No freedom from debilitating symptoms for Lalibertes
Courtesy photo Cindy Laliberte, kneeling down, her husband, Ryan Laliberte, and children Cali and Boston are all battling Lyme disease.
April Page Stundtner
News Correspondent
WESTMINSTER Cindy Laliberte will always have Lyme disease but now she will have the means to live life more comfortably and educate others about this debilitating disease.
A fundraiser for Laliberte was held Friday at the Westminster Country Club, attracting at least 100 supporters. A golf tournament, guest speaker, dinner, prizes and raffles were organized by Robert and Karen Croteau.
Mrs. Croteau said a percentage of the day’s fundraising will go toward the Central Mass Lyme Disease organization and the remainder will help fund Laliberte’s treatment, which is only available in the United States in Arizona or New Mexico.
“I stopped going to the doctor and emergency room because of the way they treated me. It wasn’t until I saw a specialist did I get diagnosed,” Ms. Laliberte said.
The treatment in Arizona promises to help Ms. Laliberte regain her strength and daily functioning. The treatment, she said, could also put her Lyme disease in remission. Ms. Laliberte has had Lyme disease symptoms for more than 10 years and she was diagnosed three years ago.
Ms. Laliberte, a California native and avid hiker, was hiking with her basset hound in 1999 when shortly after their hike, her dog died suddenly. Ms. Laliberte believes he had Lyme disease.
From that point on, Ms. Laliberte experienced many symptoms including stabbing pain in her back, neck and jaw. She also could not lift anything.
After transplanting to Massachusetts, she had two children 14 months apart. At this time, her symptoms got worse, she says she had head-to-toe nerve pain and could not take care of her children.
“I couldn’t get to the bathroom without my husband,” she said. “I was told I had fibromyalgia, chronic fatigue syndrome, that I just had kids and I would get better, temporal mandibular joint disorder (TMJ) and depression,” said Ms. Laliberte.
“I dreamed of being my kids’ tennis coach and playing softball with them. Now all I can do is play board games, color and watch movies,” said Ms. Laliberte, a former United States Tennis Association player, tennis coach at the Winchendon YMCA and bartender for the Westminster Country Club and Longhorn Steak House in Leominster.
Now, Ms. Laliberte’s children are also learning to deal with their limitations. Both Cali, 8, and Boston, 10, have been diagnosed with Lyme disease. Cali and Boston suffer from nerve pain, allergies, gastrointestinal reflux and sound and light sensitivity.
Cali has neurological Lyme disease and Boston has liver Lyme disease. Both children contracted the disease in utero.
According to lymedisease.org, babies may become infected by mothers who have Lyme disease or mothers who are bitten during pregnancy. Some of these babies have a chance to be born with birth defects.
Cali will be starting “virtual school,” an educational computer program, at home this fall so she will not suffer from the effects of light and sound in school, get more sleep and not have to “constantly go to the nurse,” Ms. Laliberte said.
Boston will begin “virtual school” next year. His doctor, his mother says, said Boston can stay in school for now. Ms. Laliberte’s husband, Ryan, has also developed Lyme disease symptoms; he is currently being tested for the disease.
According to lymedisease.org, it is debatable about whether the disease can be spread through intimate contact. “If you do not believe you will get well, you will never get well,” said George R. Popovici, the author of “Angels Walking with Us.”
Mr. Popovici attended the event to share his knowledge and life experience with the disease. “Look around and what do you see,” said Mr. Popovici, “Love, pure love. All these people had other things to do today but they are here because of love.”
Today, Ms. Laliberte takes seven medications, 12 supplements, 10 different herbs, protein powder and colloidal silver each day. She says her goal is to help raise awareness of the disease, teach Lyme disease prevention and provide support to patients with Lyme disease and other tick-borne illnesses.
Ms. Laliberte said early Lyme disease resembles flu-like symptoms including headache, fever, sweats, nausea, muscle aches, joint pain and extreme fatigue. Symptoms can disappear but will reappear later.
It is recommended by the International Lyme and Associated Disease Society that people keep the tick – and be treated by an ILADS-trained physician.
Ticks can be sent to an address on tickencounter.com. Lyme disease testing is best done through an IGenX laboratory, which can do a Western blot blood test that will report all bands on the Western Blot, according to ILADS.
See igenx.com. Lyme information can also be accessed through ilads.org.
Was Lymes disease a continuation of Operation Paperclip the big corporations jobcorps? some people opine that this may be the case:
ReplyDeleteCOMMENT on Lyme DIsease article--Plum Island Connection
From Bob Anderson
3-20-5
Hello, Jeff
This IS interesting, and I have known for some years that "Lyme Disease" is a man-made illness.
My ex-colleague John Quinn -- who as you may recall wrote a book on the so-called Montauk Project activities at Montauk Air Base on the east end of Long Island New York -- wrote that he was informed UNEQUIVOCALLY by project operative and subsequent whistleblower Preston Nichols that Lyme Disease was DEFINITELY developed by the US government at Plum Island Animal Disease research facility, directly offshore from Montauk in Long Island Sound. Nichols told Quinn that the disease was first engineered in the mid-1960s and was initially released at the Montauk base itself and the surrounding communities. Nichols averred that there was frequent collaboration between the two facilities.
It is a FACT that the earliest victims of the disease were not in Old Lyme Connecticut but at Montauk. The disease rapidly became fairly widespread by the late 60s among the many farmers and fishermen in the area and was known at the time as "Montauk Knee" -- as it primarily affected major joints such as the knee.
Even more disturbing: Nichols informed Quinn around 1999 that the Lyme Disease spirochete was a PRIME COMPONENT of the materials being spewed from the aircraft spraying CHEMTRAILS across the length and breadth of the PLANET EARTH!
Comforting, No?
Regards,
Bob Anderson
Lyme Disease -
A Biological Weapon?
By Marjorie Tietjen
daystar1952@yahoo.com
3-16-5