Finding A Specialist For Lyme Disease Pain

In retrospect, Jordan a Lyme disease specialist believes her troubles began in fall 2006 after a hike with her dogs along her rural Franklin County property. The day after the hike, Jordan removed what she recognized as a Lone Star tick from her thigh.

An avid hiker and outdoorsman, Jordan didn't think much of it until a month later when her 2-year-old pup began having stiffness and pain in his legs. Jordan ran a blood test. It came back positive for Lyme disease.

A month later, Jordan noticed a similar stiffness in her hands, followed by the gradual onset of a low grade fever, insomnia, fatigue and pain in her lower back - all common symptoms of Lyme disease.

Jordan never saw a rash, but by the end of April, the pain in her hands had moved into her feet, neck, knees and shoulders. It would be strange to contract Lyme disease from a Lone Star tick because the disease is usually transmitted by a deer tick. “But I have always believed that any tick can transmit anything,” Jordan says. “There were days when I was working where I was hurting so bad that I would sit in my car during lunch and cry.”

In April, she went to the doctor. At her suggestion, the doctor ran another Lyme blood test. It was negative. To protect against a possible infection, the doctor put Jordan on antibiotics, the same treatment used to treat Lyme. But the pain persisted. Specialists, tests and evaluations followed to rule out fibromyalgia, chronic fatigue syndrome, tuberculosis, AIDS, multiple sclerosis and syphilis. All eventually proved negative. Doctors suspected some strange infection or virus.

Meanwhile, Jordan grew increasingly isolated at work and home. “You don't always look sick when you have Lyme disease,” she says, echoing the frustration of many patients with Lyme disease. “People around you get tired of hearing how bad you feel and you get tired of saying how tired you feel.”

Finally, an acquaintance who had been diagnosed with Lyme disease recommended that Jordan seek the help of Liegner, the specialist in New York. After more specific tests and exams he confirmed that she had Lyme disease.

Back home, Jordan began a 10 month course of antibiotics and slowly began to get better. To improve mobility and manage her symptoms, Jordan does aerobics five times a week -increased body temperature and oxygen flow are thought to kill remaining bacteria.

Jordan makes it a point to talk up tick protection and detection with everyone she knows.

“Whether it's prevalent or not, it's out there,” Jordan says. “I don't want anyone else to go through what I've been through.”

There are several types of ticks and tick-borne diseases in North Carolina. Here are three of the most serious.

Deer tick: Known to transmit Lyme disease in Northeastern states, but is less likely to transmit the disease in North Carolina.

American dog tick: Common in North Carolina. The dog tick is the one most likely to transmit Rocky Mountain spotted fever.

Lone Star tick: Very common in eastern North Carolina. The Lone Star tick is most likely to transmit ehrlichiosis and thought to transmit a Lymelike illness called the Southern tick-associated rash illness.

Lyme Disease