A small bug is causing big problems for hundreds of Canadians. The deer tick can carry bacteria that cause Lyme disease. If it's caught early, Lyme disease is very treatable. But that's the problem; it sometimes goes undiagnosed and Canadians who are very sick with this disease say they are being told it is all in their heads.
As a nature photographer, Heather King spent a lot of time outside.
“We would go outside all the time in nature,” says King as she sits at her computer, looking through hundreds of photos she had taken of wildlife. “We would hike, take photos.”
King thinks it was one of those hikes in 2009 that she picked up a tick carrying Lyme disease, though she had no idea at the time what it was.
“It felt like there was a metal pole lodged in my skull,” King remembers, “my fingers would go numb. It felt like I was having a heart attack all the time.”
The black legged tick or deer tick as it is commonly known can carry bacteria that, if left untreated, can invade the heart, nervous system and joints. The telltale symptoms are headaches, fever, flu like symptoms and often a bulls’ eye mark.
King didn't have that. She says the disease went undiagnosed for years.
“Ihad three neurosurgeons, rheumatologists, infectious disease doctors, every kind of test, every kind of doctor,” says King, “and for the most part it was blamed on my anxiety, it's all in your head, you're hysterical.”
Lyme disease is taken seriously in Canada but the jury is out on chronic Lyme disease. Many patients head south to the United States for diagnosis and treatment. That's what King did.
“It wasn't until last September, 2012 when I went to us to see a Lyme doctor that I got officially diagnosed.”
Now she's on multiple medications, about 30 pills a day, including heavy antibiotics that doctors here warn could cause even more problems.
But King insists her health has improved though she still needs help from her friend to do basic housework.
“The medications are available on both sides of the border,” says King’s friend Kristy Lockhart, “so why is it so difficult for Canadians. It doesn't make sense.”
Lyme disease is a reportable disease. Ottawa Public Health confirmed 14 cases last year, double the number from 2008, though it says many of the cases were acquired by ticks outside the Ottawa area.
"It's important to know and be aware if you find a tick,” says Sherry Beadle, the manager of Environment and Health Protection with Ottawa Public Health, “note the date and location you found the tick on yourself as well as understand public health has the ability to test the tick.”
Ticks can be dropped off at Ottawa Public Health at 100 Constellation. Beadle says of the 52 black-legged ticks submitted last year, four tested positive for the bacteria causing Lyme disease. Ten have been submitted so far this year. Results are not yet known.
May is Lyme Disease Awareness month in Canada. Heather King has organized a Lyme Disease Awareness Day in Ottawa for this Saturday, May 11th. The Heritage Building at Ottawa City Hall will be lit green from dawn to dusk.
“Hopefully we can educate people so this doesn't happen to them,” says King, as she buries her head in her hands and starts to cry.
There is no national strategy on how to deal with Lyme disease in Canada. That's what the Green party's Elizabeth May is trying to do. She hopes to introduce a private member's bill this fall, calling for guidelines on how to diagnose and treat Lyme Disease.
