“My family needs me, the world needs me. Please help if you can.”
It takes a lot of courage to ask for help, and it is not something the patients we have met or worked with do lightly or easily. For many, it takes months or years beyond the point of really needing help to finally be ready to ask for it…or, more likely, to no longer have a choice.
Kerri Currier / Squamish Chief, June 4, 2015
Squamish is a gorgeous natural playground to raise a family. However, the security I had in nature came to a halt upon learning the reality of Lyme disease treatment in B.C. I presented to the walk-in clinic with half a tick in my arm and was told not to worry about Lyme in the area. I’m now dealing with late-stage Lyme disease, its long term treatment and costs.
Health Canada has confirmed that the southern mainland and coast of British Columbia are endemic for Lyme disease. Many people will never notice they were bit by a tick and erythema migrans rash will show up in less than 50 per cent of people, according to the Canadian Lyme Disease Foundation (Canlyme).
The foundation says current testing in Canada misses 62 per cent of Lyme. It should be a clinical diagnosis and it is commonly misdiagnosed.
“Dealing with a life altering chronic pain and illness is like grieving for the death of someone close to you, except you are grieving for yourself and what you are unable to do now.”
Kate is about to embark on a very big and very far away chapter in her recovery. Hers will be an international migration for care, and across the Rockies and beyond there are a touching number of Lyme patients pulling for her, excited and hopeful for this chapter to bring her the most that it possibly can toward her recovery.
Kate Lamport, Helena MT
Continue reading Kate’s Story ~ And a new and far away chapter in a local patient’s recovery
Northern Rockies Lyme Disease Coalition 