St. Joseph Newsleader • www.thenewsleaders.com
Friday, March 29, 2013
Ticks from page 2 how long they’ve had Lyme disease because neither remembers being bit by a tick, and neither developed the well known “bulls-eye” rash – a reddish ring around the bitten area. What most frustrates the Kolls, besides the misrable symptoms they suffer, is the fact they, like others in their predicament, are at the very center of a raging controversy. Many doctors and some researchers do not believe Lyme disease can develop into such a chronic condition. Most doctors will not prolong antibiotic treatment beyond a month or so. “It’s a big controversy,” Nicole said. “They are always debating the issue. Too many doctors view people like us as some kind of hypochondriacs. We are not.” Nicole spent nearly three years in a constant search for a doctor who had enough faith in the existence of chronic Lyme disease to treat her and her husband. It was a wild-goose chase that had the couple feeling utterly helpless. At long last, Nicole managed to find a doctor who agreed to give her ongoing treatments. Part of her regimen includes taking two different kinds of antibiotic pills each day, along with a drug for rheumatoid ar-
thritis. She also takes probiotics to build up her immune system. “The medication helps tremendously,” she said. “I haven’t felt like a whole person in years, and now I’m beginning to. No one knows how bad Lyme disease can be until they get it.” The St. Cloud doctor who treats Nicole sees up to 15-20 patients at a time, and genuine camaraderie has developed among them based on empathy of what all have suffered. Nicole’s Lyme disease symptoms have included, off and on and not all at once, the following: a skin rash (but not the bulls-eye kind), flaking skin, stuttering, depression for no known reason whatsoever, trouble with concentration, difficulty in reading and with daily tasks, extreme fatigue, muscle aches and lack of energy. At one time, she also developed a balance problem that would cause her to walk toward her left, to the point she would actually walk into a wall. She went through so many tests she couldn’t begin to count them, including tests for allergies and even tests for attentiondeficit disorder. Constant challenges Through all the pain and frustration, Koll managed to keep a job at Resource Training and Solutions. She also managed to attend the Minnesota School of Business and to graduate with
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contributed photo
Jakin and Nicole Koll enjoy a board game with their two sons – Kaden (on floor) and Conor. a bachelor’s degree in business administration. She now works part-time for the St. Cloud Technical and Community College, where she helps organize customized health-training teams for businesses in the area. She feels fortunate she can work only part-time because that gives her the time to take care of her two boys and her husband. Her two boys are Kaden, 7; and Conor, 5. Husband Jakin has suffered symptoms of constant chronic headaches and joint pain so
severe it virtually cripples him at times. The doctor has been giving Jakin a series of tests on his immunity system. Once those tests are completed, soon,
Jakin can begin a long-range treatment similar to his wife’s. Jakin is a meteorologist for MnDOT. He helps install computer
Lyme disease bacteria is devious by Dennis Dalman news@thenewsleaders.com
The cause of Lyme disease was not identified until 1981 when a man named Willy Burgdorfer succeeded in identifying the bacteria that causes it – a bacteria spread by certain types of ticks, most commonly in the United States by deer ticks (see related story). Burgdorfer was a researcher at the Rocky Mountain Biological State Health Department. The spiral-shaped, devious bacteria he discovered is known as “Borrelia burgdorfen sensu stricto,” with the bug getting the “burgdorfen” part of its name from Burgdorfer himself. Lyme disease is named after the city of Lyme, Conn., where many cases of a mysterious illness occurred in 1975. The disease is the most common form of tick-borne disease in the Northern Hemisphere. It affects an estimated 32 people per 100,000 in the states where it’s most common. And, in fact, 96 to 99 percent of Lyme disease cases occur in just 13 states, mainly in the New England area and parts of the Upper Midwest, places where white-tailed deer (the tick’s main hosts) are common. Those states are Minnesota, Wisconsin, Delaware, Maine, Maryland, Massachusetts, New Hampshire, New Jersey, New York, Pennsylvania, Vermont
and Virginia. From 2002-11, cases in the United States have ranged from a low of 19,800 in 2004 to a high of 29,970 in 2009. There were about 24,000 cases in 2011. The vicious little bacteria that causes Lyme disease is apparently as old as civilization. The “Otzi the Ice Man,” who was found well preserved in an Austrian Alps glacier about 20 years ago, is estimated to have died suddenly and violently 5,300 years ago. Scientists found a DNA sequence in Otzi that matched up with the Borrelia bacteria. How it happens Deer ticks like to feed on mice and other rodents when they are in the nymph stages. Later, they tend to feed on white-tailed deer. The ticks are most common in grassy or weedy areas. When they manage to get onto a human host, they will release a numbing agent onto the skin before they bite and
CLOUD BODY SHOP
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begin to ingest the host’s blood. Because of the numbing agent, many victims do not know they have been bitten. Most Lyme disease is caused when the very tiny nymphs bite humans. That is because the ticks are so tiny at that stage they are very hard to detect for early removal from the skin’s surface. The good news is only about 1 percent of tick bites result in Lyme infection. Another bit of good news is if the tick is removed within 24 hours of biting a host, chances of being infected are rare. Still more good news is if the victim is treated with antibiotics for a period of two to four weeks, chances of a complete recovery are excellent. In some cases, however, the disease can return after the initial treatment, causing various symptoms that range from fatigue to joint pains, from muscle aches to tingling in the hands. It’s waiting until later that Lyme • page 8 FREE Comp ESTIM A e Insur titively Pri TES! a c ed nce W ork!
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Ticks • page 5