BY REGGE EPISALE
Correspondent

Melissa “Missy” Perry wants to share her story. It’s personal. It’s painful. “But if one person is helped by knowing what I’ve gone through, it’s worth it, right?”

Missy was only 28 years old when she started feeling ill. She was bone tired all of the time, had body aches that moved from joint to joint and were too severe to explain, suffered short-term memory loss, and felt weak. As she got worse, her body would twitch at night like restless-leg-syndrome only all over.

She was prone to mood-swings, which was out of character for her, and with her mood swings came guilt and depression.

Over the course of two years Perry went to doctor after doctor, trying to get answers. She was diagnosed with chronic fatigue, thyroid dysfunction, fibromyalgia, and depression and anxiety.

By the time she received the diagnosis of depression she had become depressed from always being ill and in pain and gladly accepted Zoloft.
Nothing helped. She just kept getting worse.

Finally a doctor did a Lyme test which came back positive. Perry was told the Lyme test was positive, but no big deal. She’d be put on ten days of Doxycycline and be better. It didn’t work.

When Perry posted about her positive Lyme test on Facebook, a friend messaged her about another acquaintance who had been diagnosed with Lyme disease and gave Perry the woman’s contact information.

“Without her I might have never have gotten help. She has helped me out so much with Lyme with giving me lots of info,” Perry said.

The woman told Missy about a specialist three hours away. With his help, the acquaintance was in remission.

The specialist started Perry with Doxycycline for a month which, under medical supervision, was extended first one more month and then two more months. Before she started on the antibiotics she had felt horrible. As the antibiotics started fighting the advanced Lyme disease in her body, she felt worse. She had been working full-time but dropped to part-time.

The Doxycycline was followed by Ceftin, Biaxin, Rifampin, Amoxicillin and Flagyl. She was finally put on a pic line and administered Rocefin along with oral Bioxin. While on Rocefin, it became difficult for Perry to get out of bed.

Her mother and aunt took turns caring for her while her husband took the kids to school, worked full-time, took her to all medical appointments, and did much of the cooking and home care. Perry also had a home health nurse who came in to help. “I lost most of my friends and even some family when I got so sick,” Perry said.

After 6-1/2 months the pic line was removed due to a blood clot which formed. She was put on Warfarin, a blood thinner, for another six months. When taken off of birth control pills due to using Warfarin, Perry became pregnant with twins. She didn’t know how she was going to care for babies while so ill abut was more worried about the potential to infect the babies with Lyme disease.

In the beginning of the pregnancy she started feeling better and was told that Lyme disease can at times go into remission during pregnancy. Whether from Warfarin, her lengthy illness, or her fluctuating thyroid functions, Perry miscarried. A few weeks after the miscarriage her symptoms reappeared.

Because she suffered from Malaria like symptoms – chills, sweats, twitching – she was secondarily diagnosed with Babesiosis, a co-infection which ticks that carry Lyme bacteria may also carry. She was prescribed Mepron, which wasn’t covered by insurance, and the anti-biotic, Zithromax.

Now, five years later, Perry is still sick multiple days out of every week, sometimes three or four, sometimes more. She constantly researches supplements and treatments that have helped others.

Because of the continued short-term memory problems, she keeps copious notes of things she wants to remember and sets alarms on her phone to help her remember when to get up, when to take kids to school and pick them up, and to remember any and all appointments and obligations.

Perry says she still has difficulty with simple chores, such as grocery shopping, and uses her cart to lean on so she can walk down the aisles.

She continues to work part-time as she is able in a family owned business where she can take time off when too ill or when she has appointments.

She gets feeling better sometimes, but lately, Perry says she isn’t doing so well. She’s sure the Lyme disease is still there and is hoping to find another specialist closer to home and possibly some new treatment that will work. Because she was sick for two years before being diagnosed, she has heard treatment can take up to four years from the time of discovery to work. She holds on to the hope that this is true. It would mean only one more year of being sick as long as she can continue treatment.

Perry wants to get well. She wants to be herself. She wants others to get tested if they have symptoms or a tick bite, and get treatment earlier than she did.

She wants her story told.