‘You wouldn’t give it to your worst enemy’: what it’s like to live with Lyme disease – Telegraph.co.uk

When Sarah Hook was rushed to hospital in 2015, she was struggling to breathe,her heart was racing and she was experiencing an intense rush of adrenaline.I felt like I had drunk 100 coffees, she remembers.

Initially, doctors identified her symptoms as a panic attack but Hook,had never had one before. A month later, she realised theterrifying episode could in fact have been linked to a tick bite that had occurred 10 years previously.I didn't do anything about the tick bite," she says. "I left it, (but) looking back I can see that my health has been deteriorating since then. Id left it so long my body crashed.

Six months after her hospitalisation, a blood test at a private clinic confirmed that Hook had Lyme disease,a tick-borne infectious disease which can cause extreme fatigue, nerve damage, and neurological issues. Ever since, she has been unable to work and has had to move back in with her parents in Berkshire.

Its such a systemic illness, the symptoms morph and change," she says. "You can just feel like youve got rid of one and it can just pop up somewhere else. I think that's why it feels so exhausting.

This week, US singer Justin Bieber announced on Instagram that he is battling the disease.While a lot of people kept saying Justin Bieber looks like s***, on meth etc. they failed to realise I've been recently diagnosed with Lyme disease, the 25-year-old wrote, referencing speculation about his health afterpictures showed him looking exhausted, with blotchy skin.

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'You wouldn't give it to your worst enemy': what it's like to live with Lyme disease - Telegraph.co.uk

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