[pat]

Well I don't tend to say Morgellons now and stick to lyme as mentioned above.
What to say to friends and family...well in my case a wooden mallet would be handy to bash them over the head so it sinks well in!! They tend to nod the heads and make soothing sounds like this would never affect them.I spent ages telling someone about lyme and got nowhere.She rang me his week to say that a woman had been on TV warning of Lyme and she was in a wheelchair,and how it was spreading in England etc etc. The really annoying thing is she believes it now because its been on 'telly'.
My advice would be to play it down and talk vaguely of arthritic pain etc. Have you had any tests at all?? If not think about getting some..not that the UK is a leader in that but Germany seems to do effective testing though don't know how you get it there.
Depending on where you are there is the Breakspear hospital in Oxford but you have to be seriously wealthy to get treatment there and think the Finchley clinic in London does stuff too.
Interesting to see if anyone close to you gets any symptoms....my friend was disbelieving about the whole thing till she started with some symptoms.