Kamloops resident and Lyme disease awareness advocate Jen Meers is pictured in this undated photograph.

Image Credit: SUBMITTED/Jen Meers

Bone pain, muscle pain and mental confusion are just a few of the symptoms Jen Meers has been living with most of her life.

Now 36, the Kamloops resident was diagnosed with Lyme disease a decade ago, after years of feeling chronically ill.

“I was excited when I finally got the diagnosis after struggling for so long where no one would believe me, everyone told me I was crazy,” Meers said. 

Her excitement quickly wore off as she discovered a community of other Lyme sufferers who had the same stories about being dismissed, denied supports and misdiagnosed by doctors.

Meers started a Facebook page where 150 Lyme sufferers and their family members lend emotional support and share resources. 

“All of us have the exact same story. You have this chronic illness, you go to the doctor, the doctor says Lyme doesn’t exist here and you’re stuck, no one believes you,” she said.

“That’s why I started the group, I couldn’t believe there isn’t help for this, it’s insane, I was trying to make a change. We advocated really hard, but all of us kind of gave up.”

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Meers grew up hiking and exploring the grasslands around Kamloops and said she was never taught to check for ticks.

When she got into her teen years she was stricken with asthma and allergies, and by the time she graduated she had chronic flu symptoms, sore muscles and fatigue to such a degree she couldn’t work.

Then she suffered neurological issues.

“You get depressed because you’re young and you want to do things and can’t function properly,” she said. “I still remember trying to get into my house but I couldn’t. Or driving and not knowing where I am or how to put the car in reverse.”  

Lyme disease is an illness caused by the bacterium, borrelia burgdorferi, which can be spread through the bite of certain types of ticks, according to the Public Health Agency of Canada.

The ticks get infected when they feed on small animals carrying the bacteria. Two types of ticks carry it, the western blacklegged tick in BC and the blacklegged tick or deer tick in other parts of Canada.

A tick is seen in a dog's fur.

Image Credit: BCSPCA

The first stage of Lyme can cause an array of flulike symptoms and if it’s left untreated, the condition will move to the second stage that includes nervous system disorders, arthritis and extreme fatigue lasting months. If the disease remains untreated, the sufferer can have physical and neurological problems for years.

“By the time I hit 20, doctors told me I had MS or early Parkinson's,” Meers said. “They were sending me to specialists but no one would believe it could be Lyme.”

She said very few members on her Facebook group had their family doctors give them a test for Lyme, and added the tests are highly inaccurate.

“You can send your blood to Germany to be tested but it costs hundreds of dollars, and once it comes back it costs thousands of dollars to treat it. That’s if you catch it early enough and can fix it.” 

READ MORE: Heat map shows high risk for Lyme disease spreading ticks in Kamloops, Okanagan

In 2015, Meers got a diagnosis through a naturopath.

“Naturopaths are aware of Lyme and their tests are more accurate,” she said. “They’ll combine symptoms along with the test for a diagnosis.”

A diagnosis from a naturopath doesn’t qualify Meers for disability so she claims hers under her doctor’s diagnosis of multiple sclerosis.

“A lot of us are on disability, we put down what our doctors tell us, that we have chronic fatigue or depression, and then we go to the naturopath for help on our own.”

There is no cure for Lyme disease that isn’t treated right away and she's come to terms with it.

“I’ll have to do this forever, that’s where we all are and we just have to manage it,” she said. “We eat healthy and take care of our bodies just to feel OK. We still feel like we have the flu, we’re still in pain.”

Meer and her support group have hosted three annual walks in Kamloops to bring awareness to Lyme disease, but due to health issues with the organizers it isn’t going ahead this May.

“We were doing the walks for awareness. We can’t fix the system so we focus on education and getting people to do their tick checks and see a naturopath for antibiotics right away if they get bit,” she said.

READ MORE: Encounters of the creepy, crawly, tick kind on the rise in Kamloops, Okanagan

Over her many years of living with Lyme, and later advocating for awareness, she said nothing has improved in regards to the medical recognition of the disease, nor help or sympathy.

Lyme disease became a nationally reportable disease in the country in 2010. All medical professionals have to report cases of Lyme disease to the agency that assesses the distribution of it, and recent studies show the disease is increasing, according to the Public Health Agency of Canada. 

Kamloops and the Okanagan are among the areas highlighted on this 2022 map of high-risk Lyme areas in B.C.

Image Credit: SUBMITTED/Port Moody Health

Much of southern BC is identified as having Lyme transmitting ticks, while data indicates blacklegged ticks can be introduced to new areas by migratory birds.

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Meers advocates to get the word out that Lyme disease carrying ticks are in the BC Interior.

“You read the news and talk to doctors and are told they’re not here so you don’t look or be careful,” she said. “It gets misdiagnosed as MS, Parkinson's, chronic fatigue, there are many different diagnoses.

“There are lots of people with chronic illness and no one thinks to look for Lyme.”

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