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Author and chronic Lyme disease sufferer Shelley Ball knows the risks all too well. In April 2019, she found a fully engorged tick on her back and had it removed at a nearby hospital. Though medics wouldn’t test her for Lyme, they gave her a dose of the antibiotic doxycycline.
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In the following weeks she developed symptoms, and after a back-and-forth with medical professionals,
finally found a Lyme expert who diagnosed her with Lyme disease, as well as bartonellosis, babesiosis and mould infections. She says she was likely infected with Lyme bacteria as a kid (Lyme bacteria can stay in your body for decades) but didn’t get ill until she was older and then was bitten by a tick again.