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Caroline Calderone Baisley, M.P.H., R.S., is accustomed to understanding illnesses, diseases and symptoms. As Director of the Department of Health for the Town of Greenwich, Conn., a position she’s held for over a decade, protecting the town’s nearly 63,000 residents from disease, premature death, illness and disability is all part of the job. But when strange symptoms began afflicting her 10 years ago, neither Ms. Baisley nor any of her doctors could pinpoint the problem.
“I’m in the habit of keeping a daily journal,” she says, in which she noticed all of the unusual symptoms she began to face starting in 1998. These symptoms included “migraine headaches, stiff neck, flu-high fever and chills,” followed by hives and then “my whole face began to swell and at times I couldn’t open my eyes,” she says. Soon, she was experiencing fatigue, muscle aches, lack of energy and depression, and then she started to have problems with her eyesight and hearing. |
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A year or two later, she says, she was becoming disoriented and could no longer follow directions while driving. She experienced panic attacks and memory problems so severe that she couldn’t remember important phone numbers. During this time, she says, she visited numerous specialists including a dermatologist, allergist, ophthalmologist, infectious disease doctors, cardiologist, rheumatologist and a psychiatrist.
Finally, in 2003, when some of her fingers become claw-like and stiff she became convinced, despite never having had its characteristic bulls eye rash, that she had Lyme disease. At this time, Ms. Baisley says she asked for another test for Lyme disease. All previous Lyme tests had been negative. The new tests results were positive and she was referred to Dr. Amiram Katz, a Board Certified Neurologist and Lyme disease specialist. After an extensive evaluation Dr. Katz prescribed a course of intravenous antibiotics which Ms. Baisley ended up staying on for a long extended period of time. Today she is almost completely back to herself.
“As a public health official,” Ms. Baisley says, “I was surprised that I did not recognize the symptoms of the disease at first. And I was equally surprised that most doctors that I saw did not digest fully all of the symptoms that were evident. For the most part the clinical test results were relied upon exclusively and they turned out to be false in the beginning. After she began t o feel better she was shocked of the magnitude of Lyme disease and how much damage it could do.
“The problem with this disease is that the symptoms don’t all happen at once”, comments Ms. Baisley. “I realize that if I didn’t get help when I did, I could have been permanently neurologically impaired,” adds Ms. Baisley. While Ms. Baisley is almost 100% back to her old self, persistent joint pain and headaches reminds her that she continues to live with Lyme.
In telling her story, Caroline Baisley hopes to educate the public about Lyme and other tick-borne diseases and to stress the importance of knowing the devastating affects this disease can have on your health. She hopes that residents and others will identify Lyme symptoms as early as possible so that they can seek treatment and get well. The Greenwich Department of Health along with support from Time for Lyme will be making a resource guide available entitled "Combating Lyme disease and other tick-borne diseases". The guide will be mailed to all households in Greenwich in early Fall of 2008. |
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