An estimated 300,000 Americans contract Lyme disease every year. My dad, daughter, and I are three of them. (Click here to read my daughter’s story.)

Last month, I launched a new website called OurLymeJourney.com. Starting this Saturday, I’ll share must-have information about this tick-borne illness. Journey with me and others as we illuminate a path toward prevention, early diagnosis, and effective treatment. 

Learn how to recognize Lyme disease as the Great Imitator. Untangle the controversies about the diagnostic tests. Become your own best advocate and get the upper hand on this too-often debilitating disease. 

This blogged book will include four parts, dozens of chapters, and at least a hundred or two blogs. Here’s a sneak peek at some of the content I’ll be covering:

Part One: Our Family’s Lyme Disease Story

• Suffering in Silence with Late-Stage Lyme Disease
• Saved by My Seven-Year-Old
• My Journey from Hope to Healing

Part Two: All About Lyme and Insect-Borne Infections

• Lyme’s History, Biology, and Global Threat
• Eleven Ways to Lower Your Risk for Lyme
• How to Recognize the Great Imitator
• Why Standard Testing Might Not Be Enough
• Lyme’s Common Co-Infections and Other Tick-Borne Diseases
• A Concerning and Controversial Theory

Part Three: Treatment Protocols for Tick-Borne Diseases

• Antibiotics and Anti-Malarial Medications
• Healthy Habits: Complementary Approaches to Treating Lyme
• Lyme Disease Triggers and Related Health Issues

Part Four: Stories of Friends and Family

The final segment of Never Alone: Our Journey with Lyme Disease is all about you! I’ve already had the honor of hearing many of your stories, and I hope to hear and learn from many more. If you’re willing to share your experiences with the world, I’d love to interview you. 

Side note: Most of the part four memoirs will be exclusive to the published version of the book. Others will be exclusive to the blog.  

Join me on this journey by clicking here! 

In my last post, I shared my daughter’s story and tips to help you catch Lyme disease early. But how can we protect ourselves from getting it in the first place? Today, I’m going to share eleven tips for Lyme prevention.

Photo courtesy of bugspray.com.

Studies show at least 20% of people with Lyme disease don’t remember a rash, and the number could be as high as 73%. And, unfortunately, the other symptoms can mimic everything from the flu to rheumatoid arthritis. Many with Lyme have been misdiagnosed with depression, multiple sclerosis, or chronic fatigue syndrome. So how can we decrease our chances of getting this debilitating disease?

I wish I could tell you the tips are easy, but for busy moms and nature-lovers like me, they certainly aren’t. However, they might just prevent our minds and bodies from giving out on us before their time. So here they are! The more we do, and the more often we do them, the more we’ll lower our risk of getting Lyme disease.

TAKE PRECAUTIONS

When hiking, playing outdoors, or doing yard work from the spring through the fall:

• Wear hats, long-sleeved shirts, and pants tucked into socks. (Lighter-colored clothing is best, because it makes it easier to see the ticks.)

• Wear shoes—no flip-flops, sandals, or bare feet—and spray them with permethrin every six weeks. (This tip is one of the easier ones, but it’s been shown to have a big impact.)

Photo courtesy of hikeitbaby.com.

•Pre-treat your clothes with permethrin and use EPA-approved insect repellent on your body. (Repellents containing DEET, picaridin, or lemon eucalyptus oil are most effective.)

• Walk in the center of trails to avoid brush, tall grass, and leaf litter.

• Don’t sit on logs or lean against trees.

• After being outdoors, check yourself and your children for ticks. Don’t forget hidden places like the underwear area and scalps, armpits, and belly buttons.

• Bathe or shower within two hours of coming inside.

• Toss your clothes in a dryer for 5-10 minutes to kill any ticks that may have traveled inside with you.

PLAN AHEAD

• Avoid tick-infested areas from May through July when the nymphs are feeding. (Nymphs are the main disease-carrying stage of the deer tick.)

• If you live in a high-risk area, hire a professional to spray for ticks between mid-May and early June.

• Discourage deer from coming into your yard through building fences and removing plants they enjoy eating.

Those are the best tips I’ve found for preventing this debilitating disease. I don’t expect us to do all of them, but every one we do will help lower our risk of getting Lyme. 

For more information about Lyme prevention, get my free e-book at OurLymeJourney.com!

Photo courtesy of myblindspotjourney.wordpress.com.

What’s your greatest fear?

Since we moved to Maryland in May 2015, one of mine has been that my husband, daughters, or I would get Lyme disease.

We had traded the cold, crime, and bad traffic of Chicago for an adversary the size of a sesame seed.

How could we fight a foe we could barely see?

As you may know, Lyme disease is spread through the bite of infected blacklegged ticks. Also known as “deer ticks,” these bugs are much smaller than other ticks. Depending on the stage of their development, they range in size from a pinhead to an apple seed.

But the damage they cause can be life-changing. Our neighbor had to retire early and still suffers from pain in his back and knees. A sweet friend from church struggles with brain fog, debilitating fatigue, and physical limitations. Combined, these problems led to her having to go on disability.

In both their cases, they had Lyme disease for years before it was diagnosed. And untreated Lyme disease can cause arthritis, meningitis, nerve paralysis, and even heart problems.

In contrast, the CDC says, “People treated with appropriate antibiotics in the early stages of Lyme disease usually recover rapidly and completely.” Hence, the incredible importance of discovering the disease quickly.

EARLY LYME DISEASE: OUR DAUGHTER’S STORY

Michaela on her seventh birthday–Tuesday, August 28, 2018–with her baby bearded dragon.

Five years ago, my father also contracted Lyme disease, but his story gives us hope. Because he realized what it was within a week, he was able to recover from it without any permanent damage. (Well, the Lyme did possibly cause his hypothyroidism, but that’s another story.)

His story and ours are why I’m writing this blog: to help you recognize the disease early before it wreaks havoc on your health. Even more important perhaps, for parents, is to recognize it in your little ones.

Our seven-year-old, Michaela is strong, energetic, and independent. She delights us with her inventiveness, her creativity, and her surprising and perceptive observations.

Michaela at the Maryland Zoo the day we discovered she was sick.

But winter mornings with her can prove challenging. Even if it’s literally freezing outside, she almost never wants to wear a coat. To prove she doesn’t need one, she’ll stand on our deck for .2 seconds and say, “See? It’s not cold!”

But on the way home from her late August birthday party, she started complaining she was cold. The next day, on the way home from the zoo, she said the same. That evening—the Friday before Labor Day—she was hot to the touch. I took her temperature, and it was 103.4 degrees.

My husband, Mark, checked her from head to toe and found nothing unusual. Since her doctor’s office had closed by that time, he took her to a clinic, and they concluded she had a virus.

HOW A RASH RIGHTED A WRONG DIAGNOSIS

On Labor Day, after days of no symptoms except chills, fatigue, and fevers, I discovered a rash. At first, I thought it might just be a pressure mark from her long nap on Mark’s recliner. The middle of the night proved that theory wrong.

Just after midnight, Michaela came into our bedroom crying. Her head hurt, and her fever had spiked to 103.9. I checked the oval red mark on the back of her upper thigh, and it was still there.

Michaela a day after starting the antibiotics. You can still see the red circles around her eyes, but her bright smile is back and her hair is messy, because she was playing superheroes.

I gave her medicine and a lukewarm bath and left a voice mail for the on-call pediatrician. When he called back, he advised me to bring her in first thing in the morning.

I did, and another doctor examined her and ruled out common causes of fever. Then she called in a third doctor to check out the rash, which was clearing in the center. They agreed it was the Lyme disease rash and started her on antibiotics.

(Diagnostic blood tests aren’t usually accurate until four to six weeks after infection, so they start treatment for early Lyme disease based on your signs and symptoms.)

Most importantly, since the doctors think we caught it very early, they don’t predict any long-term problems.

THREE TIPS TO CATCH LYME EARLY

Because I want you to catch it early too, here are my main tips:

First, don’t just check for the Lyme disease rash once. The circular red area usually takes 3 to 14 days to appear after the tick bite and can appear as late as 30 days later. Some people never get the rash.

Second, don’t forget to check your scalp and areas where your skin creases when you stand.

Third, don’t assume it has to look like a bull’s-eye. The erythema migrans can take many forms (see the chart below).

In my dad’s case, his rash looked like a normal rash but then spread to other parts of his body. In Michaela’s case, the classic Lyme disease rash didn’t appear until several days after her symptoms started. If your fever or a loved one’s persists, check for the rash again and see your primary care physician.

So now we know a little more about how to catch Lyme disease early. But how do we prevent ourselves and our loves ones from getting it in the first place? Click here to read my next blog!