Imagine getting a full night’s rest to wake up feeling like you’ve only had two hours of sleep, joint pain that moves around to different parts of your body unexpectedly, or a flu that sidelines you for weeks. These are symptoms Chanelle Biggan has experienced for as long as she can remember.
Biggan was a competitive figure skater, skating for Disney on Ice and trained throughout summers, to which she attributed her chronic fatigue, because that was her normal.
Her memory was poor, something that concerned and confused her mother, Debbie, because memory loss isn’t typically something seen in young people. She was in and out of doctors visits trying to figure out what was wrong with her.
Biggan was clinically diagnosed with lyme disease in 2014, along with her brother Tanner. Biggan has no idea how old she was when she got it or how she got it, but Debbie said the kids used to play outside of their family home that borders Colwood and Metchosin and have pulled several ticks from their pets throughout the years.
Biggan said that ticks also carry co-infections and that she was also diagnosed with an airborne virus, microplasma. Co-infections can also damage the body over time if they aren’t treated properly.
Her father, Dale, was clinically diagnosed with lyme disease in 2009 through a blood test that was sent to the United States.
He was initially given a thermography test, that was also examined in the States. The results found his body was in complete inflammation and that it was probably caused by lyme disease. He was chronically ill, with muscle and joint pain and had bouts where he couldn’t walk and had seen 12 specialists that couldn’t identify the problem.
Muhammad Morshed, B.C. Centre for Disease Control (CDC) program head and UBC clinical professor, said Canadian blood tests are not able to diagnose the tick-borne disease accurately, therefore blood tests are sent to the U.S. or to Europe.
He also noted the CDC warns people not to do testing in private labs because they can provide false positives.
When the family got the diagnosis, they weren’t familiar with it, so Debbie did a lot of research. “I was researching 24/7, I drove the kids nuts with research,” she said.
Dale went to a chronic illness clinic in Vancouver and was prescribed two months of antibiotics for the disease. The medication made him sick so he stopped taking them after two months because he thought that he was better, but the joint and muscle pain and fatigue continued to come and go.
Biggan’s aunt, Mary Lynn Bellamy-Willms, opened a clinic in Victoria called Valentus, that deals with brain wave optimization and pain management, used to treat patients with concussions. The clinic was having a trial period so Biggan, her father and brother were willing to try anything to feel better.
The trial treatment used frequency healing, a half hour each day for one month. Biggan said this process was to kill the bacteria in their system and then they would detox with infrared saunas, colonics and hot yoga. They also utilized pulse electric magnetic therapy – energy healing that helps rebuild your cells and immune system. Debbie noticed a change in the three of them. They were all brighter and their memories were sharper.
They found success with holistic methods, but Biggan said a year after the trial treatment her lyme flared up again, so she decided to enrol in the Canadian School of Natural Nutrition.
She was already very passionate about health and fitness and had previously attended Camosun College, receiving a diploma in sport performance, so she thought focusing on her diet was the next step.
Through the program she learned that there were in fact certain things she couldn’t eat because her organs had been affected from the disease and weren’t functioning properly. She started experimenting with food to see if cutting things out would affect how she felt. She said she has learned to stay away from anything with yeast or manufactured sugars like alcohol and bread and to eat lots of fruits and vegetables.
She said she still has lingering effects of the disease, and her memory comes and goes, but it is much more tolerable than it used to be.
Through education and support groups with the disease, her family found that physically, the disease affects everybody differently, but it affects people’s relationships the same.
Before the diagnosis, when Biggan was figure skating, and she suddenly couldn’t eat meat, Debbie worried that her daughter might have an eating disorder. Biggan found it hard to explain to her friends and have them understand that she didn’t feel well enough to go out or have her employers understand that she wasn’t feeling well or was having trouble focusing, so couldn’t come in to work.
Biggan and her family went to counselling after cutting ties with her dad’s side of the family after they were bullied online and accused of lying about chronically not feeling well. It was devastating for Biggan and her family, but this is quite common for people with lyme disease, she said.
“The horrible part is not having it, but having to deal with the part that comes along with it,” Biggan said. “It was frustrating for myself more than anything.”
Debbie is part of the Vancouver Island Lyme support group and attends meetings once a month and has also found helpful information through OHOH Canada Lyme support group. She said a lot of people share similar stories and find success in decreasing lyme disease symptoms with holistic methods.
Debbie said prevention is the best thing she can suggest because ticks can be so small, “after a hike or playing outside throw your clothes in the dryer for a high heat for an hour … check yourselves for ticks,” she said.
Biggan said if a person suspects they have it or has a chance of getting it, living a healthy lifestyle will more easily help the body fight it off.
The road has been long for Biggan and her family, but now, at 25 years old, she has learned how to manage it. She will never be cured, but she said she’s done a 360 in how she feels now compared to how she did just two years ago.
She is a registered holistic nutritionist and certified personal trainer and has worked out a flexible work schedule to suit her needs.
“The journey has been our life, without us knowing it,” she said. “I wouldn’t be doing the work I am if I didn’t have to try to understand what I was dealing with.”
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lindsey.horsting@goldstream