Brady Seago’s Story

Brady Seago’s Lyme Disease Story
By Kerri Seago – Mom

Brady became very ill at the beginning of 2015. He came down with the flu and then mono. He had numerous health issues and his blood work was all out of order. Brady’s platelets were very low and liver functions were extremely high. Brady had a 60-pound weight loss, extreme fatigue, his
hair was falling out, and his fingernails were coming apart and breaking off. Brady had always been extremely healthy. The doctor began to run tests and send us to various specialists. Brady was tested for hepatitis, lupus, rheumatoid arthritis, drug tested and the list goes on and on. Everything would come back negative. The school called me one day and Brady had lost his peripheral vision in his left eye, he was complaining of a bad headache, and his left arm was tingling and numb. We rushed to the emergency room where the doctor decided that Brady has migraines. The doctor prescribed Hydrocodone and sent him home. This did not seem right to me and I did not want him to take the prescription.

This is the part of the story where I go full blown Medical CSI Mom Crazy! I know that Google does not provide all of the answers, but that is where I turned. I had no choice! I started back tracking symptoms and pin pointing when they began. Brady is an Eagle Scout. He had worked at Camp Tonkawa in Buffalo Gap the summer before (June 2014). He lived out there for a month and worked with the younger scouts. The weight loss had started then and he did come home with a “stomach bug” and fatigue for a day.  He eventually felt better and was proud of the weight loss in the beginning. Brady was down 30 pounds when school started in August 2014 and he looked good. The weight loss had started at summer camp and I decided that maybe something had happened to him while at camp. I finally came up with Chronic Lyme Disease and everything seemed to match what was going on with Brady. I asked him if he was ever bitten by a tick or noticed any strange bites or rashes on his body. Brady replied, “Yes! The camp medic was treating me for a fungal infection on my leg.” I had only seen it once when he came home sick. I had told him to keep an eye on that because he might need to see a doctor. The “fungal infection” was gone by the time Brady came home from camp. I never thought about it again.

After I began researching Lyme Disease, I decided to research images of the classic bull’s-eye rash commonly associated with this illness. Brady pointed to one of the images and said, “Yes, like that!”  At this point, I finally thought I knew what was wrong with my son! I was so excited to know what was wrong. I believed that once we received a diagnosis, Brady would be well on his way to treatment! I took him to the doctor and they did the Western Blot. On March 17, 2015 it came back positive. The doctor gave him 34 days total of Doxycycline and said he would be fine. Brady was not fine and the weight loss and sickness continued.

I decided to make an appointment at a prestigious medical facility in Texas. We were referred to an Infectious Disease Doctor at this facility. The doctor immediately pulled up the CDC website and informed us that the Western Blot must be given AFTER the Lyme Elisa. The doctor explained that Brady will start the testing over and start with the Lyme Elisa. He continued to explain that if the Elisa comes back negative, Brady does not have Lyme Disease. He also ran numerous other tests including HIV. By the time the Elisa was done, Brady had been on the 34 days of Doxycycline and the Elisa came back negative. This is a highly flawed test and it was never intended to be used to diagnose Lyme Disease. Lyme Disease is supposed to be a clinical diagnosis. All of the tests ran were negative. The ID Doctor told us that he did not know what was wrong with Brady and he decided to release us. He agreed with us that Brady is very sick and he told us that things may be different in five years with different testing and different technology. He told us that our positive Western Blot must be a fluke and his negative Elisa is correct. I requested Brady’s records and the doctor stated that Texas is not endemic in them. Taylor County is endemic and I have the records from the health department. Brady did have the bull’s-eye rash and we had the positive Western Blot. Brady should have been treated based on these three factors.

We have been seeing a Lyme Doctor since May 2015. Brady has been making improvements. He just completed his freshman year at Tarleton State University. Brady has always been an honor student. His freshman year was a struggle due to the insomnia and brain fog that are so common with Lyme Disease. We travel a long distance for treatment and pay mostly out of pocket. We are determined to get Brady well and get his life back!