching those media as well. So pls consider your responses.
I have given great thought to those to whom I have sent this.
I have been very lucky in the last two years since I settled in New Brunswick to have made many wonderful friends but I am writing to you today to ask for the support of all my Canadian Friends – some of you will know me from some minor activist work in New Brunswick – some of you I have known for a lifetime and others from my days of living and working in southwestern Ontario, still others of you will know me as you have given of your time and expert skills in treating what was for years “my mysterious illness”.
Eighteen years ago in southern Ontario I developed Lyme Disease from a Tick bite. I finally received a correct diagnosis in January 2013 thanks to a top-notch Acadian Doctor. I will be forever grateful to him as he may have saved my life. I know he has saved the lives of others. But he has been persecuted for practicing this type of medicine in Canada – the type that saves lives. And he has chosen to retire as many doctors all over North America choose to do in the face of insurmountable odds. I am deeply grieved over this since not only I but many other patients in this region have now been denied the services of this doctor. And I am deeply grieved that Canada has chosen a path of persecution of doctors who treat Chronic Lyme Disease. In doing so, Canada’s Healthcare System has jeopardized the lives of Lyme Disease Patients all over Canada. If you doubt that this is true please read on.
We as Lyme Patients know about insurmountable odds too. We know how hard it is to get diagnosed, how hard it is to get treatment in Canada. We know what it’s like to be handed prescriptions for anxiety and depression and pain-killers that don’t work. We know what it’s like to get that all-too-familiar condescending “pat on the head” from a physician and the look that says: ” There, there little one, you’ll be O.K.” when WE KNOW at the very core of our being that we won’t be O.K. and we are less O.K. with each passing day, losing the battle to an illness whose cruelest trick is pulling the wool over the eyes of the ignorant.
That is why we need your help and why Randy Hillier, M.P.P. has stepped forward in this fight to help us. Please read on because Randy Miller has not asked me to write this. I write to you completely of my own volition.
The petition in the link below is being brought in Ontario but affects us all. If you ever travelled to or lived in Ontario, you were at risk at that time. Now southern Ontario has been labelled as an endemic area for Lyme Disease. If you or your family plan to visit southern Ontario you WILL BE at risk of developing Lyme Disease. Simply landing in Toronto places you in an endemic area.
But beyond that, as you will see on the Petition, Lyme Disease is all over Canada and there is little or no awareness of it among Canada’s Medical Authorities.
Last week I sat in the office of my Infectious Specialist and was told for the second time in a month by a physician that there is NO LYME Disease in NEW BRUNSWICK!!
My response to that is:
- tell that to the father of a boy in Fredericton whose life was saved because he and his wife FOUGHT both the N.B. Govt. Health Authorities and doctors and finally got treatment for their son. That son is now thankfully graduating from University this year because his parents FOUGHT the system that is BLIND to LYME
- tell that to the University Professor here in New Brunswick who became so disabled that the Professor was hospitalized here in New Brunswick and still physicians here could not recognize the symptoms of Lyme Disease.
- tell that to the Pharmacist who personally knows of 30 cases of Lyme Disease in Southeastern New Brunswick.
As a Lyme Patient diagnosed as Positive in accordance with Center for Disease Control Criteria and New York State Criteria (YES, I showed this Test Result to my Doctor – this test is ROUTINELY dismissed and brushed aside in Canada) I AM asking that you sign the Petition that will simply give us as Lyme Disease Patients the RIGHT and the ACCESS to reliable and timely testing.
And finally I ask you to go to the Magnotta Wineries website where the wife of Gabe Magnotta, Founder of Magnotta Wines, battles for Lyme Disease Patients in this Country. Rossana Magnotta is the widow of Gabe who died in 2009 – three years after his Lyme Diagnosis – seven years after he first became ill. She battles tirelessly now for me and all other Lyme Disease sufferers – both diagnosed and undiagnosed. Search the Magnotta Wineries Site for Lyme and listen to the hard-hitting Radio Spots that she has sponsored along with the Canadian Lyme Foundation.
Together, they battle the myths surrounding Lyme Disease – that it is not here, that it is short-lived and that Canada’s testing is not only good but somehow superior to that in other jurisdictions. My own Infectious Specialist condemned a study by the American Pathology Association in which the ELISA test method for Lyme was found to be gravely flawed with a 45-55% INACCURACY rate – that is the test relied on in Canada. If testing for T.B. was equally inaccurate, we could have an epidemic on our hands.
In summary, socialized Medicine in Canada needs to be inclusive of ALL of us who are ill. The Canadian Govt. and Health Canada DO NOT have the right to “pick and choose” what illnesses it will recognize and treat. I learned years ago as a Sociology Major at University of Waterloo that one of the five tenets of Canada’s Healthcare system was equal access for all Canadian Citizens. We, as Lyme sufferers have been denied that access.
May is Lyme Disease Awareness Month – Please join with us for OUR equal treatment and access to Canada’s Healthcare System.
Stephanie Stoneleigh
506-758-9805
Link to Sign Ontario Petition:
I have been suffering with lyme for at least 15 years. I can remember a couple of other time when i had alot of stress in my life that i do believe it acted up. But the worse one was 15 years ago. I thought i was dieing. My Doctor at the time told me that she had seen me more times in the last month then she had in over ten years of being my Doctor. While we were trying to figure out what had happen to me she retired. I went for a couple of years with out a doctor. When one finally came to our area i told her about my getting sick and that my previous Doctor and I were trying to figure out what went wrong. i tried to give her my list of symptoms and i ask her if she would look at my file so we could continue were i had left off. “She told me that she could not possibly read my whole file and from now on i was to only bring her one thing at a time that was wrong with me. It was not until about three years ago that i finally figured it out. i saw a man on the news that that was getting over lyme and told how he had felt. I was being treated and i can not even begin to tell you how many of my symptoms started to disappear. But he has gone on extended leave. My Doctor now does not believe in chronic lyme. he thinks if you treat it for a month it is gone.