15
May
2012
by Alyssa Tice
Caitlin Tice
In June, I sent my then three-year old daughter, Caitlin, to summer camp. The camp was held in the same building where she attended pre-school. After just a week or two, I noticed that she was starting to act strangely. She just wasn’t herself. She came home from camp extremely cranky and sleepy. I figured it was due to an active day at camp. Then, I started to notice that she was experiencing, what I would call, severe separation anxiety. Caitlin never once had a problem being dropped off for pre-school the entire year before, so why was she now kicking, screaming and crying at drop off every day? I blamed her anxiety on the fact that her camp cluster was all boys. I thought perhaps that she was being bullied by some of the boys and I addressed my concerns with the camp counselors. I then noticed that even when she was away from camp and we were, for example, food shopping, she would freak out if I just momentarily took my hands off of the shopping cart to pick an item off of the shelf. This behavior was just not characteristic of her. After this had gone on for several weeks I took her temperature, even though she did not feel hot to the touch. She was just so cranky and I knew there had to be an explanation. To my surprise, she did indeed have a low-grade fever. When the fever did not subside, I took her to the pediatrician, who of course, said it was just a passing virus.
Caitlin continued to have a low-grade fever and in early September she started to complain of migratory joint pain. One day she would literally cry that her knees hurt and the next day she would complain of elbow pain. She also experienced shoulder pain, hip pain and wrist pain. The teachers at school advised me that she kept falling out of her little chair over and over again. She was clearly having balance issues. I also noticed that she was having trouble walking and she woke up many nights crying that her hands and feet tingled. My husband and I started to panic, especially since the fever would not abate.
Our pediatrician surmised that Caitlin might have Lyme disease — after all we live in Connecticut a.k.a. Lyme central — but after a battery of blood tests came back negative, the pediatrician was left stumped.
Things were starting to get worse–fast. Caitlin had no energy and was rapidly losing weight. She developed dark circles under her eyes and just looked so sickly. She was unable to control her urine and had accidents nearly every day- even though she had been fully potty trained for over a year and a half. Her separation anxiety seemed to be getting worse and she suffered from what is known as a sudden onset of obsessive compulsive disorder (“OCD”). Out of nowhere one day she started screaming and freaking out that her hands were sticky, even though they weren’t. She would not calm down even after we washed her hands a million times. This was not my daughter. Where did my daughter go? I was terrified at this point.
We brought Caitlin to numerous specialists all over Connecticut and New York, including a pediatric rheumatologist, a pediatric neurologist, an infectious disease specialist, and an immunologist. No one could figure out what was wrong with her. Many of the doctors even dismissed Caitlin’s symptoms and told us to just “stop taking her temperature every day.”
Finally, in early October, Caitlin was clinically diagnosed with Lyme disease. Although her initial blood test did not show serological evidence of Lyme exposure, her subsequent blood test, which was sent to a laboratory in California that specializes in Lyme disease, showed that Caitlin was in fact exposed to the Lyme bacterium.
Caitlin was immediately put on two types of antibiotics. She has been on antibiotics for over six months now and I am happy to report that almost all of her symptoms are gone, including all of the psychological symptoms of anxiety and OCD.
In the midst of this hell, I too, had not been feeling well for some time. I was suffering from wicked earaches and headaches. I had severe chest pain and anxiety. I just wasn’t myself, but I thought that it was because of the stress of Caitlin’s situation.
I also saw numerous specialists in the Fall—two neurologists, two ear nose and throat doctors, a TMJ specialist, and a cardiologist. I had a battery of tests—blood drawn, CT scans, Brain MRI’s, X-rays, an echo cardiogram, and a stress test. Everything came back negative and no one could explain my symptoms. I even sought the help of a psychiatrist because I felt that I was losing my mind.
It was not until Caitlin was diagnosed with Lyme’s disease, that I thought, after reading a lot of medical literature that my ailments could also be caused by Lyme. I requested that my primary care physician retest my blood for Lyme. This time it came back positive.
Although I was not happy to hear that I too had Lyme disease, I was relieved to finally have an answer as to why I felt so lousy. After just three months of antibiotics, I feel like myself again! My chest pain is gone completely, my headaches are gone and I no longer have debilitating earaches.
It has been a long road to recovery, but my daughter and I are doing much better. I am grateful that we figured out what was wrong before more damage was done. To think that this was all caused by a tiny tick…….
Some important information about Lyme Disease:
-Lyme disease is an infectious disease caused by a corkscrew shaped bacterium called a spirochete and is transmitted by the bite of a tick.
-Lyme disease had been reported throughout the US, but is most prevalent in the Northeast, Upper Midwest and Northern California into Oregon and Washington
-A conclusive, reliable test to diagnose Lyme disease currently does not exist.
-There is a divide in the medical community over how to properly diagnose and successfully treat Lyme disease
-Lyme disease is known as the “Great Imitator” since the symptoms may mimic those of other diseases such as: Multiple Sclerosis, Lupus, Chronic Fatigue, Fibromyalgia, Mononucleosis, Alzheimer’s, ALS, Rheumatoid Arthritis, Parkinson’s disease as well as many others.
-Symptoms of Lyme may appear days, weeks, months or even years after an infected tick bite.
-A person may have Lyme disease without presenting the most obvious and “classic” symptoms such as bull’s eye rash, flu and joint pain. Many people with Lyme disease never see a tick or a rash.
-Late stage symptoms are many and may involve all symptoms of the body including rheumatological, cardiac, neurological, gastrointestinal and neuropsychiatric problems.
-Lyme disease can affect behavioral and cognitive functioning through symptoms such as memory loss, mental confusion, depression, anxiety and attention deficit and processing problems.
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Tags: alyssa tice • doctors • lyme disease • misdiagnosis • time for lyme
