An Untreated Tick Bite Made Her the ‘Bionic Woman’

Oct. 7, 2022 — Exploring the woods, climbing, summer time camp, and common journeys to the canine park have been all regular actions rising up in New Jersey. Meghan Bradshaw described herself as a wholesome, energetic younger woman with an affinity for the nice outside. But issues modified when she started having sporadic, unrelated well being issues like exhaustion, dizzy spells, and physique aches. After seeing all kinds of medical specialists to uncover the foundation of those points, her lab outcomes have been all the time inconclusive.  

Unbeknown to Bradshaw and her medical doctors, her sickness stemmed from a parasite. Bradshaw had contracted Lyme illness, a bacterial an infection that may come from the chunk of a blacklegged tick — also referred to as a deer tick — if it stays connected to your physique for 36 to 48 hours. Symptoms can embrace reminiscence loss, joint ache, drooping muscle tissue on one or either side of your face, and tingling or numbness of your physique components. 

Bradshaw’s well being continued to worsen as she bounced from the East Coast to the West Coast in her early 20s for work as a retail supervisor at Nordstrom. It wasn’t till she took a job promotion in Nashville that her sickness grew to become debilitating and left her bedridden. She may now not carry out on a regular basis duties like holding a toothbrush or washing dishes. 

Bradshaw’s knees started filling up with fluid. Her physician identified her with rheumatoid arthritis, which is the closest factor he may consider to clarify her “mystery” sickness. She needed to have her hips changed at 26 years previous.

“It [the disease] was deteriorating every joint in my body,” Bradshaw, now 29, says. “I was a shell of myself. It was terrifying.” 

One specialist referred Bradshaw to a purposeful medication physician, who started asking questions on her upbringing. Upon discovering Bradshaw was from New Jersey, the place blacklegged ticks are extraordinarily widespread, her physician requested a query that modified every thing. 

“Have you ever been tested for Lyme disease?” 

Bionic Woman

Fast ahead a number of years. Bradshaw has now had 16 of her joints reconstructed and eight joint replacements, all due to the late detection of Lyme illness. She is making ready to have each elbows changed, alongside together with her second surgical procedure on every hand, all of which ought to be accomplished throughout the subsequent 12 months. Hopefully then, she’ll “catch a break.” But there’ll probably be extra surgical procedures down the highway to exchange her joint replacements, she says. 

Bradshaw’s expertise is extraordinarily uncommon for Lyme illness sufferers, says Glenn Gaston, MD, an orthopedic surgeon at OrthoCarolina in Charlotte. Only a small variety of Lyme illness sufferers develop arthritis, particularly if it is handled early, says Gaston, who operated on Bradshaw’s arms. If a affected person does get arthritis, it normally solely impacts one joint, which is commonly the knee.

“I have never even heard or read in a textbook a case to the degree of Meghan’s, of having to have multiple joint replacements and multiple surgeries, particularly at such a young age,” Gaston says.

When requested why Bradshaw’s Lyme illness analysis remained a thriller for thus lengthy, Gaston says the illness may be laborious to detect.

“The biggest reason I see for delayed detection and treatment of Lyme disease is primarily because it’s not often in the forefront of the minds of clinicians, particularly depending on where a patient lives,” he says. “If they live in Connecticut, which is where Lyme disease comes from (Lyme, Connecticut), it’s more plausible that they’re going to think about it early. The further you get from the epicenter of the diagnosis, the less physicians think about it in their differential.” 

If you take away the tick earlier than 48 hours, you probably gained’t get the illness. Ticks may be as small as a poppyseed, so recognizing them may be laborious. But one main signal of a tick chunk is a rash that appears like a bull’s eye. If you catch it early, Lyme illness may be handled and cured with antibiotics. But with late detection (like Bradshaw’s), remedy and restoration turn out to be far more troublesome. Good information: A vaccine to deal with Lyme illness is presently in section III scientific trials with drugmakers Pfizer and Valneva. 

Dwelling on what life may have been like if, early on, medical doctors had requested questions on her upbringing has been one of the troublesome issues for Bradshaw to return to grips with. 

“I have severe medical trauma and I relive it every 3 months after another traumatic surgery,” she says. “It’s constantly going through the grief cycle.” 

Bradshaw is commonly nicknamed the “bionic woman,” which she finds endearing.

“I use humor as a coping mechanism,” she says. “I have to laugh about it. Because if I don’t laugh, I cry, and this is healthier for me.”

Newfound Purpose

Great well being care is one main supply of gratitude for Bradshaw. Her surgical procedures and medical care have racked up over $1 million {dollars} of medical prices, of which her insurance coverage coated the bulk, and she or he paid the remaining out of pocket. Bradshaw usually speaks publicly in regards to the lack of entry to high quality well being look after sure marginalized communities, like LGBTQ+ people, immigrant teams, and folks of colour.  

“I’m very fortunate I’ve had access to improvement of my conditions,” she says. “A lot of people don’t have a means to an end.”

While it could possibly be straightforward to turn out to be indignant, and even resentful, for her late analysis, Bradshaw has shifted her focus towards tick-borne illness consciousness advocacy, which has been “very healing” for her.

“I can look in hindsight and see all of the things that were wrong in my path and in this experience,” she says. “I’m like, ‘Here is how it should be. And here’s how we can fix it.’ I want to be apart of that.” 

Bradshaw not too long ago co-founded a nonprofit group, Tick JEDI Coalition (JEDI stands for “juvenile educational defense initiative”) that strives to place tick security schooling into mainstream well being science curricula. 

“Children should be learning this [tick safety] as a fundamental life skill, the same way they learn about handwashing,” she says.

Meghan’s Tips

To assist keep away from late detection of Lyme illness, or some other sickness, Bradshaw provides the following tips. 

You know your physique higher than anybody.

“Doctors are incredibly brilliant, talented, and knowledgeable about many things. But at the end of the day, everyone is still human. There may be times that you have something that is beyond the scope of their knowledge. If the doctor you see is not the right fit, and you are able to access care elsewhere, do your research and find someone who may be a good fit.”

Utilize affected person help teams.

“I think there’s a lot you can learn from other individuals and their experiences, both good and bad things. I found them incredibly helpful in my own experience.”

Have a help individual.

“There have been many instances, particularly originally of my journey, the place I used to be so emotionally distraught coping with these items. My mother and father have been there to take notes and soak up every thing for me. Have a help individual as a result of it’s laborious to do these items alone.”

Editor’s be aware: Here’s extra data on Lyme illness .