Nightmare In Jackson County
by Pam Little

Looking back on it now....I lived through a nightmare that lasted for years. It started in February of 1992. I was cleaning house for my clients and thought it was strange that they had me start in the back of the house, while they vacuumed the mud room and kitchen themselves with a different vacuum. One day, however, they were gone to the doctor, and that day was an eye opener.

Little tiny bugs were all around the baseboards, in the corners, at the ceiling, on an eyelevel microwave. Some larger ones were stuck behind the clear corner guards used to protect wallpaper. Ticks were in the leather shoes in the coat closet. While dusting a top shelf, I saw a grey button fall to the floor and roll down a drain. I told my client when she returned. She said, "That was not a button. That was a pregnant tick. It will have hundreds of babies." She told me to use a piece of tape to collect them off the wall, and collect 710 ticks on the tape. Then I should fold it together, take it to the mudroom, hold it with tweezers and burn it over a can. She said they won't hurt you because they are dog ticks.

Their poor dog, a wirehaired terrier, looked so sad. He was only six years old, but he looked like he was twenty. He had sparse hair and drooled all over the floor. Some days he limped, others he suffered with fever and wouldn't eat. Another time his back was so bad he couldn't get up at all. When he was on antibiotics, he acted like a happy puppy. When the antibiotic therapy was stopped, he would again become listless and feverish.

I was beginning to feel like that dog looked! The first bullseye rash was all over the calf of one leg. The second one my doctor noticed while I was showing her my two toenails that were falling off for no apparent reason. For the next ten months I continued downhill. Bizarre problems plagued me: stabbing pains that felt like ice picks going through me; headache; fatigue so heavy I couldn't get dressed; neck ache; vomiting; diarrhea; fever; chills; heart pains; horrible hip pains; joint aches; sore throat; hives; bleeding kidneys; hair loss (so much it clogged my vacuum belt); memory loss; sleeplessness; horrible nightmares; extreme vomiting; excruciating hip pain; and breasts so sore l felt like l was hit with a 2x4. Every hair on my head hurt. Memory loss was one of the worst symptoms. I forgot how to cook, who my friends were, the color of my toothbrush, my bank account numbers, even how to plant tomatoes. I put shrimp on to cook at 8:00 one morning and left the house. When I returned to the house at 3:00, the house was full of black, caustic smoke. The pan was beet red, and the shrimp had shrunken to tiny charcoal briquets. I was so lucky the house didn't catch on fire. I recently found a note that I'd once written to my husband in the middle of the night. In case I was dead in the morning, he would know what I was going through and what I had taken.

Now, not only did I feel like that dog looked, I was beginning to look like that dog looked! By the way, the dog died and was cremated in May, only one month after I was diagnosed in April. All my suffering was due to the fact that my doctor was reluctant to keep me on oral antibiotics and would not prescribe anything very strong. This allowed the bacteria to grow and get stronger The text book training she had was not helping me. I needed a new doctor, one who had successfully treated Lyme before  an expert! My insurance, an HMO, sent me to one in Lansing (he even had Lyme on his brochure). That was a joke. He said I had plain arthritis. I heard about a doctor in Saginaw who was smart enough to treat Lyme aggressively  long and strong! My insurance wouldn't pay...I was going out of my area. It was almost winter by now and I'd been sick since early spring. I had to pay for my own treatment. Insurance companies don't care!

There are no words to describe how scary it is to have your health and life fall apart. I'm thankful to my husband and family for trying to help me get through this mess.

I had no one who would look after my health except Dr. Joseph Natole. He is a SAINT. After ten and one half months of treatment, I was pronounced "cured". Without him I would never have recovered. We need more doctors like him who are not afraid of being indicted for treating us.

This experience left me very disillusioned with our state professionals and the Health Department. One person with the Michigan Health Department told me not to worry about Lyme disease. "It is just like having a cold." She is in a position of authority and should know better. The State Lab said the ticks were negative, then told me they had to keep quiet or they would lose their job.

Lyme disease causes my fear and anger in our state and it is not fair when the government hides the truth from the people that live here and pay the goverment official's wages.

We deserve the truth!

For more information on Lyme disease see: Lots Of Links On Lyme Disease

Last updated on 29 December 2000 by
Art Doherty
Lompoc, California
doherty@utech.net

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