Kelowna woman shares her story after being diagnosed with Lyme disease

Photo: Letaya Yuros

Letaya Yuros in her security guard uniform with the Okanagan Batman

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Photo: Letaya Yuros Photo: Letaya Yuros Photo: Letaya Yuros Photo: Letaya Yuros Photo: Letaya Yuros Photo: Letaya Yuros Photo: Letaya Yuros Photo: Letaya Yuros

A young woman who works as a security guard at Orchard Park shopping centre is sharing her story of being diagnosed with Lyme disease to raise awareness about the dangers of tick bites.

Letaya Yuros was out for a walk with a friend in the Molnar Road area on May 31. She stepped through some grass and weeds to get a photo of the sunset when she felt something bite the back of her calf.

“Not even thinking about a tick at this point, which I should have, it’s tick season, I walked through the grass,” Yuros said she thought it was just a mosquito bite.

The next day, while at work, she noticed the bite was flaring hot and slightly itchy. By the time she got home it was a golf-ball sized rash. She called a family friend who suggested it was a spider bite, but Letaya had a foreboding feeling, and went to Kelowna General Hospital to have it checked out.

She had taken photos of her calf, and shared those with the hospital staff.

“I showed them the progression of the bite. But at this point it was just a dime-sized red centre. A white ring around the dime-sized centre and then a red ring and then it went white,” she said the doctor called in another physician.

She was prescribed doxycycline, which the doctor said is prescribed to prevent Lyme disease.

Letaya went to work the next day, but started to feel tired and dizzy near the end of her shift, so she went back to the hospital, where she was treated by Dr. James Reid.

“I actually couldn’t drive to the hospital because of how fatigued I was and I didn’t want to get into a car crash. So my good friend drove me down to KGH.

“(I) get admitted, see Dr. Reid and he’s sees my bite. He actually thought it was cellulitis at first, that’s how disgusting my bite looked.”

She says it was very painful by then and felt like, “an icy hot jelly sack under the top layer of my skin.”

Dr. Reid ran blood work and after a wait of about 40 minutes, came back to tell Yuros she had tested positive for Lyme disease. She was surprised because she had googled Lyme disease and realized the chances of contracting it were very low.

While the BC Centre for Disease Control would not confirm Yuros’s case to Castanet, it did say that two cases of lyme disease have been reported to BCCDC so far in 2023. Last year, there were 10 reported cases of which 8 were travel related, one was in the Vancouver Coastal Health region and the other was in the Interior Health region.

“The annual incidence of locally-acquired confirmed cases of Lyme disease in British Columbia remains low, ranging from 0.02 to 0.33 cases per 100,000 population annually,” said Heather Amos, manager of Communications and Engagement at BCCDC.

The highest annual number of cases in the past decade was in 2016, when there were 39 cases. Most (31) were travel-related, and just one involved someone bitten by a tick in the Interior Health region.

Catching Lyme disease in its early stages can greatly improve a patient’s outcomes. Yuros continues to take the doxycycline she was prescribed and monitor her health closely. Right now her symptoms come and go.

“It can switch at the drop of a hat. You can feel extremely energized and maybe 20 minutes later you want to fall on the ground. You want to sleep and sleep and sleep," she explained.

According to the BCCDC, western blacklegged ticks can carry the bacteria that causes Lyme disease and are distributed throughout the province. While the geographic distribution of ticks has remained stable in B.C., and the risk of Lyme disease has remained low, the western blacklegged tick could spread to more parts of the province due to climate change.

Yuros is hoping her case will help advance research on ticks and Lyme disease in British Columbia. She also has some advice for those out for a walk, hike or bike ride.

“Wear tight clothing. Make sure if you’re wearing sweat pant that they’re tucked into your socks. Because tight clothing is more tick-resistant. Ticks like places where they can crawl up easily and bite you.”

The Centre for Disease Control also offers these tips:

• Walk in the middle of cleared trails wherever possible when walking in tall grassy areas or forested areas.
• Wear light coloured clothing so you can see ticks.
• Put insect repellent containing DEET or Icaridin on all uncovered skin and clothing. Reapply as frequently as directed on the container.

After leaving an area where ticks may be found:

• Check your entire body for attached ticks including the scalp, folds of skin, under the arms, behind the knees. Have someone help you check hard-to-see areas. Make sure to check children, pets and outdoor gear for ticks too.
• If a tick is found, remove it immediately.
• You can submit a picture of the tick to the eTick app and an expert will identify it.
• If a tick has been found on you or a child, you can submit it for testing. Save the tick in a container with a tight fitting top. Take it to a physician who can submit it to the BCCDC Public Health Laboratory.
• Take a bath or shower to remove loosely attached ticks.
• Wash the clothes you were wearing and dry them in a dryer on high heat.

Ticks live in tall grass and forested areas and attach to people or animals as they pass by. They burrow partway into the skin, bite, draw blood and then drop off. They are most active in spring (March to June).