Paul Ciasullo
Fairfield County, Connecticut

Total cost: over $150,000
Number of family members with LD: 4 immediate, 16 extended
Lost work/school: ongoing
Number of years sick: 3.5

Paul contracted Lyme disease when he was four and a half years old, in 1994. He had excrutiating groin pain, leg, ears and throat pain, skin sensitivity, head-aches, fatigue. After only one month of treatment, Paul seemed well.

He suffered a major relapse the following winter, endured many months of pain and fatigue. Paul seemed to gradually improve again on oral antibiotics. He relapsed again and again and again, finally being treated with excrutiatingly painful intramuscular injections of antibiotics.

Again and again, Paul seemed to improve. Now he has brain involvement and is chronically ill. He cannot plan one day to the next when he will feel well. He is a strong fighter, rarely gives in to tears and rarely succumbs to self-pity.

Paul experienced hyperbaric oxygen treatment this summer, and was incredibly brave and trusting while holding a heavy mask on his face, lying virtually still for his one and a half hour long, twice per day, treatments.

He is loving and friendly, but is sick of being sick.