When Your Child Has Lyme Disease: A Parent's Survival Guide - Softcover

Berenbaum, Sandra K; Leland, Dorothy Kupcha

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0996224300 ISBN 13: 9780996224307

Publisher: Lyme Literate Press, 2015

Synopsis

Lyme disease can cause puzzling symptoms in children, including pain, fatigue, gastrointestinal upsets, learning disabilities, behavioral issues and psychiatric problems. The illness can be hard to diagnose, however, and Lyme-related controversies in the medical world complicate the picture even more. Parents trying to find help for their suffering children often don’t know where to turn. When Your Child Has Lyme Disease: A Parent’s Survival Guide is filled with information parents need to know about Lyme, as well as practical strategies based on the authors’ personal and professional experiences. It offers guidance on finding the right medical care, coping with treatment, developing effective boundaries with others who don’t understand what your family is going through, advocating for your child’s educational needs and managing day-to-day family life. Sandra K. Berenbaum, who has counseled Lyme patients and their families for over 20 years, has developed "responsive psychotherapy," a unique approach to helping families overcome the challenges of Lyme disease. Co-author Dorothy Kupcha Leland, is a parent and national activist who writes the blog Touched by Lyme. “We need a structured and comprehensive support system in place for families to navigate the difficult waters of Lyme and chronic illness. We finally have that guidance in this book.”From the Foreword by Richard Horowitz MD, author of Why Can’t I Get Better? Solving the Mystery of Lyme and Chronic Illness.

About this title

About the Author:

For over 20 years, Sandra Berenbaum's psychotherapy practice has focused exclusively on Lyme disease patients and their families. She has developed responsive psychotherapy, an approach geared to the specific needs of families coping with tick-borne illness. Her presentations at both national and regional conferences have helped educate practitioners about how to work with patients who have Lyme disease.
Dorothy Kupcha Leland has a professional background in journalism, politics and book publishing. After her daughter became seriously disabled by Lyme disease in 2005, she became active with the national advocacy group LymeDisease.org. She now serves as its vice-president and writes the blog "Touched by Lyme." 

Review:

"I wish I'd had this smart, fearless, insightful handbook on my own journey through the Lyme thicket.  From negotiating with schools to handling doctors and relatives to tending a sick child's physical and psychic pain, Sandra K. Berenbaum and Dorothy Kupcha Leland have covered it all in When Your Child Has Lyme Disease: A Parent's Survival Guide. The best advice ever -your copy of this book will end up dog-eared with highlights and margin notes, and you'll carry it everywhere."
Pamela WeintraubAuthor, Cure Unknown: Inside the Lyme Epidemic

"An invaluable resource.... This remarkable book is both a practical guide and emotional touchstone....If you have a child with Lyme, no matter where you and your family are on this journey, this guide can help." John McCormick, The Huffington Post 

"The book opens with the authors' experiences with Lyme Disease: a mother seeking a diagnosis and a therapist stricken with Bell's Palsy, a well-known Lyme calling card. The chapters continue to blend the authors' different perspectives, weaving a narrative applicable to anyone touched by the disease. While personal, the book contains myriad facts and a top-down view of the disease and its current impact in the US. Because of professional dogmatism, poor detection, and even financial interests, Lyme Disease remains an ailment confined to the shadows, making sufferers (especially parents) reliant on social support as much as medical protocol. In this way, the title complements the growing online communities of afflicted and affected people. Sections tackle everything from diet and exercise to mitigating the disease's impact on a child's social well-being. It effectively straddles the de facto faith in mainstream medicine and the often more personal and intuitive insights of alternative medicine." 
US Review of Books
 

About this edition

• Publisher: Lyme Literate Press
• Publication date: 2015
• ISBN 10: 0996224300
• ISBN 13: 9780996224307
• Binding: Paperback
• Number of pages: 254