My name is Hans, I am 39 years old, a private banker and live in Antwerp, Belgium. In total I have been very ill for 4 years. It took 2 years before I got the correct diagnosis (Lyme). Little did I know that the correct diagnosis was just the starting point of yet another grueling search for the right treatment. I have been on strict diets for years, been on antibiotics for about 8 months, taken phytotherapy, gone through dozens of doctors, specialists, and all kinds of therapists, and really researched and tried every possible treatment - nothing helped permanently - my health kept deteriorating.
I lost work, love, savings, apartment and my social life was nonexistent because of this insufficiently recognized terrible disease. When I was not too exhausted, too dizzy or too weak, I read everything I could find about Lyme but found no cure that helped. Just before I ended up at lymeborrelia self-help group in the Netherlands, I was doing so badly that I hung on an oxygen machine for 4 hours a day and that a doctor casually reported that I was very close to cancer, my blood was so bad. In the end, the doctors believed me, but they couldn't help.