CLEVELAND — Geoff Beck and his wife MaryJo have come to love camping. During the warmer months, they try to go at least once a month, taking their RV to places like Tennessee, Kentucky, West Virginia, Michigan, Wisconsin and beyond.
During the peak of the pandemic, they decided to escape the madness in Chicago, where they were living, to go camping in Kentucky.
“We had some great memories that we made,” Beck said. “Instead of a lot of people in the city being cooped up and worried about what was happening. We were out hiking and enjoying ourselves in the wild.”
But that trip changed his life and not for the better. While hiking, he was bitten by two ticks that he found on his right thigh near the hip area.
Little did he know something so small would cause him huge problems.
“I started having anxiety/kind of panic attacks, where I would start to feel cold, nervous, and I would start to shake, for no apparent reason,” Beck said. “I started to have muscle twitching. I started to have kind of a vibration feeling when I was going to sleep in my chest, felt like my heart was racing, but it really wasn't. I also had some shooting pains, some migratory muscle pain and joint pain.”
After eight months of experiencing seemingly random symptoms, that at the time he attributed to the COVID-19 pandemic, doctors finally figured out he had Lyme disease and a co-infection called Bartonella.
“Lyme disease is incredibly serious,” Beck said.
Lyme disease is considered rare but is the most common vector-borne disease in the U.S. It’s spread to humans through the bite of infected black-legged ticks.
Christoper Bazzoli, a Lyme disease expert at the Cleveland Clinic, said not all ticks carry the Lyme disease bacteria but those that do transmit the infection only after they have attached and are taking a blood meal from their new host.
Bazzoli said symptoms are often mistaken for the flu, and usually start within three to 30 days after a tick bite. The infection can be treated with antibiotics, but if the disease is left undiagnosed for too long, it can cause life-changing damage.
“Everything from affecting the nerves, so like pain of a particular nerve branch,” Bazzoli said. “We can have things like meningitis. So, so that's really bad headaches, vision changes, neck stiffness and pain, people not acting right, altered mentation. It can cause heart blocks, carditis. And then really severe arthritis and joint pains.”
Common stage 1 symptoms of Lyme disease include:
- Rash, often in the shape of a bulls-eye
- Fever
- Headache
- Extreme tiredness
- Joint stiffness
- Muscle aches and pains
- Swollen lymph nodes
Beck now takes a slue of medicine and supplements, is gluten-free, and has to prioritize sleep and his health to keep the disease in check.
“It just kind of makes you feel unlike yourself, you don't feel like yourself. You don't feel energetic. You don't feel clear-headed. You feel foggy,” Beck said. “I feel very fortunate, you know, I've heard of some people that have really severe chronic Lyme and to where they can't even function daily. They have trouble getting out of bed. They just can't live their normal life. And fortunately for me, I'm not really in that position.”
Most cases of Lyme disease in the United States occur in the mid-Atlantic, Northeast and Upper Midwest regions, according to the National Center for Biotechnology Information.
In Ohio, Lyme disease cases have been rising. In the early ‘90s, a dozen or two cases would be reported annually, but in 2014 the state reported more than 100 cases in a year. The eastern half of the state is more affected, but the Ohio Department of Health said Lyme disease cases are increasing because the black-legged tick populations continue to expand. It’s not likely to see these ticks in the fall and winter months, as they are most active during the warm season.
IT’S A PREVENTABLE DISEASE
Beck now advocates for Lyme disease prevention and urges people to take precautions while spending time where ticks live, such as grassy, brushy or wooded areas.
“You just need to be aware, you need to wear long pants, long sleeves, and if you're going out socks up over your pants if you can, be checking yourself regularly, particularly if you've been out for a few hours,” Beck said. “Check yourself to see if you have any ticks. They can be anywhere. They could be in your armpits, in your groin, they can be right out in the middle of your stomach, your trunk, your arms.”
On top of wearing proper clothing, he said insect repellent can also significantly reduce the change of tick bites. Repellent with DEET is considered the most effective.
The tick changed Beck’s life, but he said he’s grateful it didn’t stop him from living it.
“We love being outdoors, it's not going to stop us from living the kind of life that we want to lead,” Beck said. “We're very conscious of it now and everyone I come across, I try and educate them a little bit, if they're spending time outdoors to be aware of this, because it is a real problem. And it's totally preventable and in your, in your power to kind of control your outcome.”
For more information about Lyme disease, click here.