Lyme disease: Patients living in ‘medical limbo’ push for federal strategy
HALIFAX — The health issues piled up for Donna Lugar, one on top of another: She had breathing trouble, vision and hearing problems, even heart issues, but finding a cause was elusive.
“Occasionally I would get a diagnosis,” said the 55-year-old Halifax resident. “But a lot of tests were coming back negative.”
By 2010, almost a decade after her problems began, Lugar said she was diagnosed with tetanus, but treatment didn’t help. Finally, in September 2011, she found a doctor in Cape Breton who diagnosed and treated her for Lyme disease.
Lugar said a large part of her problem is that she never presented to doctors with a classic indicator of Lyme disease: a bull’s-eye rash.