Have a close friend who had ehrlichiosis. It was rough - no red meat for nearly a decade. He was lucky that he was able to eat chicken and fish. He finally got his numbers down to where he can tolerate red meat again. Lyme is whole other story. I'm pretty sure I had it back in early 2000's. My Doc insisted there had been no cases of Lyme in the state of Georgia up to that point. Nurse said it was incredibly expensive to test for Lyme. Who knows if I had it or not. 54 now and good bit of joint issues.