Published in the Asbury Park Press 05/11/05
By DENNIS THOMPSON
HEALTH
Katie Bovers' whole family felt lousy.
She and her husband were constantly achy and tired. Their 6-year-old son had an odd rash. And their two younger children seemed cranky and irritable.
"I started having achy joints and really debilitating headaches," said Bovers, 46, who lives in Bedford Hills, N.Y, a beautiful, woods-filled community about 70 miles north of New York City. "I thought they were migraines, they were so bad."
They didn't know it yet, but all of the Bovers were struggling with Lyme disease. From those first aches and pains in 1995, it would take five years of various treatments before they felt well again.
May is Lyme Disease Awareness Month, timed to coincide with the arrival of warm weather and people flocking outdoors to enjoy the fresh air of spring. And doctors and medical activists are using this time to heighten awareness of the disease, educate Americans about symptoms of infection, and explain what treatments work best.
Lyme disease is caused by the bacterium Borrelia burgdorferi, according to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. These bacteria are transmitted to humans through the bite of infected deer ticks, and caused 23,763 infections in the United States in 2002.
Lyme disease was discovered in 1977 when arthritis was observed in children in Lyme, Conn., according to the CDC.
Bovers had suspected her 6-year-old might have Lyme disease, because the family lived in a rural, insect-ridden area, so she took all her children to the doctor for testing.
"I wanted them all checked because where one was, all of them were," she said.
Her pediatrician didn't think the boy's rash was caused by Lyme disease, but agreed to treat the kids with three weeks of antibiotics.
"I didn't test myself," she said. "I thought I was stressed by the kids not feeling well."
For the next three years, the family continued to suffer from ill health. "The kids were headachy and lethargic. Pasty white. They really didn't look well," Bovers said.
Finally, a friend suggested that she have the family retested for Lyme disease. All five Bovers had blood work drawn.
"We were all in a bad way with the Lyme," she said.
Her husband, whose Lyme levels were the worst, immediately went on intravenous antibiotics. After three months, his symptoms disappeared.
The rest of the family was given oral antibiotics, but to little effect. "We really didn't get better for a while," she said.
The doctor switched her children to injectable antibiotics in 2000. Each child received a shot every two weeks for about five months, Bovers said.
"There were some ups then," she said. "A couple of days after their shots, you could really tell the difference, but then they'd go back down."
About the same time, the doctor put Bovers on intravenous antibiotics for six months. The drugs drained her but eventually cured her.
Several months after the shots had ended, the Bovers decided to put their children on intravenous antibiotics as well. They received treatment for 4 1/2 years before they were judged free of the disease.
"The overall theme of all this is it took five solid years for all of us to get where we are now — medicine-free," Bovers said.
In 2002, the latest year for available statistics, 95 percent of Lyme disease cases were from the states of Connecticut, Delaware, Maine, Maryland, Massachusetts, Minnesota, New Hampshire, New Jersey, New York, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island and Wisconsin.
To protect yourself against Lyme disease, doctors recommend, first, that you avoid places likely to be infested with ticks, particularly in the spring and summer. Deer ticks favor a moist, shaded environment, especially areas with leaf litter and low-lying vegetation in wooded, brushy or overgrown grassy locales, according to the CDC.
People who do venture into tick habitats should wear light-colored clothing to help spot ticks. Wearing long-sleeved shirts and tucking pants into socks or boot tops can help keep ticks from reaching your skin.