Allie Cashel has suffered from chronic Lyme disease for sixteen years--but much of the medical community refuses to recognize her symptoms as the result of infectious disease. In iSuffering the Silence Chronic Lyme Disease in an Age of Denial, i Cashel paints a living portrait of what is often called post-treatment Lyme syndrome, featuring the stories of chronic Lyme patients from around the world and their struggle for recognition and treatment. pIn the United States alone, at least 300,000 people are diagnosed with Lyme disease each year, and it is estimated that 20 percent of them go on to develop chronic symptoms of the disease, including but not limited to muscle and joint pain digestive problems extreme fatigue, confusion, and dizziness sensations of burning and numbness and immune-system dysfunction. Before reaching a final diagnosis, many of these patients are misdiagnosed with diseases and conditions like lupus, multiple sclerosis, fibromyalgia, chronic fatigue syndrome, depre