TOUCHED BY LYME: “IDSA guidelines, will you please go now!”
This is a re-play of a blog I wrote four years ago. I thought of it this week when I heard that the National Guidelines Clearinghouse had de-listed the IDSA Lyme guidelines.
When my kids were little, we loved to read Dr. Seuss’s “Marvin K. Mooney, will you please go now!” Marvin was a funny little guy who had overstayed his welcome, and needed suggestions on ways to get out of town fast. The book title popped into my head this morning, when I was thinking about how long the IDSA Lyme guidelines have been making life miserable for Lyme patients. I was inspired to pen the following…with apologies (and appreciation) to Dr. Seuss.
IDSA Guidelines, will you please go now!
The time has come. The time is now.
Just go. Go. Go! We don’t care how.
You can go by foot, you can go by cow.
IDSA Guidelines, will you please go now!
You can swing on a PICC line.
Or crawl on your knees.
Use walker or wheelchair.
But please go, please!
We don’t care, just take a hike.
You can ride on a psych-bike, if you like.
If you like you can go in a Lyme green shoe.
Just go, go, GO! Please do, do, do, DO!
IDSA Guidelines, we don’t care how.
IDSA Guidelines, will you please GO NOW!
You can go on crutches.
You can swim with the fish.
Fly a medical copter, if you wish.
If you wish, you may go by fence-lizard’s tail.
Or stamp yourself and go by mail.
IDSA Guidelines, don’t you know
The time has come to go, go, GO!
Get on your way! Please IDSA!
You might like going in a one-horse shay.
You can go by floo powder, or broomstick.
Or…
Ride a white-tailed deer or a side-ways door.
You can go by paddleboat or jet.
We don’t care how you go. Just get!
IDSA Guidelines, we don’t care how.
IDSA Guidelines, will you please GO NOW!
We said GO and GO we meant.
The time had come
So . . . Guidelines WENT.
TOUCHED BY LYME is written by Dorothy Kupcha Leland, LymeDisease.org’s VP for Education and Outreach. She is co-author of When Your Child Has Lyme Disease: A Parent’s Survival Guide. Contact her at dleland@lymedisease.org. On Twitter, she’s @dorothyleland.
