Perreault Magazine - 30 -
Lori Mattix works in fashion retail in Los Angeles. Four years ago, she traveled to Idaho for a two-week stint in her company’s Sun Valley branch. “I worked every day,” she recalls, “barely even setting foot outside the store.” Then, on her last day in Idaho, she stopped by the house of a friend who lives on a small ranch nearby. “We walked her German shepherds around the property. Then I drove to the airport and flew back to LA.”
Once home, Mattix stepped into the shower to freshen up. To her surprise, she found a bright red rash on her forearm.
It was round and looked like a bull’s-eye.
Concerned, she went to her doctor the next day. He dismissed the rash as insignificant.
Over the next few days, the spot on her arm became even more pronounced. She decided to visit a walk-in clinic. The nurse called it a lesion from a tick bite, prescribed a week’s worth of antibiotics for Lyme disease and sent Mattix on her way.
She took the pills and the rash faded. Seeking more information, Mattix called the health department in Idaho. She says they told her she had nothing to worry about, since there’s no Lyme disease in Idaho. In the coming months, that advice would ring hollow indeed.
Strange symptoms started popping up: high fevers, migraine headaches, pains throughout her body.
“Hips, knees, it never seemed to hurt in the same place twice,” she recounts. Mattix developed allergies. Her hair fell out in clumps. Insomnia set in. “I’d be awake almost all night, every night. I was a walking zombie.”
Doctor visits brought lots of medical tests—including a screening test for Lyme disease—but no answers. The tests were negative and the physicians she consulted couldn’t find anything wrong with her. Yet, the mysterious health problems continued. One day, about three years after that fateful day in Idaho, Mattix says she “simply collapsed.” Her face went numb. Her whole body went numb. She fell to the floor and wondered if she’d had a stroke.
Finally, with the assistance of friends and Internet research, she found a doctor widely experienced in diagnosing and treating Lyme disease. He ordered different tests, including a Lyme test called the western blot, on which she showed positive. He prescribed a longer course of antibiotics, as well as herbal supplements and dietary changes. She’s been in treatment for about a year. “It’s been a slow process,” she says, “but I’m getting better.”
Lyme disease is a bacterial infection transmitted by tick bite. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention estimate that about 300,000 people are diagnosed with it every year in the United States.
LYME DISEASE
What you need to know about this serious infection
By Dorothy Kupcha Leland, LymeDisease.org