Editor:
The ticks are out.
If you happen to see one on your clothes, please save it in a pill bottle or any bottle with a lid and take it to the public health office in Canmore. They will send them to be tested. If you have a tick removed at the hospital, please ask them to save the tick body and take it to the public health office. Please read the Canlyme website www.canlyme.com to learn about Lyme disease.
It is not that we don’t know there are ticks carrying the Lyme germ in Alberta; that fact has been proven. Many Lyme ticks are carried on the backs of migrating birds and, with climate change, the ticks are now able to survive in Alberta and B.C.
There are many ticks in Ontario, B.C. and on Vancouver Island. In Alberta, the per cent of ticks carrying the Lyme germ is low because we do not have enough ticks to test, so sending any ticks you happen to find, (hopefully none that have bitten you but definitely the one that has), would help immensely in our battle to be tested and treated properly in Canada with long-term antibiotics.
Many doctors in Canmore and Banff do not believe there are Lyme-carrying ticks in the Bow Valley, however, in Calgary, vets have removed many tested Lyme-carrying ticks from dogs. Those dogs were treated with long-term antibiotics.
They have recently opened the first Chronic Diseases Clinic in Vancouver and the doctor in charge of the clinic is an expert on Lyme disease. We are hoping that through the clinic, the Canadian testing and treatment protocol for Lyme disease will change. After the bite, the sooner you are treated for Lyme disease, the more likely you are to recover.
The Lyme germ only lives in your bloodstream for several weeks after you’ve been bitten and then it migrates to your tissue and becomes very difficult to diagnose. Chronic Lyme disease can mimic Parkinson’s, MS, rheumatoid arthritis and a host of other agonizing diseases. It is progressive, destructive and debilitating and, in severe untreated cases, it can be fatal.
For your information, I probably get one phone call a week from someone in Alberta or B.C. that is very sick with diagnosed Lyme (all had/have to be diagnosed in a lab in the U.S. and treated by doctors in the U.S.).
As you can imagine, treatment is very expensive and many of these people cannot afford it. It is very alarming to know there are that many Canadians sick with this debilitating disease and they are unable to be treated in their own country.
There are at least six people in the Bow Valley (that I know of) that currently have diagnosed Lyme disease and all have been forced to get tested and treated in the U.S. Currently, we do not have a reliable diagnostic test in Canada.
If you are hiking right now, don’t hike on the Lady MacDonald side of the valley or south facing slopes. This would be up to and including the forest behind Johnson’s Lake to Lake Minnewanka.
I have talked to several good friends that have hiked there in the past week (before the rain and snow) and, despite spraying hats, pants and skin with insect repellent, wearing light, not dark, clothing, and having socks tucked over long pant bottoms, long shirts tucked into pants, they still had 28 ticks between them and when they arrived home, they each found several under their clothing.
One had found its way under pants and underwear and was imbedded in the groin of one of the hikers. This is said not to alarm anyone, but to make you more aware.
I have a dear friend in Calgary who was diagnosed with Lyme Disease much too late. She now weighs 84 pounds and is fighting for her life. Canlyme.com is a great Canadian website full of info on Lyme and Lyme prevention and treatment.
If you hear of anyone that is sick with the symptoms listed on the Canlyme website please refer them to this website or call me and I can tell them what labs will test them and who will treat them.
I count every day a special one, now that I am almost better. This disease left untreated stole many years of my life. I vowed that if I ever did get better I would do my best to help someone else so they did not have to endure what I did.
My thanks go to a wonderful doctor in Seattle that I am sure I owe my life to and to my good friends who were there when I needed them. With fingers crossed and high hopes, we will have good testing and treatment in Canada before too long. That day will not come soon enough for some Canadians.
Carol McTavish,
Canmore
