If you thought you couldnt get Lyme disease named for Lyme, Conn. in San Diego County, think again.

The disease that triggers headaches, severe chronic fatigue, joint pain and varying degrees of debilitating symptoms that can linger for years has long been commonly associated with New England.

But the first U.S. case diagnosed was actually in Wisconsin, and California reported an occurrence as far back as 1978. Lyme disease has occurred in more than half of all counties in the United States. So says Wendy Adams, research grant director of the nonprofit Bay Area Lyme Foundation.

California doesnt harbor the Eastern blacklegged tick, which transmits the disease on the East Coast. But the Western blacklegged tick, which also infects humans, has been found in all but two counties in California. Not all of these ticks are infected with the Lyme disease-causing bacteria, Borellia burgdorferi. But infected ticks have been discovered in 42 of our states 58 counties, including San Diego County.

The disease is expanding its territory fairly quickly. The Centers for Disease Control (CDC) and Prevention cites a 2015 study estimating that 329,000 new Lyme disease cases occur in the United States each year. Adams explained that the Bay Area foundation was created to try to shed some light on this mysterious and complex illness and find ways of treating it more effectively.

In an effort to speed the search for quicker diagnosis and better treatments, the foundation created a Lyme Disease Biobank to collect blood and urine samples from patients to provide to researchers studying Lyme Disease. Fifty such studies are now in progress.

On March 6, a biobank branch opened at 3706 Ruffin Road in San Diego in partnership with Osteopathic Medical Associates Dr. Mike Kurisu, who also works with the UC San Diego Center for Integrative Medicine. The foundation now has a half-dozen branches nationwide.

Alli Turrell, a San Diegan who got Lyme from a tick bite while rescuing injured dogs and horses in the Tijuana River Valley in 2010, attended the ribbon cutting and is one of the first biobank blood donors. She also is starting a local Lyme disease support group.

If caught early, the disease usually can be effectively treated with antibiotics. But its telltale bullseye rash often never appears. Plus, the tiny tick, the size of a sesame seed, can easily go undetected, leaving many sufferers with a host of symptoms that elude treatment.

Patients tell of going from doctor to doctor seeking a diagnosis for their baffling symptoms.

That was the case for University of San Diego student Patricia Cosulich, now 24. Plagued by extreme chronic fatigue and unrelenting headaches, brain fog and memory loss, the honors student had to take a medical leave from college. She suspects she got bitten by a tick on one of her many local hiking and camping trips as a Girl Scout growing up in Huntington Beach.

I felt like I was dying, she says. My legs were lead blocks that I was dragging around. I started losing my ability to recall words when I needed them, so everything became thing. I lost my train of thought in the middle of conversations. I couldnt understand why this was happening.

She first consulted a doctor about her symptoms as a high school junior but got no answers. Her condition gradually became worse and the headaches and inability to function became unbearable in college.

I ended up going to about 15 doctors before I received a diagnosis. The general response was either, I dont know what you have and I cant help you, or suggesting it was in my head and I should see a counselor, Patricia recalls.

She and her mother, having conducted their own symptom research, had asked some of those 15 doctors to test for Lyme disease. Their response, says Patricia: You couldnt have Lyme. We dont have Lyme disease in California.

Ahhh, but we do. And that is the message the Bay Area Lyme Foundation is trying to get across. On the East Coast the disease was found to spread after ticks pick up the bacteria when they feed on a white-footed mouse in their larval or nymph stage.

Our states diversity has led to a greater diversity of tick hosts, which include birds and small mammals such as voles, moles, rats and mice. But studies show the primary host, by far, tends to be the gray squirrel.

So wear those long pants and close-toed shoes when hiking and camping in California.

When you return, Adams recommends tossing your clothing first into a hot dryer for at least 10 minutes before washing them and taking a hot shower to wash any ticks off your body before they implant. They prefer hiding in such areas as the underarm, bellybutton, groin, nape of the neck and behind ears.

Patricia, while not cured, feels much better after a variety of antibiotics and other treatments, including herbal medicines, ozone therapy, probiotics and following a gluten-free, soy-free, dairy-free, low-sugar diet. She is now writing a play that revolves around Lyme disease.

I never want it to take so long for anyone else to be diagnosed, she says.

Read more here:
Column: Ticking bomb: Lyme disease is not an East Coast phenomenon - The San Diego Union-Tribune