Learn about Lyme

Re: “Heavy rains increase Lyme risk,” July 21.

As a Lyme disease sufferer, I’m always glad to see more Lyme information getting out. Unfortunately, there are a few inaccuracies that always seem to pop up: Specifically, the idea that the disease respects borders and is virtually unheard of in Alberta.

The official tally for Lyme disease cases in the province since 1998 may be 27, but I suspect all of those confirmations relied on doctors and tests within Alberta. The problem is, as far as Lyme disease goes, our doctors are undereducated and our tests are inadequate.

I have had Lyme disease since I was about 10 or 11 and I have only ever lived in Alberta. It took 15 years to get a diagnosis because every doctor I saw tried to refer me to a psychiatrist. Finally, at age 26, a very excellent doctor brimming with Lyme-specific knowledge sent a vial or two of my blood to an outof-province lab, where the test is far better than here. A few weeks later, I held in my hands a positive result from a Western blot test.

Every time I’m at that doctor’s clinic, I hear a new story nearly identical to mine. All of those patients — dozens of them — have tested positive, yet none of them are part of our provincial statistics. How can we hope to get an accurate picture? How many of these people were infected courtesy of a homegrown, AAAgrade, Alberta tick?

It’s an important question, because Lyme disease isn’t just potentially debilitating; it is a complex, hard-to-treat disease that destroys or, at best, disrupts every facet of a sufferer’s life.

Nobody deserves that, and the only way to avoid it is through whole and accurate education. Denial saves only illusions and pride. Hubris is too pricey to keep.