36 min
Ticked Off: A Wildlife Biologist Confronts Lyme Disease Painopolis
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- Medicine
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The most dangerous creature Kelly Weintraub ever came across was as small as a poppy seed. But its bite infected her with a ticking time bomb of chronic ailments.
Nine years ago, avid outdoorswoman Kelly Weintraub found herself in a scary and unfamiliar place: a wheelchair. A wildlife biologist, Weintraub thought she was having a stroke. So she went to the ER, where the doctors told her she was fine. But Weintraub knew she wasn’t. Something was making her sick.
“A chance encounter with a colleague whose wife had long confronted the same symptoms led Weintraub to figure out what she was battling: Lyme disease. But that wasn’t the half of it.”
This was just the latest calamity in a series of health ordeals that had forced Weintraub to go on medical leave. She’d suffered for years from symptoms that mysteriously would come and go. Fatigue. Muscle cramps. Migrating pain. Brain fog. A month after the ER visit, a chance encounter with a colleague whose wife had long confronted the same symptoms led Weintraub to figure out what she was battling: Lyme disease. But that wasn’t the half of it.
Known as The Great Imitator, Lyme disease mimics other conditions such as multiple sclerosis and fibromyalgia. Lyme is a bacterial infection primarily spread by ticks. But ticks can transmit lots of other diseases, too. There’s Rocky Mountain spotted fever. The Heartland virus. Tick-borne relapsing fever. These, and many others, can trigger disabling consequences. What’s more, new tick-borne diseases are being discovered all the time.
If you think you’re out of the woods because you live far from Tick Central—the Northeast states of the U.S.—circle back to the names of the tick-borne diseases I just listed. Yep, the West and Midwest are flush with ticks, too. In fact, in some places, your risk of getting some of these other tick-borne diseases is greater than getting Lyme disease, which is found throughout the U.S. and in more than 60 other countries. (Indeed, Weintraub lives on the West Coast.) Living in a leafy suburb—or hiking in the woods—can potentially jeapordize your health these days.
Even if a tick makes you sick, good luck trying to get an accurate diagnosis. Why? For starters, tick saliva has an anesthetizing substance in it. Less than half of people bitten by a tick recall the event.
Can’t sleep because of chronic pain? (And wondering if weed might help?) Get our new book, Cannabis Lullaby: A Painsomniac’s Quest for a Good Night’s Sleep. Available in print, ebook, and audiobook, it’s brimming with real-world, evidence-based answers. The author is Painopolis co-host David Sharp, an award-winning health journalist who nipped his pain-fueled insomnia in the bud. Buy a copy today at: painopolis.com/cannabis-lullaby/
Our toolbox:
Check out the following sponsored services we use and love.
Please support Painopolis:
Did you find this episode worth hearing? If so, kindly donate to Painopolis.
We appreciate it! Your donation allows us to keep bringing you great stories, strategies, and insights.
_____________________
The most dangerous creature Kelly Weintraub ever came across was as small as a poppy seed. But its bite infected her with a ticking time bomb of chronic ailments.
Nine years ago, avid outdoorswoman Kelly Weintraub found herself in a scary and unfamiliar place: a wheelchair. A wildlife biologist, Weintraub thought she was having a stroke. So she went to the ER, where the doctors told her she was fine. But Weintraub knew she wasn’t. Something was making her sick.
“A chance encounter with a colleague whose wife had long confronted the same symptoms led Weintraub to figure out what she was battling: Lyme disease. But that wasn’t the half of it.”
This was just the latest calamity in a series of health ordeals that had forced Weintraub to go on medical leave. She’d suffered for years from symptoms that mysteriously would come and go. Fatigue. Muscle cramps. Migrating pain. Brain fog. A month after the ER visit, a chance encounter with a colleague whose wife had long confronted the same symptoms led Weintraub to figure out what she was battling: Lyme disease. But that wasn’t the half of it.
Known as The Great Imitator, Lyme disease mimics other conditions such as multiple sclerosis and fibromyalgia. Lyme is a bacterial infection primarily spread by ticks. But ticks can transmit lots of other diseases, too. There’s Rocky Mountain spotted fever. The Heartland virus. Tick-borne relapsing fever. These, and many others, can trigger disabling consequences. What’s more, new tick-borne diseases are being discovered all the time.
If you think you’re out of the woods because you live far from Tick Central—the Northeast states of the U.S.—circle back to the names of the tick-borne diseases I just listed. Yep, the West and Midwest are flush with ticks, too. In fact, in some places, your risk of getting some of these other tick-borne diseases is greater than getting Lyme disease, which is found throughout the U.S. and in more than 60 other countries. (Indeed, Weintraub lives on the West Coast.) Living in a leafy suburb—or hiking in the woods—can potentially jeapordize your health these days.
Even if a tick makes you sick, good luck trying to get an accurate diagnosis. Why? For starters, tick saliva has an anesthetizing substance in it. Less than half of people bitten by a tick recall the event.
36 min