Q: What should I do? I've had Lyme disease symptoms, but the time for early treatment has elapsed.

A: Contact a Lyme literate medical doctor near you. Please go to the Lyme Disease Association doctor referrals page.

Once you're on the LDA website, click on the link for "doctor referrals." Register using your email address. Once you've done so, follow the simple directions to find a doctor near you. The process doesn't take long and the directions are easy to follow. If you need a Lyme doctor, I urge you to find one as soon as possible.

You'll be asked whether you'd prefer a doctor who belongs to the International Lyme and Associated Diseases Society (ILADS). Keep in mind that Infectious disease doctors (IDSA) may not have the knowledge it takes to treat Lyme disease, especially when it has gone beyond the early stages. Infectious disease doctors may also lack the experience that ILADS specialists can offer in diagnosing and treating Lyme.

ILADS member and Registered Nurse, Ginger Savely, has diagnosed and treated over one thousand patients with Lyme symptoms. She is confident that with treatment, you can recover from Lyme disease.

Many experts agree that if Lyme is left untreated, or if it goes under-treated, the disease can be debilitating and even cause serious threats to health and well-being.

If you need help, please use the link above to find a doctor who knows how to diagnose and treat Lyme now.

And meantime, please take advantage of the work we've been doing over the past few years, collecting Lyme Success Stories. Listen to the Success Stories here on our website. Many of them are available for free. All we ask is that you sign up for our newsletter in order to hear them. LDRD members, who help make our work here possible, have access to many more stories, and we're adding new ones all the time. These people are so strong and enthusiastic, I love listening to them. They hail from all walks of life -- young, not-so-young, men, women and children. They will help you find the inner strength and confidence you need at this point. Some of them have specific information about how they healed from Lyme. They talk about how they found their Lyme doctors, they tell which medicines they took, and some describe their nutritional plans, exercise routines, and more.

When we're sick, we need encouragement. We need to hear from other people who've been down the same road. Nurse Ginger Savely told me, during our interview, that she fully believes that people can get better, when given the right treatment, even if they've suffered with Lyme symptoms for many, many years. She sees it happening every day in her San Francisco clinic.

Tags: Lyme literate doctor, lyme disease expert, lyme disease doctor, Ginger Savely, ILADS