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Tick season is fast approaching and there's a serious reason to watch out for the tiny bug.
In your health An alert about a debilitating disease that may develop if you're bitten by an infected tick. .
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72 year old Jan Polk believes this is where her troubling health problems started years ago... In her back yard.
Local doctors said it was allergies.
Polk says, I couldn't eat this or I couldn't eat that. I would have the tremors real bad.
And sometimes a seizure, chest pain, short term memory, draining fatigue and a skin rash...
Polk says, it started 14 years ago when I got bit by a tiny tiny tick.
She has reason to believe she developed Lyme Disease from a deer tick... As tiny as this one seen here.
And Just seven months ago a doctor in Missouri confirmed it.
So why is the tick-borne illness so difficult to diagnose?
Dr. Wilson says, you have a small bite at first and the rash gets bigger and permeates in a circle that gets larger and larger. Nothing gives you this except Lyme Disease.
Rheumatologist, Dr. Marcus Wilson has seen the multiple stages of Lyme Disease in patients.
He trained at the Mayo clinic and worked with the Centers For Disease control and Prevention.
He says, the infected tick bites generally occur on the legs, ankles and feet.
About two weeks after an infected tick bite - patients can experience problems involving the skin, joints, heart and nervous system.
Those problems can last for months, even years.
Dr. Wilson says, from headaches to frank neuropathy where you lose muscle control to meningitis. A non infectious meningitis.
Antibiotics for 10 to 15 days have been clearly defined as the cure for Lyme Disease... if caught early.
but perhaps not in chronic cases like Jan Polk's . .
Mrs. Polk says, I have to take six of these a day...
In her fight against lyme disease, Polk takes 34 to 36 pills and medications a day.
She's been doing so for seven months.
Mrs. Polk says, and it's working I'm getting better all the time.
Although few cases of Lyme Disease are reported in Alabama... People are urged to protect themselve from ticks...when outdoors in the grass or woods.
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To protect yourself wear light colored clothing, long sleeve shirts, long pants, tucked in your socks.
Check for ticks and remove them.
Lyme Disease more frequently occurs between Maine and Maryland, Wisconsin and Minnesota and California and Oregon.
ABC 33/40 News to leave comments on news stories.