Kakabeka Falls, Ont. man recovering from Lyme disease
It’s difficult to watch MIke Zettek, from Kakabeka Falls, Ont., about 30 km west of Thunder Bay, climb up a set of stairs
The Lyme disease he believes he contracted in June 2014 caused painful swelling in his left knee.
Zettek said in October his knee swelled up in a matter of hours but doctors at the emergency department were unable to determine what caused the rapid change in the joint.
Over the next five and half months Zettek said he saw eight different doctors, including two knee specialists and a rheuamatologist, who couldn’t come up with a diagnosis.
Finally, in March 2015, Zettek pushed his doctor for a test for Lyme disease. It came back positive.
We have watched our brother-in-law suffer with this disease for seven years. He was also in Thunder Bay area; and also did not get the ” bullseye” .In the shower after an outing with friends fishing; he found the tick on his leg. After he began to get typical lyme type symptoms, he began to read and ask questions on the disease. He still did not jump to any conclusions; but began to ask questions about tests etc. from his doctor/ nurse practitioners. They just as much ignored him, and would not send him for any tests. He finally got in touch with a clinic in the U.S.; where he had to send a blood sample for them to analyze. The results came back positive. Even with this result in hand the medical profession would not do anything. A recent trip to a doctor in Seattle, affirmed the diagnosis, and a prescription received. Unfortunately, Lorne has passed away by an unrelated incident; unable to find out if he might have been able to rid himself of this nightmare. He would have wanted the medical profession to learn more about this; and treat it promptly. Not with the arrogance that they showed him. We will miss Lorne.