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06.03.05 - It started in February of 1988 with stiff joints and a small rash.

But at age 47, Sonoma-resident Thora Graves thought it might just be what comes with getting older. Then nightmarish headaches began.

Graves' body pain was getting worse and her nerves were so on edge that every motion felt like her skin was ripping through cobwebs. Doctor after doctor, 12 of them in seven months, offered a different diagnosis - from stress-related disorders to encephalitis to Lou Gehrig's disease.

As the misdiagnoses mounted, Graves' memory began to fail.

She left her job as office manager for a San Rafael medical group when she lost all the doctors' paychecks. She stopped driving her car out of fear of forgetting where she was going. Or how to get back.

In her pocket Graves began carrying a card with her name written on it, but often couldn't find the card.

"I was only 47 years old and I felt like I had Alzheimer's," Graves said.

Finally, after more than half a year of pain and fear, doctors at Stanford Medical Center told Graves she was suffering from Lyme disease, the malady derived from bacteria transmitted through infected deer ticks.

Through the daily help of antibiotics, Graves' headaches, burning skin and memory loss began to fade.

Today life seems pretty much back to normal.

"It's taken me years to feel like I'm back to my old self," said Graves, who guesses she was victimized by a hungry tick during one of her many walks in the Sonoma Valley hills. "For a while there it seemed as if everything had changed forever."

When Lyme disease is treated promptly, most people recover quickly.

But in 1988 little was known about the disease - it was first described in the Connecticut town of Old Lyme in 1975 - and because its symptoms mirror those of several more prominent illnesses, doctors rarely diagnosed it.

Even today, said Graves, doctors are wary of treating Lyme victims due to the difficulty in identification.

But immediacy is the key with Lyme. And when the disease is left untreated for too long sufferers can develop chronic fatigue, neurologic damage, arthritis, vision and hearing difficulties and even mental problems.

"There are still a lot of misunderstandings about Lyme," said Phyllis Mervine, president of California Lyme Disease Association (CALDA). "Doctors don't always look for it and so it's still not diagnosed very much."

Another problem, said Mervine - who suffered for a decade herself with a "mysterious illness" before being diagnosed with Lyme in 1987 - is that most people who get the disease do not recall a tick bite.

Most cases of Lyme are caused by the vampyric nymphal tick, a poppy-seed-sized bloodsucker whose bite is relatively painless.

"Nymphs hatch out in late spring," Mervine said. "They are common in leaf litter under deciduous trees - especially under oaks and anywhere mice are numerous."

Since most cases of Lyme occur in the summer, the CALDA has been on an awareness campaign and even recently persuaded state legislatures to designate the first week of May as Lyme Disease Awareness Week.

"I'm not sure that people are really aware how often they're exposed," said Mervine. "If 6 to 10 percent of all nymphal ticks are infected, then, statistically, if you're bitten 10 or 12 times in your life at some point you should have gotten Lyme disease."

Graves, who continues to take antibiotics twice a day to keep the disease at bay, just thinks if Lyme disease awareness were greater then people wouldn't have to suffer through the kind of nightmare she did.

"People need to know that it's out there," Graves said. "They need to take every precaution that they can."

The California Lyme Disease Association believes that prevention is the key to avoiding Lyme. Here are a few tips:

€ Avoid tick-infested areas and check yourself frequently for tiny ticks for several days following exposure.

€ Sitting on downed logs is risky, as nymphal ticks frequently climb on them.

€ Remove any biting tick promptly, using tweezers or a special tick-remover.

€ Do not twist, squeeze or mutilate the tick. Try not to get any tick fluids on your skin.

€ Disinfect the bite area and wash your hands.

€ Save the tick in a small vial or plastic bag in case you want to test it.

€ Watch the area for signs of any developing rash, which may appear in the shape of a bull's-eye.

€ Early symptoms of Lyme include flu-like illness with fever, headaches, swollen glands and aching muscles.

€ See a doctor knowledgeable about Lyme disease if you experience symptoms after exposure to ticks.

For more information, visit www.lymedisease.org.

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