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A young Kelowna woman is sharing her story to help raise awareness about Lyme Disease.
Laila Labonte says multiple doctors have denied her requests for treatment despite test results from a German lab confirming that she has the tick-borne illness.
She believes she may have been infected as a teenager when she lived on Vancouver Island, where she spent a lot of time horseback riding. It wasn’t until after she moved to Kelowna that she went to her doctor and was originally diagnosed with fibromyalgia.
“I had chronic pain but I also had really weird flu-like symptoms. It got so bad that I was having neurological issues, I was having trouble holding things, speaking,” Labonte explained.
While her family has a history of fibromyalgia, her symptoms didn’t seem to match.
“Because I didn’t have a bullseye rash, no one was really able to get me a Lyme disease test, the western blot test,” she says.
That’s when she started to research her symptoms and connect with support groups. Eventually, she sent bloodwork to ArminLabs in Germany and it came back positive for Lyme disease. However, getting doctors in Kelowna to acknowledge those tests was another story.
“It was all through a naturopath clinic that I had my testing done. I went back to my family doctor and I showed them the test results and I asked them, are you able to help me with my treatment now?”
Labonte said she couldn’t afford to keep going to the naturopath clinic for treatment.
“My doctor said that Canada doesn’t recognize ArminLab tests. And then I said 'is there a chance now that I could get the Canadian blot test' and they asked me and said, 'is it really necessary for us to do a test if you’re just going to go through private healthcare anyway.'”
She called that super-frustrating, saying she had hoped her doctor would be able to prescribe the same antibiotic treatment that the naturopath had prescribed.
“So, because of that, I went to a private healthcare clinic in Vancouver that was able to prescribe me IV antibiotics because my Lyme disease was so chronic. That was great but it was at a really high cost,” said Labonte.
While she believes she is now in remission, she says there is not enough awareness in Canada about chronic Lyme disease and a need for aggressive treatment.
“It was a really hard process to get there and I felt very alone throughout because unless I had the money to do it I felt like I hit a dead end.”
Health Canada's advice to healthcare professionals says, "While a known history of tick exposure, particularly to blacklegged or western blacklegged ticks, helps with the diagnosis, absence of a history of exposure does not rule out Lyme disease."
May is Lyme Disease Awareness Month. Labonte is urging people to be vigilant to check themselves for tick bites or be aware of the symptoms of Lyme disease.
“I really want to help advocate for everyone who has a similar story, who has gone through the struggles because I see it,” she says.
The rate of Lyme disease cases in B.C. has risen in recent years. In 2023, the BC Centre for Disease Control reports there were 28 confirmed cases in the province. However, only four of those appear to have been acquired locally. The majority were attributed to tick bites while visiting other parts of Canada or other parts of the world.
The BCCDC Public Health Laboratory tests ticks taken from humans and pets that are submitted through physicians and veterinarians. In 2023, a total of 602 were tested for the causative agent of Lyme disease. Four of the ticks tested positive, which was down from 2022 but comparable to 2019 and 2021.
If you suspect you have been bitten, you can submit a tick for testing. BCCDC recommends you put it in a container with a tight-fitting top and take it to a doctor who can submit it through the Public Health Laboratory.
People can also download the eTick app or visit www.eTick.ca to submit a picture to an expert for identification.
Anecdotal reports on social media sites in the Central Okanagan indicate ticks are very active right now.
