Ticks: One woman's warning
In April 2010, Angela Daenzer was doing field work as a biologist for the Flathead National Forest when she startled a moose up the Middle Fork. She ducked off into the brush to avoid the angry animal, and while the moose encounter was a bit scary, there were worse things to come.
While hiding in the brush, Daenzer picked up a tick that bit her in the scalp. After a shower hours later, she found the tick and, disgusted by it, she pulled it out of her hair and threw it in the toilet.
Daenzer is convinced that tick gave her Lyme disease, or at the very least a disease very similar to it. Within a week, she became very ill. She got the chills and a sore throat and then what she and her doctors thought was an ear infection and then severe jaw pain.
Daenzer, who had two children by natural childbirth with no drugs, said the pain in her face was far worse than giving birth. She also suffered from Bell’s palsy, a paralysis in the face associated with Lyme disease.
She went from doctor to doctor for three years and didn’t get better. None thought she had a tickborne illness. Then after talking with friends and teachers in Columbia Falls, she went to a Seattle physician who diagnosed her with Lyme disease.
There is just one problem with that — the Centers for Disease Control and Montana Department of Health and Human Services both say Lyme disease does not originate in Montana. There have been 49 confirmed cases of the illness in Montana since 2003, but all involved a person who got the disease in a state where it is known to exist. Lyme disease is common in eastern states, for example, and is carried by deer ticks.
But Daenzer remains unconvinced. Once she started antibiotic treatment, she got better, but she currently is undergoing more treatment after a relapse. She maintains a blog about her illness and is active with the Mayday Project, a group of Lyme disease sufferers who want to see more research and a greater awareness of the illness.
Daenzer said if she had only been treated sooner, her life would be much different today. She has all but lost her job as a biologist, and her family life has seen impacts.
“My daughter knows what I was like before I was sick,” she said with tears in her eyes. “My son doesn’t.”
Daenzer still suffers from malaise and tiredness. Just doing the dishes wears her out. She said everyone should be concerned about ticks and tick bites.
In Montana, there are several confirmed tickborne illnesses that will make a person very sick, including Rocky Mountain spotted fever, Colorado tick fever and tickborne relapsing fever.
Like Lyme disease, Rocky Mountain and tickborne relapsing fever can be treated with antibiotics. Colorado tick fever is caused by a virus, and there are no medications or vaccines to treat it directly. Drugs are used to treat symptoms.
One of the best solutions is prevention, Daenzer and public health agencies agree. The use of insect repellents are effective in stopping tick bites in the first place.
Anyone who gets a tick should remove it with a pair of tweezers as soon as possible without crushing the body, which could spread the bacteria. The tick should be disposed of in alcohol or flushed down the toilet.