Nation: Help Don’s sister fight Lyme disease

Update:
Don has learned that there are doctors able to treat Lyme disease in Seattle, and has found one that is willing to treat his sister Colleen. An anonymous Christian organization from Dubai has agreed to fly her from Albuquerque to Seattle on Saturday.

Detective Ed Troyer has agreed to meet Colleen when she lands and help transport her to the hospital.

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Laurie McClellan said that it was hard to pinpoint when her husband Patrick starting getting sick. It happened gradually, over years.

He started getting stiff when he took car rides. Running on the treadmill became increasingly tiring. One night, he forgot where they lived and wandered around for an hour before he remembered the name of his subway stop.

Then, his speech started slurring, he started choking when he tried to drink and he stumbled when he tried to walk.

When his feet got cold and turned blue – the couple knew something was wrong and sought help for his mystery ailments.

Laurie brought Patrick to her internist to try and figure out what was wrong, and she said it was Lyme disease.

“We were shocked,” Laurie told Libby Denkmann with 97.3 KIRO FM’s Ron & Don Show.

The thing is – some doctors don’t believe Lyme disease is a real thing, they think the symptoms are often all in a patient’s head. Or, if they do treat patients, insurance companies work to take away the licenses of physicians, because the costs are too high.

Lyme disease is caused by a bacteria commonly transmitted by infected tick bites. Since its discovery in the 1970s, the medical community considered it easy to treat – just a few weeks of antibiotics.

But, for people like Patrick, who do not see the tick biting, or get a telltale rash after contact, Lyme disease can stay undiagnosed for years.

Laurie thinks Patrick had been living undiagnosed with disease between five and seven years. “The bacteria had a chance to get really entrenched and that means it takes a while to kill it off.

Patrick would not only be battling his symptoms, but the politics surrounding Lyme. The 2008 documentary Under Our Skin depicted the controversy in the medical community.

Even the name of the condition is controversial. The Centers for Disease Control says the “Chronic Lyme Disease” is wrong, and patients like Patrick actually have “Post-treatment Lyme disease Syndrome.” The CDC likens it to fibromyalgia or Chronic fatigue syndrome.

Last year in the United States there were 25-30,000 new cases of Lyme disease, mostly concentrated in the Northeast and Midwest. There are other scattered instances across America.

Many Lyme specialists say that because diagnoses are often missed, the real number of sick people could be much higher.

With new and continuing research, says Laurie, the prognosis for patients is getting much better. “In 10 years, if someone finds out if they have this disease it will not be such a hard road for them. It will be just like having diabetes, it’s a tough diagnosis but you’re going to be able to go to your doctor and doctor and get help, and that’s what people need.”

Now, Patrick is in his sixth month of treatment, taking a cocktail of antibiotics and showing signs of recovery.

“He stopped stumbling over words, he stopped choking while he drank,” Laurie says. His dexterity problems have gone away gradually, and his other symptoms too, one by one.

Listen to Fighting for a diagnosis: Lyme disease

Don’s little sister Colleen, a music pastor in Albuquerque, NM, has tested positive for Lyme disease. Two weeks ago, Colleen went to the hospital and has been on a respirator and feeding tube in the ICU.

If you have information that could help Don’s sister, please contact RonandDon@bonneville.com.

Listen to Don needs help finding information so his sister can fight Lyme disease

By Alyssa Kleven with Libby Denkmann