Local
family afflicted with lyme disease
Lyme
disease has infected a Back Mountain family, who feels the illness has become
a hidden epidemic since it is frequently misdiagnosed.
The Citizens Voice
WilkesBarre, PA
by Denise Allabaugh
27 Jan 2004
The Rev. Dan Miller,
pastor of the Back Mountain Harvest Assembly, his wife, Deb, and daughter,
Rebecca Walker, were diagnosed with Lyme disease after being misdiagnosed
with other illnesses for years.
“I was misdiagnosed
with at least eight other things,” Walker said. “There’s
a lot of misdiagnosis going on.”
They believe many
other people also are being misdiagnosed with illnesses such as Lou Gehrig’s
disease, multiple sclerosis or Fibromyalgia, when they might actually
have Lyme disease.
The family is inviting
the public to attend a Lyme disease conference to be held Saturday, Feb.
7, from 1 to 4:30 p.m., at Back Mountain Harvest Assembly, 340 Carverton
Road, Trucksville.
Speakers include
Pat Smith of the National Lyme Disease Association, Dr. Richard Horowitz
of Hyde Park, NY, Dr. Harold Smith of Bloomsburg, and Dr. Gregory Bach
of Colmar, PA. A free reception will be held at 12:30 p.m.
Lyme disease, a bacterial
infection, is commonly contracted by a tick bite and initially causes
a flu-like sickness.
The Rev. Miller found
out he had Lyme disease after he developed a “bull’s-eye”
rash on his arm. He believes he contracted the disease from a tick bite.
“I’m a
hunter and I’ve had ticks on me while I was hunting, so that’s
probably where it came from,” he said. “I didn’t actually
see the tick, but I saw the rash.”
His wife and daughter
never developed this rash, but were still diagnosed with the disease.
According to the
Lyme Disease Association of Southeastern Pennsylvania, a rash occurs in
fewer than 50 percent of Lyme disease patients.
Walker, a nurse at
Wilkes-Barre General Hospital, showed research that the disease also could
be caused from a blood transfusion or placental transmission. Some doctors
believe it can be sexually transmitted.
“They don’t
know if I was born with this or if I got bit when I was young,” Walker
said. “I started to get sick when I was 8 and I was just diagnosed
six months ago.”
For the Rev. Miller,
it took four years to find out what was wrong. The disease started with
flu-like symptoms and it progressed to tingling sensations in his fingers
and toes, numbness in his body and blurred vision. At times, he felt he
had “brain fog.”
He went to numerous
doctors, who thought he might have multiple sclerosis or lupus, until
he was finally diagnosed with Lyme disease.
For Walker, the disease
started with ankle and foot pain, heart palpitations, ringing in her ears
and chronic fatigue.
“I could sleep
15 hours a day and feel like I got nothing,” Walker said. “It
affected my memory. I didn’t know if I wasn’t going to get through
college.”
After her father
was diagnosed with Lyme disease, Walker realized she had all the same
symptoms.
She was finally diagnosed
with Lyme disease by Dr. Harold Smith. Dr. Smith, his wife, and two children
also have Lyme disease.
“This is a plague,”
Walker said. “You have animals with it. Sometimes, you can find a
tick crawling on the floor because we have three Labradors. It’s
really a problem.”
According to the
Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, more than 19,000 new cases
of Lyme disease are reported nationally each year and it is estimated
that at least 10 times that many cases are not reported.
Only five cases of
Lyme disease were reported in Luzerne County in 2001, according to the
most recent statistics available from Pennsylvania Health Department.
Untreated, Lyme disease
can cause long-term, persistent illness that often affects more than one
system of the body.
The Millers and their
daughter are all taking antibiotics to treat the disease.
“I’m back
to playing basketball, and I’m feel 100 times better than I did five
years ago when this whole thing started,” Miller said. “You
can get better.”
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