One of the downsides of spring is the return of tick season.
They're most active in Michigan from April to September and are becoming an increasing threat throughout the state.
Black-legged ticks live in wooded areas, even backyards with some carrying the disease. Lyme goes away with the help of antibiotics but there are times when it becomes a chronic illness with serious problems.
One local woman battled it and came out on the other side.
"There's a saying in Lyme, 'you don't get it until you get it' and it's so true. When my doctor told me she was going to test me for Lyme...I sort of thought she was crazy," Brandi Johnson said.
Johnson says she never even saw a tick, she just started to feel the symptoms. Hers came in the form of arthritis and headaches and after a few months, she finally got the diagnosis. She says she began antibiotic treatments right away and continued them for ten months, but nothing seemed to help.
"I had nowhere to go and I was losing my life daily. It's hard, yes....it's devastating."
With her symptoms worsening, Johnson learned about a treatment in Germany called "Whole-Body Hypothermia." It consists of heating the body to the temperature of 107 degrees to kill the bacteria in the blood. Treatment with the infrared heat lasted for six hours. She said the therapy has a 70 percent success rate of a cure.
"It was kind of an out-of-body experience to be honest. You're going through something, you're incredibly sick to begin with, but you're also desperate and you're scared," she said.
Now, Lyme free, Johnson still calls herself a "Lyme Warrior," working to help others battling the often "misunderstood" disease and just to educate others.
"Lyme is truly a very scary, chronic disease. It can be. It is true. It is real. It is debilitating, and it can truly be deadly or it can be the fight for people's lives," Johnson said.
Experts say there are more than 300,000 cases diagnosed each year. Click here to view a map of Michigan counties that are at-risk.
For more information on how to prevent tick bites, click here.
Stay in touch with us anytime, anywhere.
Download our free app for Appleand Android
and
Sign up for newsletters emailed to your inbox.
Select from these options: Breaking News, Severe Weather, School Closings, Daily Headlines and Daily Forecasts.
