For Southern Oregon, Lymes Disease Goes Beyond the Bullseye

Lyme Disease is quickly becoming one of the fastest growing diseases in the nation with almost 300,000 new cases being diagnosed yearly. Though Oregon boasts overall lower numbers than that shown on the East Coast the illness is still rising in Oregon and more advanced methods of diagnosis are displaying higher levels of confirmed cases than before.

The biggest misconception associated with the disease is that Lyme is always spread with a single bite of an infected deer tick. However, recent studies have shown that Lyme is possible to spread through things like pregnancy through mother to fetus transfusion, blood, and, on rare occasion as recent studies indicate, sexual contact. This is raising concerns throughout the medical community as broader testing is needed to determine how, and where, the disease has come from.

Though the most common form of transmission is through tick bites, this can be just as hard to connect when the most likely culprit to spread the illness is the Larva or Nymph Tick, which can often be smaller than the tip of a needle. Nymph ticks are the hardest to find, because of their nearly microscopic size being often smaller than a grain of sand, and with their ability to travel into unlikely areas like under finger nails, the groin, the scalp and under arms. They mostly go undetected and once found it is typically past the thirty-six-hour incubation period for the bacteria to be transmitted from bite to human host.

Lyme disease is caused by a strain of bacteria called Borrelia burgdorferi and acts like a corkscrew when attacking the systems of the body such as the nervous system, joint and muscular system, and immune system. The disease can often lay dormant for years and less than 75% of people infected ever had the tell-tale “Bullseye Rash”. This often leads to late diagnosis. For many people the diagnosis finally comes after neurological degeneration has already begun.

Katrina Bissell, a Lyme Patient in Southern Oregon, and now advocate for Lyme awareness, went undiagnosed for years, and did not receive her diagnosis until after six months to a year of rigorous testing. The phone call finally came, with the news a day after she received a positive pregnancy test for her third child.

Katrina never experienced a tick bite, to her knowledge and never remembers having a rash or neurological symptoms until roughly five years ago when she began to experience sensations of extreme fatigue, and severe joint and muscular pain in her hands and arms. Looking back, she says that there were some warning signs earlier on, like forgetfulness and joint swelling, but nothing she could not relate to having a typically normal life of a mother. Like most Lyme’s patients, it was not until her symptoms started impacting her life did she seek out treatment or diagnosis.

When many patients do seek out medical intervention for the more common symptoms of Lyme they are often greeted with misdiagnosis, or even disregarded by the medical community. Because the symptoms of Lyme is so vast many people are diagnosed with other ailments like Multiple Sclerosis, Fibromyalgia, Epilepsy, and even illnesses such as Alzheimer’s and dementia. This is only more problematic given that current testing has a long road to travel. It is estimated that at least 50% of negative Lyme tests are actually false negative. Leaving numerous infected individuals to go without further treatment and leading to more neurological damage.

After the diagnosis can be even more frustrating when many members of the medical field still disregard Lymes as a frequent and severe medical ailment.

After seeking treatment for what she thought was Strep Throat, Katrina ended up feeling condescended to and objectified when she mentioned her Lymes Diagnosis.

“I had a sore throat that wouldn’t go away, and my son had recently been diagnosed with Strep,” She said. “So, I went into the clinic and met with the doctor. I believe in full disclosure, so I said to him that I have chronic Lymes disease.” Katrina’s shock came after the doctor’s response to her statement. “He then scoffed at me, looked me in the eye and said, ‘You know that’s not really a thing right.’”

After that moment, the physician began lecturing Katrina on her choice of supplements and medical treatment prescribed to her by her Lyme Specialist, Dr. Cory Tichauer, one of the top Lyme Disease specialists in the nation.

“There are so many cases of Lyme in the area now, that’s all he does,” Katrina says when referring to Dr. Tichauer. “He’s booked at least six months out.”

Proper diagnosis and treatment can be incredibly difficult for Lyme patients to find, especially in the Southern Oregon region. Not only is more efficient and higher-grade testing needed, a general awareness of the disease, even in the medical community, is vital if this illness is going to be put to a stop. Almost eight hundred people a day are diagnosed with the illness and without fundamental changes, this number will only continue to grow.

For Katrina Bissell, she is not hoping for a miracle cure, but just wishes for change.

“I’m not even asking for a cure,” she says, “Even just more awareness I’d be happy with. That’s what we all want.”