Special Report: Lyme Disease Part 2

By Denny Swenson

In preparation for a Lyme disease awareness meeting for the Green Street area, I spent a few days calling neighbors to let them know about our upcoming meeting. I ended up speaking with 20 people.

Canton resident Denny Swenson

I was bracing myself because I was unclear how people feel about this issue. I was relieved because almost everyone I spoke with was aware that there was an unusually high level of Lyme disease in our neighborhoods along Green Street. They were also aware that we have an unusually large population of deer here. What some people didn’t know is that there is a direct correlation between the two. Statistics show that when you get the deer population down to eight or less per square mile, the cases of Lyme disease can be significantly reduced in the area.

I knew from a survey that I had done last fall that a majority of households in my neighborhood have been affected by Lyme disease. But reading statistics is different from hearing the actual voices telling their stories. One woman put her baby down to play in the yard last spring and picked her up to find ticks on her. Another mother and child are dealing with Lyme disease-like symptoms, but they aren’t sure if the cause is Lyme or something else. The tests are inconclusive and the horrible symptoms just keep coming. Another mom is afraid to let her child out to play in the yard at home or at her nearby schoolyard. After a couple days of this, I found myself exhausted with sadness. I could relate to a woman who described how her husband “never gets sick, never, and you should have seen him … he couldn’t get out of bed …”

I identified with these stories because I am afraid to let my daughter and her friends walk through the woods. I think that is where my husband picked up the last tick that gave him his second round of Lyme disease. My husband, Win, is strong and physically active. He runs five times a week, lifts weights, and travels the world in a single bound. One day last fall, soon after coming back from a business trip, he couldn’t get out of bed. He usually bounces back from time changes, but this time he said his joints were aching and then horrible fevers came.

I remember standing over the bed one morning, looking at him in disbelief. Win always gets up and walks the dog before I even open my eyes. I’ll admit I was very scared. It all happened so fast. We didn’t see a tick on him, there was no bulls-eye rash, and now he was too weak to get out of bed. I looked past him out the window to see a herd of ten deer doing their slow and graceful morning commute along our property line. They are such beautiful animals. Their big, brown eyes look right at you. I had been studying the issue, and now, with great sadness, I realized we have to cull the herd.

With a 21-day dose of antibiotics, Win did eventually get better, and he is even back to running. We were lucky in that Win appeared in the doctor’s office with obvious signs of Lyme, and our doctor was aware of the high rate of Lyme in our neighborhood. According to Dr. Victor Ferzoco, “Lyme is easy to treat when it is diagnosed in the first two stages, but it is very dangerous if not caught early enough. Most people don’t get the obvious rash, and some don’t recognize it when they do get it.”

Dr. Ferzoco insists on seeing each patient, checking their symptoms and walking through their individual scenarios with them. He is vigilant about not prescribing the antibiotic unless he absolutely has to. “We don’t want to over-prescribe antibiotics because other organisms may become resistant,” he explained. “In the long run, it’s not helping the patient to run that risk.”

I called Barbara Roth-Schechter, who heads up the Board of Health for the town of Dover, and asked her what the tipping point in her town was that led to the deer-culling program there. She described a number of factors that went into the decision for their town. One of the most compelling factors for me was that they did a survey and learned that one out of three Dover residents have had Lyme disease in the last ten years.

She advises three things:

Personal protection like doing a daily tick check on yourself. When you go outside, wear long-sleeved, light-colored shirts and long pants tucked into socks. This helps keep the ticks off you and makes them easier to spot. You can use DEET on your skin, but permethrin should be applied to clothing that doesn’t come in contact with the skin, so wear that on the outer layers.

Property protection like keeping the grass cut short, removing leaf litter and brush from around your home. Pruning low-lying brush to let in more sunlight, and keeping woodpiles and birdfeeders off the ground and away from the house are also helpful.

Reduction of the deer herd. She feels that all are necessary.

(Click on page 2 below to see the results of Denny’s tick flag test)

Share This Post

Page 1 Page 2

Short URL: https://www.thecantoncitizen.com/?p=4472