KiwiParent from Parents Center NZ Test Volume | Page 60

Ruby's story A little girl. An undiagnosed tick bite. A life threatening illness. Ruby Penney was like any other seven year old growing up in New Zealand; carefree, happy and talented, this little girl had an infectious zest for life. That all changed following the winter of 2010 when Ruby’s family – mum, Rachel, dad, Darren, and brother, Sam – all went on holiday to Australia. Ruby was visiting a park and went to pat a kangaroo. Her mum noticed a speck of dirt in her hair and pulled it out, only noticing then that the speck had legs. It was a tick. What has followed has become the stuff of nightmares. Though Ruby seemed ok for several weeks she had a strange rash on her neck and began to complain of flu-like symptoms. These steadily got worse and a concerned mum took her to her family doctor who read her symptoms as a virus. Several weeks of steadily declining illness followed until the family found themselves in the middle of their nightmare when, completely out of the blue, Ruby suffered an immense seizure which had flung her out of bed. What followed was weeks in hospital, while Ruby continued to suffer seizures and doctors could not find a diagnosis for her symptoms. But they weren’t looking for an illness which is uncommon here and very hard to detect. Lyme disease, caught from the bacteria transferred from a simple tick bite. Photo Credits: Kim Kobialko Over the months that followed Ruby’s health steadily declined. The illness saw her suffering up to 70 life threatening seizures a month and her mind became so befuddled that, this earlier bright little girl, could not count to 10 or remember her ABC’s. Doctors still could not find a diagnosis. There’s a saying that “a worried mother does more research than the FBI”. Rachel’s profession as a nurse stood her in good stead as she researched high and low to find out what was wrong with her little girl. Her research led her one single conclusion and Ruby’s blood was sent off for testing in the USA. The test came back positive for Lyme disease and its co-infection, Bartonella. The seven month delay in diagnosis turned out to be critical as early diagnosis would have meant easy treatment. Early Lyme disease detection means a cure with a simple course of antibiotics but seven months later this bacteria had run rampant in this little girl’s body and made itself at home in every organ it could. Ruby is now responding well to treatment, which she ????????)????????????????Q????????)??????????????????????????)?????????????????????????????) ??????????Q??????????????????)????????????????????????????)??????????????????????????????)????????????????????????() ????????????????((0