San Francisco Chronicle - (Sunday)
Another grieving parent because of Lyme disease
As I read the Jose and Monica Luis’ heart-wrenching story about their son (“Better tests may find Lyme disease,” Opinion, San Francisco Chronicle, Jan. 3), I was brought back to my own son’s similar journey from Lyme disease (misdiagnosed by mainstream doctors for over a year), causing major health issues, mental health deterioration and his death by suicide at age 28 in 2015.
I’m disheartened and angry that our mainstream health care system still denies the fact that Lyme disease can cause multiple health conditions. We were told by an emergency room doctor at a major Bay Area hospital that he “didn’t believe in late-Lyme disease.”
It took us two years to find a clinic that focused on tickborne illnesses, did the IGeneX test and gave our son appropriate treatment. Unfortunately, similar to the Luis’ son, it was too late.
The FDA must approve the testing methods that can detect this illusive disease before it causes devastating damage to the body and mind.
BayAreaLyme.org has done amazing research for 10 years and has worked on advancing testing, treatment and awareness
of the devastation of undiagnosed (or misdiagnosed) Lyme disease.
Start listening, CDC and FDA.
Cathy Greer, Vacaville
Honor People’s Park
The stealth military takeover of People’s Park (“UC Berkeley
erects massive barricade of 160 shipping containers around People’s Park,” East Bay, SFChronicle.com. Jan. 4) is the university’s latest attempt to erase the iconic symbol of the Free Speech Movement students initiated in Berkeley in May of 1969.
Both the university and the city of Berkeley are sacrificing
a unique opportunity to celebrate the park’s unique history by preserving it as a living symbol of the ongoing struggle for justice.
Together, utilizing Berkeley’s creativity, they could have turned the sorry site that exists today into a beautiful and practical design worthy of the Park’s history.
There are many alternative sites for much needed student housing. There is no other place for National Historic Landmark People’s Park.
Tom Miller, Oakland
PG&E out of control
In light of the promised steep increases in already high rates (“PG&E announces yet another increase to 2024 utility bills,” Climate, SFChronicle.com, Dec. 29), how can a salary of the “new CEO” of more than $51 million a year be justified?
What is she doing for that kind of money, besides starring in the annoying, never-ending repetitive TV commercials, having been run several times a day on multiple channels for a couple of years! What’s the point?
We get it, that they are burying cables and “improving” everything.
Isn’t that what they are supposed to do, instead of bragging about it, over and over and over again?
Who has approved of all this costly nonsense, and where has the Public Utilities Commission been? Asleep?