Lyme Disease

Emma - Lyme Disease and Me

My journey started in July 2017 unbeknown to me because at the time we were just merrily walking the dogs in woodlands close to where I live in Bedfordshire.

I did not know at the time much about Lyme Disease, I certainly didn't think I would contract it in a woodland just five minutes from my house.

It was a lovely July sunny day and my husband had suggested the family take our dogs to our local woodland just minutes from our house. We really enjoyed taking the dogs there as it was a real paradise for wildlife. It was stacked with memories for me, of all the times I had grown up and walked with friends and their dogs, in such woodland albeit it more built up these days with trees and locals getting to know what they had on their doorstep. A bit of a treasure trove, in recent years it had even had a path built one side of the land for locals to walk along. We tended to stick to the other side though more grassland and trees. Due to the hot weather, I was wearing shorts and wellies completely the wrong clothing to wear when you are going on a walk in long grass, I now know to my peril. For years and years, I would walk there in shorts not realising what lurked in the hedges, long grass and shrubbery.

We really enjoyed our walk and the dogs had loved it to so much, so we had been out for two hours trying to see if we could spot the elusive deer that had been spotted a week before. No luck I am afraid, and we went home still enjoying the warm hot air with two thoroughly worn out dogs.

I never noticed anything going home that day, I certainly did not think I was carrying a tick on my clothing or body. About two days later I noticed a weird scab in the middle of my leg, it was driving me crazy as it was really itching (pre warning next details are gross) but I could not get the scab out of my leg. It did not look like anything other than a reddish black scab later I would discover that this had in fact been the tick.

When ticks go on you there are pretty much clear and tiny but once they have sucked your blood depending on whether they are babies, larvae or adults will determine how long they will stay on you before they drop off. Adult females last the longest on you around seven to ten days in fact.

The reddish black scab lasted on me for around a week as I remember going to my husband's Auntie's house the following Sunday for a tea party and remember saying about my leg and still having the reddish black scab. Everyone at the party looked at my leg that day and everyone thought I had been bitten by a horse fly. My husband's Aunty even put on some cider vinegar hoping it would help with the itching. The next day the scab had gone, and I thought, that is fab, cider vinegar all the way.

Another week past and I was starting to feel a little ropey almost flu like symptoms, I put it down to a summer cold and carried on. Then one day I noticed this funny marking on my leg same place I had been bitten. Never seen anything like it before it had taken around 21 days from the time I had been bitten to when the erythema minas (EM) rash / bullseye rash had come out.

Still at this point I was not aware of Lyme Disease, but I went to my local doctors because of the way I was feeling. I spoke to the nurse about my symptoms and showed her my rash, but she said that it was probably just viral and sent me home.

I was still feeling rotten and my rash on my leg was getting bigger, but I carried on with work telling one of my colleagues a few days later about my leg, she said to me would it be ok for her to look at it as it sounded like I might have Lyme disease. My colleague was quite up on Lyme Disease as her daughter and family lived in Scotland, being a notifiable disease in Scotland there was many posters and warning signs around warning of the dangers of Lyme Disease and what to look out for and what to do if you got bitten or had a tick on you. My colleague took one look at my leg and said, "Emma I think you have the early stages of Lyme Disease". She continued to say that I think you need to seek urgent medical attention now. I believe that if my colleague had not seen my leg that day, I would not be alive to tell you my story. Now if you know my story through Instagram you will know I have many life changing conditions through contracting Lyme Disease, but I believe the strain of bacteria I contracted was so severe that even though I was treated with anti-biotics it did not get rid of the bacteria enough. So, if I hadn't had any anti biotics I dread to think of the consequences. Now I am no doctor, and this is just my story and everyone's story are individual to them, I am just wanting to high light the dangers of Lyme Disease.

That night after speaking to my colleague I went to the emergency out of hours doctor who was unsure what my rash was, however what she did do was say I needed an urgent blood test and was sent to have one on Monday morning at my local doctors. The out of hours doctor also asked me to draw around my rash to see if it was getting bigger, which it was. I went to the doctors on Monday morning like I had been advised and had my blood test. It took four days to receive the results back which confirmed that I had Lyme disease, I then was given a course of three weeks anti biotics that usually treats malaria. I believe as do my family and friends that I had a strain of bacteria which was probably quite potent, so therefore the antibiotics I believe one dose was not enough. Now I cannot confirm this as there is no test that looks at the strain of bacteria that you contract if you have Lyme Disease. What I can confirm is that I have been left with many medical conditions including blood disorders, arthritis, food allergies, IBD from contracting Lyme disease.

In February 2019 I was rushed into hospital with what we now know was sepsis and arthritis. My conditions mean that I am susceptible to having sepsis every couple of weeks. This has meant I have had to put on hold a career that I trained so hard in having been a therapist for ten years, having to take a sabbatical from my work. The medical professionals are also battling to find currently medications that will work for me and this is continuing to be a difficult process and time consuming. However, it is a process that I stay positive with as I believe a positive mind can help you over come all sorts of difficulties!

Lyme Disease is on the increase and some suggest that it is up to three times higher cases than originally estimated. Lyme Disease is all year around. You can even transport ticks on your clothes and then they can crawl onto your body. So, Lyme disease UK suggest that when walking in grassy areas you wear light coloured clothing. You can also pick up ticks that maybe carrying Lyme disease even in your garden and cities. Anybody can get Lyme disease even dogs and other animals to. Please check out https://lymediseaseuk.com for latest information and guidance on Lyme Disease.

Thank you for reading Emma Alabaster