25-09 - Flipbook - Page 47
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"Early in the days of Lyme disease there was a big debate," says Brian Fallon, director of the
Lyme and Tick-Borne Diseases Research Center at Columbia University in New York. "Are
patients making it up? Are they hypochondriacs where they think they're ill when they're
not? That's what led to a lot of struggles in the early 1990s with how to treat these patients."
That struggle continues. The Welsh rapper Ren, for example, was initially diagnosed with bipolar disease and chronic fatigue syndrome. Bedbound for several years, he even had to
suspend his music career before being accurately diagnosed with Lyme in 2015; he still receives treatment for autoimmune conditions as a result of the infection. A number of other
celebrities have spoken publicly about their struggles with Lyme disease, including Justin
Bieber, Shania Twain and Avril Lavigne. Most recently singer Justin Timberlake revealed he
had been diagnosed with the disease after concluding his latest world tour, describing
how he had experienced a "massive amount of nerve pain" while on stage. "If you've experienced this disease or know someone who has 3 then you're aware: living with this can
be relentlessly debilitating, both mentally and physically," Timberlake wrote in a post on Instagram.
Lyme is rarely fatal, and most people will recover if treated quickly with antibiotics today.
The problem is in diagnosis, since many medical practitioners put too much emphasis on
the initial presence of an expanding rash (erythema migrans) that has red concentric
"bullseye" rings resembling the centre target of a dart board.
Even when you have a classic bullseye rash, the GP often diagnoses it as ringworm 3 Jack
Lambert
"The bullseye rash is not always a bullseye," says Lambert. "It can be elliptical. It could be a
solid rash. It can be a blistering rash. It can be a bruise. Also, on dark skin, it doesn't look like
a bullseye at all. Even when you have a classic bullseye rash, the GP often diagnoses it as
ringworm. But ringworm is only a rash. It doesn't have joint pain or memory problems."
At this point, I will admit to having (literal) skin in the game after being bitten by a tick in
June 2023, most likely while on a wildflower walk. Ticks are found on mammals such as cattle, deer, mice and pets, but in between feeding they also perch at the end of low-lying
grasses and vegetation waiting for unsuspecting victims.
Over the next three months, three different medical professionals dismissed
my expanding rash because it was not a bullseye. I was prescribed antifungal, then anti-bacterial and anti-histamine creams. The rash simply got
bigger.
