MY JOURNEY
by Iris Meade
My journey began in August 2018, when I fell ill with cholystistis. During my stay in hospital I developed weird pulling and stabbing pains in my legs. I highlighted this to consultants and they said once I had my gallbladder removed the pains would go. Unfortunately, the pain remained plus other peculiar symptoms, including cognitive difficulties, chronic fatigue the list was endless.
I was then referred to a general medicine consultant who thought it might be fibromayalgia, but I wasn’t convinced. At this point I had never heard of Lyme Disease.
One day I was listening to Liveline and Joe was talking to Lyme sufferers. It sounded so familiar, I couldn’t believe it. I also seen a documentary on RTE , called Living with Lyme and once again I could relate strongly to what one lady said. Without these programs I would have remained unaware of the disease.
I had been tested for Lyme Disease in a lab in Dublin but this returned a negative result and other blood tests showed nothing was wrong with me, which was baffling. Based on what I heard on the documentary it was mentioned having blood tested in Germany, specifically for Lyme Disease and co-infections.
So, I sent my bloods off to the Lab in Germany and received a positive, active result with co-infections. I was devastated but also delighted as I had an answer, this took a year, plus it was costly. I began to recall many weird symptoms that I had encountered over the years. Swollen eyes, burning feet, tingling and numbness in the hands,
I also had summer flu symptoms and other peculiar unexplained symptoms but they were always looked at in isolation. I then recalled in 2013 I had a mark , that when I Googled showed ring worm. It was small unlike the bullseye rash we are always shown for Lyme. I treated it with tea tree oil and thought no more. But in hindsight this was the tick bite that I had got whilst gardening in Wexford.
With the clinical symptoms and lab results I returned to the consultant who then prescribed antibiotics. I eventually got to see Lyme Consultant who officially diagnosed me with Chronic Lyme Disease and currently I am on a treatment regime.
I am hopeful that I can get this disease into remission and hopefully keep it there. I am unable to work at the moment which has been very upsetting for me.
Because this is an invisible chronic illness people find it hard to believe that you are sick, which is frustrating. I am all too aware that this will take time. It is unfortunately a marathon not a sprint!
There is very little support for Lyme Disease sufferers in Ireland but the Tick Talk forum has provided invaluable information.