http://www.ravallirepublic.com/news/local/article_161ea632-b202-11e2-a7d4-0019bb2963f4.html
Raising awareness: Victor woman discusses her battle with Lyme disease
Brenna Faulk of Victor plans to combine music and dance to bring awareness to the dangers of Lyme disease at this weekend's Farmers Market in Hamilton, including a flash mob at 10 a.m.
VICTOR – Today is a good day for Brenna Faulk.
Sitting at her kitchen table with her tiny dog named Dino in her lap, the 39-year-old former personal trainer is enjoying the warmth of the sunshine pouring through the window.
She’s upright. She’s not in bed. She’s feeling halfway well.
Today is a good day.
Over the last six years, she has had plenty of the other.
She and her family were still in Louisiana six years ago when she caught strep throat. She’s never been the same since.
Suffering with pain, fatigue, fever and a variety of other symptoms that physicians couldn’t quite put their finger on the cause, Faulk spent years not quite sure what was happening inside her body.
On most days, she couldn’t get out of bed.
“I was a runner at one time,” she said. “At one point, I felt like a truck had hit me when I tried to get up and walk.”
Last August, she finally received a diagnosis that made sense when a blood test came back positive for Lyme disease.
Lyme disease is the most common tick-borne disease in the Northern Hemisphere. The bacterium that causes the disease was identified in 1981 by Rocky Mountain Laboratories scientist Willy Bergdorf.
If the disease is diagnosed and treated early, a relatively short course of antibiotics has been shown effective as a cure.
And then there are cases like Faulk’s that have caused a split in the medical community that continues today.
“I’ve been told that I have chronic Lyme disease,” she said. “The CDC says it doesn’t exist.”
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention also doesn’t support the prolonged course of antibiotics that Faulk’s current physician has prescribed. While the CDC acknowledges that people infected with Lyme disease have lingering symptoms, the agency says there are no studies that show that long-term use of antibiotics make a difference.
The CDC doesn’t even agree with the term chronic Lyme disease. It says the condition is known as Post-treatment Lyme Disease Syndrome.
Whatever it’s called, Faulk said she’s finally finding relief with her current treatment regimen. Each day, she takes about 50 pills and five times a week, she injects herself with three IVs of antibiotics.
“I wouldn’t be sitting here today and talking about this if I hadn’t made the decision to give this a try,” she said. “It took seven months before I even started to see a real impact.”
Faulk’s struggle caught the attention of state Sen. Fred Thomas, R-Stevensville. He introduced legislation that would allow Montana physicians to offer the long-term antibiotic treatment for Lyme disease without fear of being reprimanded by the state medical board.
It passed the Senate, but failed to get past the House health committee.
“I was surprised in their not wanting to move the bill forward,” Thomas said. “The medical world has a different medical protocol and they somehow got it killed.”
Thomas found Faulk’s story compelling.
“I think it is quite clear by Brenna’s story and many others, that unless the diagnosis for Lyme disease is made early, you can end up just having to live with the symptoms of the disease,” Thomas said. “This made a lot of sense to me. I’ll try to get it done next time around.”
Faulk wants people in Montana to know the dangers behind Lyme disease.
Although there has not been a confirmed case of anyone acquiring Lyme disease from a tick in Montana, the state health department has reported an average of five cases a year. The state and CDC attribute all of the confirmed cases to people who contracted the illness outside of Montana.
Since it’s so rare, Faulk said it is difficult to get a diagnosis.
“It’s not what doctors are looking for,” she said. “I know there are more of me in Montana.”
In an effort to bring more attention to the disease both here and around the country, Faulk has spent the past couple of months organizing a series of flash mobs in 22 different states.
In Hamilton, Alexandra Stuart and her Zumba class from The Canyons Athletic Club will orchestrate their own Lyme disease awareness flash mob on the corner of Bedford and Third streets at the first Farmers Market in Hamilton this Saturday at 10 a.m.
“Not only are we hoping to bring awareness, but we are also looking to educate the public about prevention and detection of this debilitating disease as we approach the busiest time of the year for these tiny critters that spread the disease,” she said.
“Chronic Lyme disease is all too real for too many people,” Faulk said. “But as they say, ‘You don’t get it, until you get it.’ ”
Reach reporter Perry Backus at 363-3300 or pbackus@ravallirepublic.com.
