. welcome to "beyond the headlines" i'm cheryl jennings. what do you kw about lyme disease, whi youan get from a tick bite. what i learned was shocking. at first the centers for disease corol only reported about 30,000 cases a year. bunew studies reveal those numbers could be far higher, as many as 300,000 cas a year. and now the cente for disease control estimates that number could be as high as 1 million cases a year. we will talk about that. our guest, amytann, living with lyme disease. ou know her, she has her new book out called "the valle of

amazement." we have a little book flyer to show you about that. her life and career were dailed by lyme disease for while. also amy's doctor joins us tay, dr. ray stricker, internationally known for his work in treating lyme disease pai patits. amy, i was holding up your book, and i bet you were gladto do this because your career was derailed because of this. >> i couldn't write, i couldn't read, i couldn't reunderstand things. >> do you rememb when you first g sick? >> i got sick the dayfter i was infected. i didn't know i was infeed, but i had the flu, the summertime flu. i had not been sick with the flu for about 15 years. i never got sick. i saw a rash, didn't have the

bullseye, didn't worry about it. >> that's typilly the rst symptom people talkabout. >> d stricker, you are amy's doctor. thnk you for allowing us to have this conversation. what is lyme disease? >> lym disease i a mor epidemic. e cdc estimates at least 30,000 new cases a year, probably more th that, more common than breast cancer, six times more common than ais. it is a disease tnsmitted by ticks. very often po doneople don't kn they were infected o had aick bite, then they gethese bizarre symptoms and it canbe hard to diagnose. >> we have a picture of a tick. it's so tiny. we have a picture of aick mouth, which is really gross describe how sll this is. >> on the left i probably an adu tick which is relatively big. the nympho tick, the most

contagious, is about e size of a poppy se. on the right is an encouraged tick, that's how big it can get en it has a lot of blood meal. >> that sounds sogross. when somebody gets sick, they have flu-like symptoms. these little mouthpieces here, they just send all kinds of things into your system. >> they do. when theick bites ou, it injects saliva into t wound t has a numbing effect, an anti-coagulant effect, and it can suppress the immun respoe so the tick can sit there for hours and feed and transm lyme disease. >> am when you got sick, you started going to doctors over and over again. >> ten of them, actually. this is the probl, people don't know what to treat. they're looking only at one symptom. i had joint problems, insomnia, sleep disorder. i had problems walking.

i hadso many things wrong that people were looking at differen hings. they thought i had addison's or curbing i cushinges. i hadypoglycemia levels of 27, 31. that made them take it seriously. >> at what point did you get tested for lyme doisease? >> i was getting worke up for ms, if you can lieve that. iaw this test, i said what is that. i looked it up on the internet for lyme. i sathe symptoms, they said at's what it is. so you sort of diagnosed yourself. >> es, but then i told the doctor and it came back gative. he said it is not always accurate. heaid i think i have lyme. he said, no, i didn't test you for lyme. i with test you for syphil. i thought he thinks i have syphilis? it's more likely i have that

than lyme disease? i decided to look for a doctor. this i the guy i found. i got the right test, and i tested positive. i wastotally relieved. >> i know it's good news and bad news. hold thosethoughts. we have to take a break. we will back in just a moment with much more from author amy

welcome back to "beyond th headlines." we are talking about the silent epidemic of lyme disease. amy tan has lyme disease and her doctor, ray stricker guided her into the right treatment. i'm getting a good education. y, i know you have long-term effects lyme disease. you've had it for how many years in. i've had lyme doiseaseor 15 years. i discovered over that time that

e of my symptoms will be ermanent. one of them is neuropathy in my feet, which affects my balance. it was painfulfor time til i found out i needed a certa kind of medication for epilepsy which is also something developed through lymedisease. i can't drive, b i never liked to drive any way i can do almost anhing i wa now. i still have lyme disease. >> so, it's going to be with you for the rest of your life. >> i'm hoping this guy herewill come up with something. he and his doctors will -- they'll develop a cure. >> let's talk abt this. dr. stricker, you won a manhattan type project for this. it's spervasive. >> it's so pervasive. so many peoplehave the disease. it's been ignoredy fundi agencies, the fedal government. we need really a manhattan project, the kind of thing that addressed aids and created all these wonderful treatments for aids. we need the me thing for lyme disease. we need national legislation to

promote this research that will develop bettertreatments for the disease. >> you want better testing, too. >> much better testing. theer initial tecommercial test avlable are terrible. they miss me than half the patients. in contrast, the teg for aids picks up re than 99% of hiv patiens. we need better testing. >> amy, grateful that you have a diagnosis. you don't measure life by the things you can't do anymore. we will show some pictures of something you did. this i amazing tome. pictures of you swimming with gigantic arks. >> i discovered that as my health started coming back, i was sayini'm grateful f this. i'm grateful ian make my bed. i'm grateful that i can read, that i can write thi paragraph. it was through those incremental successes that i continued until

i have this new definition, wen you can do everything you want or almost everything,ou're healthy. you may stl be si in that other way, but you have to look at your health that way. >> you set up a foundation for kids, lyme aid for kids >>o many parents can't afford to get the test done. insurance in the past has not overedhat. >> dr. stricker, before we go, a sortsf treatments work for paients? >> with erly diagnosis, the antibiotic treatments often work, though n ways. it depends if it's just lyme disease or some infections tt are also transmitsed by ticks. if the disease is missed and not diagnosed early t cld take a lo course of antibiotics to get ople better. that's really the lenge of treating this disease >> amy before we go, final thoughtsn what you wantpeople to do? you're urgin some action, right? >> i'm urging people to check

themselveout, use prevention, see the right doctors, get the right tests, go to ilads.org fo those dtors who are lyme literate, to just keep at . don't give up. look for those incremental changes. see your life back. >>ll right. dr. stricker, real quick? >> again, we have this wderful tool called the internet. you can find out all kindsf things about lyme disease on the internet. i encourage peopleo seek that out f they're not gting better or good treatment, that's the place to get information. >> thank you both s much for being her for being so open about this disease. i know you both wll get calls. >> yeah. >> preciate it. we have to ta a break. coming up, a mother whose two adult chiren e living with lyme disease more than a decade after they were infect

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it just hurts. ♪ >> just nausus out of mymind. back pain. it's kept my trapped. rapped in my bed. rapped in my room.

♪ >> nobody knows the horro of it. nobody knows. i'm the onl one there inhe middle of thenight. i've been the only one there in theiddle of the night for year when one of them is throwing in one room, the othe one is unable to sleep and feels like they' thr up in the other room. i'm gog back and forth. it feels like they'll die right then. we're trying to decide whether to go to the emergency room. is this something they can he with. so many times going to the emergency room to find out they can't help. sufferin is just required. there's nothing too t relieve the suffering. >> welcome back to r discussion on lyme disease and e heavy toll it can take if ot diagnosed quickly and properly. you heard from kate steel, the mother of two adult children suffering from lyme dise. she and her son ari are here day. your daughter aria just a little to sick to get out of d.

she'll be watching from home. >> yes. >> ke, you're a single mom. this has been a long, difficult journey for you. how old were the kids? >> 10 and 12. it's years we've been in this whirlpool of fiting lyme. >> how has ma been for you. you are working two jobs. >> i work full time, two jobs full time, because takes one salary just t payfor the medical care andsti go into tremendous debtto get the help they need. one thing i want say is that i'm glad to the prent of these kids. i wouldn'to it differently i think i have an opportunity to bring about some change by coming forwar today. it has been a nightmare. it has been morng until night, sometimes up all nighttrying to arrange care giving for them so ian go to work. ds of not having care giving and aving coolers of food near

their bed. thigs would stay the me with suffering but changing allthe time with symptoms. not knowinwhere to get help. >> i wanto talk to you, ari. you look great. ou look wonderful. i know this has been a struggle for you to get in this state of health. take me back to that time when you were rst sick. >> when i first got sick, we thought mayb it was a cold, maybe then i had the flu, because the symptoms kept growing and n going away. >> did you know you had a tick bite? >> no, i was never are of a tick bite. i nev had a bullseye rash. i just began feeling really sick, weak, having trouble sleeping. i was msing school. i >> h long did this -- this obviously went on through school and then high school, too, right? >> yes. i wasn't able to finish high school, iended up testing out.

>> how d that affect yr friendips with people, because yo were isolated. >> it was very isolating. my illness and symptoms got thpoint where it consumed life and every action that i ok. am i stable enough to stand in the shower today? >> wh did you know, finally know you had lyme disease? >> it took about five years, between my sister and i, 23 doctors to get a diagnosi >> 23 ctors. >> during wch time we had no specific thing tdo. i was being treated for chronic fatigue. we lost friends that couldn understand the illness. >> just getti sicker and sicker. >> mm-hmm. >> te, how did you finally get help? >> at the beginning i asked if it was lyme. i was told, no, we don't have lyme in california. we were being treated by doctor for chronic fatigue. finally after five years he said ty should be bett by now. et's test for lyme. so we ended up testing for le, finding a lyme literal doctor and opening up possibilities for

treatment. >> we have to take a little break. we are going to be back in a moment. we hve so much more to talk about, including the reason kate, ri and danny want to go publiabout what happened to them. we'llave more on the

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welcome back to "beyond the headlines." talking about me disease and how it can cause severe consequences if it's not diagnosed and treated prorly. kate stele and her son ari are with me right now. her daughter, dani,is too ill to get out of bed but is watch from home. your kids were diagnoed when they were little. just normal kids, outside doing their thing like everybody does. we don't think about the dangers of a tick bite. and they're evywhere. we have dogs, everybod is susceptible t this. >> we did a lot of hiking. we were an outdoor family. we had two dog the dogs slept on the bed. we picked ticks off of the dog but didn't think anything of it. didn't occur of us to be conrned. >> and ari, because you and your

sister are both ill, what is thatike for you being around eacother? e you able to find support for one another? >> i think the support we were able to offer each other initially was really gre. it gave us a lot of strgth. i think unfortately as our illnesses progressed and got worse,we wen't able to support each other in the sa way because we each needed so much individual suprt. >> yeah. how did you handle that psychologically? i know just there people inmy own life, chronic illnesss devastating. it's depressing. >> it is extremely depressing. i was devastated. i basical lost my life. i'm no somebody who gives u i was not prepared to resign to spend the rest of my loif ife i bed. i want to be well. through my faith, incredible support i had, kept looking foreve new treatments, new

information. >> i wantto talk about that in just a moment. i want to lkbout dani and how s is -- she's really struggling. we have pihave pictures of her. she seems that she's in constant pain. >> she is in consnt pain. she has had a very different course of her illness than ari. she wasn't able to handle a lot of treatments because she had allergic reactions to medications. herrajectory has been different. >> there we go. she looks really good her bui know that in the video, sh's just -- she has the mask on, the happ face for the camera. you treatment for both kids. atne point, you were so desperate that you actually sent them to india fo still cell transplants. >> we had exhausted everything here, they were not getting wall. dani's doctors said you will walk in and find her ad some morning. we had seen se positive

outcomes from embreyonic tranlants, so i did some fund-raising, went in bt, so dani and ari both went to india. >> she is bed ridden, ari you are up and walkingaround. what was this treatment like for you? what do you remember about how you felt theirst time and then the second time? >> well, the first ti one of the first things i noticed is my back pain had begun to dissipate. i had been chronically uncomfortable. i had difficulty sleeping. by the second trip -- we had a lot of trouble -- i had a lot of trouble moving around, ring in the car. by my second trip, i was riding on rickshaws in dia, which i never thought i would be able to do because of the jostling. >> so you are going from complete dression to having a life in a foreign country. >> mm-hmm.

>> tell me about that emotionally. >> it was a profound experien. i think -- i had my first full dayf activity in new delhi. >> how many years after you d been so sick? >> i think 2. >> wow. >>2 years. i had not been able to bup for a full day, interact with people and active. that was profoun it will always be a ecial place in my heart for where i experienced that first taste of health. >> kate, this kind of treatment is vy controversial. >> it is. it's not done in this country, as far as i know. what i want everybo to know is i was up against the wall. i wasn't willing to see my children spd the rest of mre lives in bed. i know suicide was a possibility for lyme patients, i don't thi my children were tivity suicidal, but it's not a life, it's not a life to spend all

youtime in bed, throwing up, not being able to read. that's not a le. i was willing to go to the ends of the earth to try everything possible. ari is sitting here next to mre tay. we could plan to be he today. that was amazing. there was a time i coulnever plan anything. >> ari,hy do they think you have improved so much and dani has not? >> i have been founate in that my body, my liverave been able to handle the antibiotics. and she's had, unfortunately, a lot of allergic reactions that caused other complications. also, i was able toeceive throw rounds of thetem cell treatment. shewas only ale to do one. shows too sick now to travel. it reqres a lot of resources that we don't have. >> i know you have some websites. >> wedo. >> where y tell your story. pelerobably want to share their stories with you. we have some banns to share with people. it's called help ari and dani. >> mm-hmm.

>> that's where we saw the vido. ari, how are youoing now? you're in school, right? >> this lastuarter was actually a pivotal quarter for me. i was able to do full time classes. th was all i id. it took a bit of a toll on me. i'm now taking kind of some antibiotics just t curb any sort of lapse. >but you're moving rwd. >> i'm much better. >> w. >> not 100% but i have a life now. >> that's exciting. >> i'm able to think. >> kat you're a psychotherapistnow your business has pretty much turned -- >> it didn't start out like that, i have gtten referrals over the years, and 90%f my patients are lime pa s ars are their family. >> ari, for people watching at home whatis your message?

>> is hope. support is so portant. i wouldn't he gotten where i am without ton of support. >> don't ge up. >> don't do it on your own. >> kate? >> for families and friends to ha in there. people ca nnot do it on their own. >> thank youor being here. your stories are a real inspiration for everybody at home. thank you to allf o guests today. we ha so much me to learn abouthis horrible lyme disease, we posted some resources for youonline s you can get help. if yu know somebody who needs this resource go to our website, abc7news.com/community. i invite you follow me on twitter at cheryl@abc7. i'm cheryl jennings. have a great week. bye-bye for now.

coming up today on "intelgence for your life," do you cry at weddings and sappy movies, maybe even commercials th tug on your heart strings? the journal psychological science study people who cry in social situations, they can now te us what it means about our state of mind, how healthy we are emotionally. we'll have the results. and then the million-dollar questi when you're on a date with somebody, do they like you a body language experts we can find out by looking for certain behaviors people subconsciously give off when they're interested. and then we'll talk cat surgery and classical music. the scice behd break-ups. and why if somebody's chewing loudly drives you nuts,ou just may be a genius. "intelligence for your life" begins now. ♪ welcome to "intelligence for your life." i'm john tesh with