Was diagnosed with Lyme disease after 16 years of suffering

Photo courtesy Jeremy Legault-Pelletier
Since the month of June, Sophie Legault takes natural products and two antibiotics to treat Lyme disease and it feels a lot better.

Carl Vaillancourt

Sunday, 3 September 2017, 08:00

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Sunday, 3 September 2017, 08:00

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MONT-TREMBLANT | A 35 year old woman who believed to have multiple sclerosis for the past 16 years would have been affected by the disease, Lyme.

On 20 June, Sophie Legault has learned that she had Lyme disease, a syndrome, transmitted by the bite of a tick. The disease has progressed to the north in the last few years, favoured by climate change.

In 2001, doctors in quebec have announced to Ms. Legault that she was suffering from multiple sclerosis, whose symptoms are similar to Lyme disease. For 16 years, she has taken various drugs for this disease, but they were not working, ” she says. So she slowly lost the strength in his legs, which forced her to quit her job as a laboratory technician in 2016.

Plattsburgh

After having watched a documentary on Lyme disease last December, Ms. Legault went to see Dr. Maureen McShane, to his clinic of Plattsburgh in the United States, who was diagnosed with the disease.

The american specialist did not want to comment on an error in the diagnosis of multiple sclerosis for Ms. Legault, but according to her, it is not uncommon to see false diagnoses.

“It is more than likely, I already had a patient who did not have multiple sclerosis despite a diagnosis in this sense. It had been rather the Lyme disease, ” said Dr. Maureen McShane. She believes that the fact that drugs against multiple sclerosis not working is a good indicator.

Climb the stairs

For the past two months, Ms. Legault takes a cocktail of antibiotics, natural products and following a regime of severe food to fight Lyme disease. His health is greatly improved in the space of a few weeks, she is now able to climb the stairs of his home without having to stop, that she had not done for three years.

“The treatment works really well. I was about 30 % of my capabilities when I had the diagnosis, while today I find myself at 60 %. It is magical, ” she added.

Dr. McShane ensures that the Lyme disease has been raging for a long time in Quebec, but that it was unknown to the specialists.

“I myself contracted Lyme disease in 2003 in Quebec, so it existed in the sector. Today, we can find in the northern regions of Quebec, ” explained the one who has received a patient in Sept-Îles recently.

Sophie Legault did not know how she contracted Lyme disease. She lived at Farnham, near the u.s. border in 2001. The first cases in Quebec have been listed in this region in 2002-2003.

“I lived in an area with long grass and lots of wooded areas. The perfect environment as a habitat for a tick that I was surely piqued, ” she said.

Lyme disease

• From 2011 to 2016, the number of Lyme disease cases rose from 34 to 179
• The most affected regions are the Outaouais, Montérégie, Estrie, and Mauricie
• 2158 ticks have étéanalysées in 2016

source : national Institute of public health