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The data and information presented in this web site are presented in good faith and believed to be accurate. Any and all liability for the content or any omissions including any inaccuracies, errors, or misstatements in such data or information is expressly disclaimed. The web site is compiled for the sole purpose of informing community members of resources and information pertaining to Lyme Borreliosis Disease and its coinfections.
The Canadian Lyme Disease Foundation, Directors and members are not liable for any direct or indirect damages or any damages whatsoever resulting from loss of use, data or profits, whether in an action of contract, negligence or other tortious action arising out of or in connection with the use or performance of information available from this website.
Consult a qualified Lyme ( Borreliosis ) Disease literate doctor for medical advice if Lyme Disease is suspect.
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'I thought I was going crazy'
Times Colonist newspaper (Victoria)
Sunday, February 23, 2003
Page: D7
Section: Monitor
Source: Times Colonist
The number of cases of Lyme disease on Vancouver Island is being followed with great interest by Shawnigan resident Pat Cooley, who believes she was infected with Lyme more than 20 years ago in Kelowna, at age 24.
She was recently treated by Hope physician Dr. Ernie Murakami and is now seeing tremendous improvement, but remains committed to increasing awareness about the disease. She is producing a brochure, and creating a list of Island residents with Lyme. She has collected 15 names so far.
Here are some of their stories:
Jack Julseth has suffered from joint pain, fatigue, rashes all over his body, headaches and chest pains for three decades, and in the last few years has lost 40 pounds and had cycling panic attacks and bouts of depression.
"It has been very scary," says his wife Teresa.
"Jack had a muscle biopsy at one point that showed muscle inflammation. Then in his late 30s we went to the Mayo Clinic and he was told he had psoriatic arthritis ... Then we started looking outside the medical norms. He had all his amalgam fillings out, tried all kinds of herbal treatments, smelled of garlic for months," she joked although adding: "He's really my hero."
Jack is 48 and looks as fit as a fiddle, but the owner of Three Point Motors suffers in silence, and gets by on pain pills.
Optimism started to dawn a few years ago when a dentist in the United States suggested Jack's symptoms sounded like Lyme. Jack grew up near Hope, now a confirmed Lyme area, and he remembers becoming very sick and feverish one summer, as a teenager while working outdoors. He then developed a sore back and other symptoms.
Although a blood test was inconclusive, the dentist suggested a course of antibiotics. Initially Jack felt much worse, a common symptom when Lyme treatment starts, but after six weeks the doctor was reluctant to give him more, and no one in Victoria would prescribe it, so the treatment ended.
After hearing about Murakami the Julseths are full of renewed optimism. "We've seen a dozen doctors, but never had a Lyme literate one before, so this is very exciting," she says.
Jen Feschuk, 27, was bitten while travelling across Canada six years ago and developed "a huge, huge bull's-eye rash all over my calf. I went to a hospital in Winnipeg and they told me it was a spider bite and gave me some cream."
Since then the Victoria woman has been diagnosed with chronic fatigue, Fibromyalgia, arthritis, even mental problems for which she was sent to a psychiatrist. She has suffered chronic flu and severe back pain, hives all over her body, fatigue, nausea, hallucinations, anxiety attacks, and intense facial pain.
"At one time I thought I was going crazy."
While studying for her B.Sc., she decided to do some research and homed in on Lyme. Two tests at the B.C. Centre for Disease Control came back negative.
Then she met Murakami, who sent her blood to a lab in California. It came back positive -- "that shocked everyone" -- and her infectious diseases expert in Victoria, Dr. Eric Partlow, put her in hospital, on an antibiotic IV. He also sent her for a spinal tap that confirmed Lyme.
Tracey Hatley, 34, was bitten 41/2 years ago near Nanaimo, and developed a classic bull's-eye rash.
"I went to a clinic and the doctor said it was a tick bite and gave me antibiotics for two weeks, but I think that wasn't long enough."
Within weeks she started getting headaches, feeling dizzy, had a swollen knee, was terribly tired. She was later diagnosed with rheumatoid arthritis, fibromyalgia and irritable bowel disease.
When she finally learned more about Lyme disease and checked a list of symptoms she had 33 of 38. "That's the highest score I've ever had on any test in my life." Her B.C. Lyme test came back negative, but the one from California's IgeneX lab just came back positive and she hopes to begin treatment soon.
Oak Bay's Isabell McLeod was a 45-year-old ICU nurse when bitten in 1984 at Shawnigan Lake. "I had a lump on my head but my doctor said it was an infected follicle. Over the years I got sicker and sicker. I got confused, disoriented with brain fog, had pain everywhere, nausea every single day, phenomenal fatigue."
Luckily, one day her doctor read an article on Lyme and "everything fell into place." He called her back into the office, said he had made the wrong diagnosis years ago and immediately put her on long-term antibiotics. A blood test from the Vancouver lab came back positive.
The Victoria woman has been off and on low dose antibiotics since 1989 and seen some improvement, but recently Murakami recommended two different antibiotics taken together. Her doctor is now prescribing them for three months.
"I started on Jan. 6 and am really improving. I wouldn't have been able to even follow this conversation a few months ago."
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