"I was always a healthy person.
Always in the gym.
Still am, when I can.
And anytime something came up, I was apt to see a doctor
because I always wanted to make sure I was healthy.
That's the gold of life.
That's better than any wealth you can have is your health."
"I had a lot of medical professionals confused
with my health condition."
"I was feeling like severe headaches,
severe migraines, arthritis symptoms.
I had a bilateral carpal tunnel syndrome release,
which was unsuccessful.
So he sent me to a Lyme disease specialist.
" "He felt that it was Lyme disease.
I did the treatments and he was getting ready to put me
on an intravenous pump for antibiotic treatment and that's
when I started going blind in my right eye.
And that's when I thought, 'Well maybe this ain't Lyme disease,
maybe this is something else."
"Come to find out,
what I thought was Lyme disease it wasn't."
"I went to a neurologist and I consulted with an eye surgeon
and that's when I went for an MRI and they saw
that I had a golf [ball] sized tumor on my pituitary [gland],
which was crushing both hemispheres of the brain
and was wrapping around the optic nerve.
" "It kind of made me feel disappointed
because you would think that a lot of people
in these positions would have grasped it
or picked up on it sooner.
But instead they felt that it was all in my head.
And come to find out it was It was the size of a golf ball
and it was a tumor on the pituitary."
"They removed approximately 90% of the tumor
and the medication I'm on now helps
to keep the growth hormone levels in check.
If I would have been diagnosed sooner, I could have went
on medication and shrunk it all together without surgery."
"I wouldn't want to see someone else going
through the same thing that I'm going through.
I mean, I'm still here.
But there's days when I can do everything and anything and days
where I can't even get out of bed
and if I was diagnosed sooner, I wouldn't be going
through what I'm going through now."
"I have three children and a wonderful wife
and I'm lucky to be here still."
"It was a very trying time for about 2-3 years with my children
and my family and naturally I couldn't see it.
But they could see it and they could feel it.
Now, looking back, hindsight, I'm lucky that she's still there
and my family's still there with me.
They stuck by me."
"People need to be a little more knowledgeable
about Lyme disease.
Antibiotics is just given out regularly
and it's just a fast, quick fix.
And it needs to be looked into further
because other people have diseases
where antibiotics will affect them even worse."
If treatment's not working,
there's got to be another cause."
>> If you have been treated for chronic Lyme disease
and still do not feel better,
please advocate for your health and get a second opinion.
>> If you believe you have had untreated Lyme disease
for months or years,
please see an infectious disease specialist
who uses FDA-cleared, fully validated tests.