Diagnosing and Surviving Lyme's Disease
Fortunately for me, when I was bit by a tick and contracted Lyme's disease in July, 1989, I witnessed the tick attached to my skin. Most notable at the time was the huge whelp(about 2" in diameter and 1/8 " thick). Bear in mind I am a swamp tour guide, a wounded deer blood tracker and I live in Louisiana. I am a hunter and a fisherman and ticks and insect bites are common. So I do not generally react to ticks or mosquito bites by whelping the way most people do. I guess I get a lot of bites and my body is immune. But the whelp produced by this tick bite in 1989 was large and thick and I had never seen anything short of a snake bite to produce such a large and rapid development.
The next thing I noticed some days later was a "rash" or reddish discoloration of my skin in a circle around the outer edges of where the whelp was. In the center of that was a red dot where the tick bite occurred. Hence a bull's eye rash.
Two weeks later, I began to experience flu like symptoms. But not like any flu I had ever had. That is just the closest thing to it, I ever experienced. Here it was August 1st in deep south Louisiana and I was putting on long pants and a sweat shirt to warm up! This was my first sign that something was very wrong with me.
At the time I was in the Atchafalaya Basin Swamp at my houseboat, and about an hour away from my family and friends. Assuming that my health was in jeopardy, I decided to get into my truck and drive the hour to Lafayette needed to be close to family and friends. Little did I know what was about to happen to me would put me through hell for the next 8 days and alter the course of my life for decades to come.
Arriving in Lafayette, I advised my girlfriend of my condition and I then went onto the back porch and sat on the steps in the 90 degree sun to warm up. In a matter of minutes, my heart rate doubled to about 120 beats a minute. I was starting to warm up! So I went inside and got into a tub of cool water to soak and cool off. From that point on if I was exposed to direct sunlight, my heart rate doubled. Being a naturopath, I began to use herb teas and nutritional supplements to boost my immune system. Nothing worked.
After 8 days, I decided to go to the hospital. I checked into the University Medical Center and was diagnosed with a fever of 'unknown origin' and prescribed an antibiotic. I took one pill and went to bed that night. I awoke with no fever, and no symptoms what so ever, except I was very weak. End of story, right? Wrong! I lived with a bacteria in my brain for 8 years before I was cured, and bear in mind, I am a tough outdoorsman.
About a month or so later, a hunting buddy/friend of mine gave me an article from a Louisiana Sportsman magazine about Lyme's disease. It precisely mapped out my symptoms and progression to the letter. I went to the hospital and notified them that based upon my research, I was certain that I had Lyme's disease and I wanted them to put it into my medical record. They said that they could not because 'they' didn't diagnose it. Thus began the ordeal of official medical denial that ran for nearly 8 years before I at a point of near death, researched and cured myself with antibiotics in 1997.
At the time I contracted the disease, I was living on my houseboat in the Basin and doing swamp tours part time. I had suffered a back injury in 1986 and assumed that the symptoms I was suffering were the result of or a progression of the back injury.
In august of 1992 Hurricane Andrew roared through South Louisiana and the eye passed over Charenton where my houseboat was parked. I built my houseboat with hurricanes in mind and it stood the test. The worst that happened to it was it got a good pressure washing. But everything I had on land was destroyed. With the typical positive attitude that I operate in I resolved to put everything in order in a few weeks. Yah, right!
It was following Hurricane Andrew that I first noticed that I was suffering from mental organizational dysfunction. and maybe it was a combination of post traumatic stress syndrome and depression, along with Lyme's disease, but I began to notice something was not right. I was not the same person I used to be.
Here I am today, healthy and in my 60's
As fate would have it about 1995, I was doing a swamp tour for a lady from Connecticut and I was sharing my story about the recovery of Hurricane Andrew with her, and she commented that it sounded like I had Lyme's disease. I replied "No, I had that but got cured". She asked how did I know I had Lyme's disease.
When I shared my experiences with her, it was her who advised me that it sounded like I was suffering from'Late' Lyme's Disease, and was actually never fully cured.
I didn't take her seriously at first but she put me in touch with the Lyme's Disease Foundation and they sent me literature and I spoke with them over the course of several years and eventually, because of that one lady from Lyme, Connecticut, I was eventually cured. Sorry to say the three local doctors I called upon all failed to diagnose, treat and get any credit for curing me!
When I shared my experiences with her, it was her who advised me that it sounded like I was suffering from'Late' Lyme's Disease, and was actually never fully cured.
I didn't take her seriously at first but she put me in touch with the Lyme's Disease Foundation and they sent me literature and I spoke with them over the course of several years and eventually, because of that one lady from Lyme, Connecticut, I was eventually cured. Sorry to say the three local doctors I called upon all failed to diagnose, treat and get any credit for curing me!
Below s a great link to Kris Kristofferson's Lyme's Disease story
What if you never got bit by a tick?
Can Lyme's disease be transmitted by sexual contact?
