Ticks are tiny. One can be smaller than a grain of rice. Yet the little critters can cause a great deal of harm. Savannah Marcum knows about that. She has Lyme disease. People get that from a tick bite. Marcum shared her story for Lyme Disease Awareness Month.
“I got Lyme disease when I was 14,” said Marcum. “I got really sick,” she explained. “I only was able to go to three days of my freshman year of high school. And then I was too sick to go.”
Marcum is now 23 years old. Yet she still has Lyme disease. And she also got three other diseases from the tick. “One little tick could infect you with multiple types of tick ,” she explained.
Tick bites don’t hurt. “I don’t ever remember getting a tick bite,” said Marcum. She didn’t get a tick bite rash either. But she got a bad headache. “I just couldn't think,” she explained. “Nothing made sense.” She soon got other symptoms. “I was super-nauseous. I was really tired. I would get dizzy.” That’s not all. “I had insomnia,” she added, “so I stopped sleeping.”
Marcum was very sick for many years. “I worked really, really hard through all of the years that I was sick to not lose who I am,” she explained. She made sure to continue the activities that brought her joy. Those included painting, making music, creating YouTube videos, and sewing. “I made a real effort to make time in my life to do happy stuff,” said Marcum. Today, she is mostly better. She lives in California.
Marcum always enjoyed nature. “I spent most of my life outdoors,” she explained. Marcum said getting sick didn’t change that. “I do still go outside every day,” she said. However, now she works to protect herself — and her pets. (She has four cats and a dog!) So, she checks for ticks often and follows “simple tips.”
“Tick awareness is not about being afraid,” said Marcum. “It’s about being aware.”
“It shouldn’t stop you from living the life that you want to live.”
Updated May 17, 2021, 5:01 P.M. (ET)
By Russell Kahn (Russ)
