Phil Martin survives bout with Lyme disease

Friday, June 8, 2012

By Neoma Foreman

Special to the Daily Mail

"I was ready to die," Phil Martin, of Walker, said of surviving Lyme disease.

"Whatever got me; I never recognized or knew what it was. It started last fall when I went back to teaching school. I started losing interest in eating. I couldn't figure why I wasn't hungry. Things that I normally enjoyed eating, I couldn't stand the thought of even seeing."

Martin began losing weight and with weight loss came persistent energy loss. He began having trouble focusing and suffered memory loss. He had a psychological test, but that netted nothing abnormal.

"It got so bad I retired from teaching school. I hated to do it as I love teaching and want to go back," Martin said.

He became weaker and weaker and began passing out. He underwent a battery of tests, but these led nowhere as well. When it became evident he couldn't care for himself, he checked into Moore-Few Care Center in Nevada. His brother, Allan, had cared for him, but Martin felt it was unfair to ask him to take care of him any longer.

"I didn't give a hoot about anything and that's just not me. I was a great big mess. I can't say enough for the people at Moore-Few. They kept working with me when I had given up."

He had a couple of MRIs and, a bone marrow test which were all normal. He ended up getting four blood transfusions and losing 36 pounds.

"It was discouraging. What was the deal? I didn't have a lot of lucid moments and was so weak I had to relearn how to walk," he said.

Finally, a physiologist at Nevada Regional Medical Center asked question after question, and Martin remembered that he had pulled a tick from his navel area during the summer. The physiologist said, "We need to explore the possibility of Lyme disease."

Then Martin's brother arranged for him to see a Lyme disease specialist in Columbia, Mo., Dr. Charles Crist, M.D.

"Dr. Crist took one look at me and said, 'We'll give you the test, but I can tell you right now, you have Lyme disease.' It was not a different blood test, but they were looking for different things and they found it."

He was sent back to Nevada where Dr. F. L.Thompson put him on the prescribed medication, doxycycline, and within three days, Martin could feel a difference.

"The bacteria responded very well to that treatment. But Lyme is a sneaky, tricky thing. You can get rid of one symptom and it goes someplace else in your body," Martin said.

Then came physical therapy to learn how to walk again.

"I would walk a few feet and then a few more and slowly started getting stronger. I struggled to the dining room with a walker. The therapist told me I should start using a cane, but I said 'I'm going to by bypass the cane' and I walked solo -- with them by my side. We take walking for granted because we were too young when we started to remember the challenges. Learning to walk when you're older is a big thing."

The next time he went back to Dr. Crist, he could climb on the examining table; and after four months on the medication, he was able to drive himself to Columbia and back. One of the many things about Dr. Crist that impressed Martin was that he began the session with prayer.

Phil said that his brother and sister-in-law, Allan and Diane Martin were "fantastic" in their willingness to check on him, go to see different doctors and go with him to get various tests. "I don't think I would have made it if it were not for their care."

"This is something that can happen to anyone," Martin cautioned.

"The first line of defense is self-examination. The earlier you catch it, the fewer problems you have. We have to pay attention to those tick bites, and even mosquitoes. Lyme disease is treatable at any phase, but the longer it goes misdiagnosed, the harder it is to get rid of. The only place I could have gotten the tick was walking back and forth to my mother's house here in town. I was never in the timber. So just because you live in the city is no exemption. Dr. Crist said you can spray around your house, but it doesn't last long. I also learned that our pets can get Lyme disease and become disoriented. They can bring the ticks to you, also.

"We can't be too careful. It's been a huge journey I don't want to repeat."

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