Doctors Dismissed Her Symptoms for Years Before Lyme Disease Diagnosis

• Health coach and wellness advocate Erika Schlick shares her long journey with Lyme disease, a tick-borne illness that can lead to debilitating symptoms.
• The 44-year-old’s symptoms were dismissed by doctors for two years before she was finally diagnosed with Lyme.
• Various treatments and therapies, as well as following a healthy lifestyle, helped Schlick reach remission from the disease.

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) reports the highest rate of tick bites in over five years.

When Justin Timberlake recently announced he’d been diagnosed with Lyme, the disease had entered the cultural zeitgeist.

But for Erika Schlick, Lyme disease is hardly a new phenomenon. The 44-year-old health coach has been on a journey with Lyme since her symptoms first began in 2012. After two years of unusual, often debilitating symptoms, Schlick was finally diagnosed.

She recalled having been bitten by an insect during a camping trip to Yosemite National Park in the summer of 2012 and developing a strange, flu-like illness soon thereafter. She wasn’t aware at the time that it’d been a tick.

“I noticed a strange bug bite on my hand but didn’t think much of it,” she told Healthline. “I remember seeing a tiny bug on my hand in Yosemite… I tried to shake it off, but it wouldn’t budge. I had to scrape it off with my fingernail. It startled me, but I remember thinking, ‘Erika, a bug that small won’t do anything to you.’ I could not have been more wrong. That single, tiny bite was enough to change the entire course of my life.”

Within weeks, Schlick’s health collapsed. The brain fog, fatigue, and joint pain were so severe that she was unable to work at her former job at a design agency in San Francisco. She developed sudden allergies to dozens of foods. Most of her days, she said, were spent in bed in a dark room with noise-canceling headphones because lights and sounds became unbearable.

Lyme disease is often treatable when caught early — the most common sign you’ve been bitten by a tick is the telltale bull’s-eye rash. For Schlick, however, her illness remained a mystery for two years until she received a formal diagnosis.

“Lyme is caused by a highly adaptive bacterium called Borrelia burgdorferi that can survive in multiple forms, hide from the immune system, and persist despite antibiotic or herbal treatments,” she said. “By the time I was diagnosed, it had already deeply affected my nervous system, immune function, and overall health.”

But the disease, she said, gave her a purpose. She began working with a health coach to manage her symptoms and realized she wanted to help others going through similar experiences.

She documented her recovery and shared the different treatments and therapies she’d been trying. After moving to Los Angeles and obtaining her health coach certification from the Institute of Integrative Nutrition, she launched a wellness blog and a podcast called “This Healthy Life.”

Now, Schlick shares that her Lyme disease has been in remission since 2017. Healthline recently spoke with Schlick to learn more about what it’s like to live with Lyme disease and how she managed her symptoms.

This interview has been lightly edited and condensed for clarity and length.

Schlick: The first symptom was a strange flu that would come and go for weeks. Soon after, I woke up one morning with a bald spot the size of a quarter on the top of my head.

From there, my symptoms multiplied quickly:

• Severe brain fog made it impossible to think clearly or remember what I was doing mid-task.
• Short-term memory loss and word-finding difficulties.
• Joint and muscle pain made walking, climbing stairs, and even standing for long periods painful.
• Light and sound sensitivity so extreme that music felt overwhelming, and bright lights caused physical pain.
• Constant postnasal drip, chronic sinus congestion, and frequent respiratory infections.
• [Chronic] fatigue that left me needing to save energy for a single activity a day.
• Nerve pain, tingling, and sensations like my head was wobbling inside my skull.
• Hormonal imbalances, insomnia, mood shifts, and severe anxiety.

I saw over 20 doctors during those two years. Every time my labs looked ‘normal,’ I was told it was stress, anxiety, or an unknown autoimmune condition they could not diagnose or treat.

Many doctors are not trained to recognize the full range of symptoms, which often fall outside traditional diagnoses. This is why clinical evaluation by a Lyme-literate doctor is so critical.

Schlick: The emotional toll [was] devastating. For two years, I knew something was deeply wrong, yet doctor after doctor told me everything looked ‘normal.’

Living with mysterious symptoms while being dismissed is one of the most isolating experiences you can go through.

Lyme slowly dismantles every part of your life. You go from running a business, doing yoga five times a week, and living fully to becoming a stranger in your own body. On the outside, I looked fine. Inside, I was barely surviving. Some days I couldn’t walk. Most days, I was just trying to get through the next hour and survive.

People don’t see this side of Lyme. They don’t see the good days that come with a crash or the mental toll of having to prove you’re sick when your labs say you’re fine.

Lyme doesn’t just affect your body. It fractures your identity, isolates you from your life, and leaves you grieving the version of yourself you used to be.

Schlick: Lyme disease is difficult to test for because current diagnostics don’t detect the bacteria. Instead, they rely on measuring antibodies, which can take weeks to develop or may never appear at all in immunocompromised patients.

Western Blot, though more accurate, is only 80% reliable under ideal conditions.

Labs like IGeneX or Vibrant Labs use more sensitive methods, but even they emphasize the need for clinical diagnosis. Timing, immune suppression, antibiotic use, and the presence of co-infections can all interfere with test results, making it easy for Lyme to go undetected.

With over 300 [genospecies] within the Borrelia [genus], no single test can screen for them all, which is why so many cases are missed and patients go untreated for years.

In addition to Lyme, a tick bite can also leave you with dozens of other diseases called co-infections, such as Babesia, Bartonellosis, Rocky Mountain Spotted Fever, and many more that can be just as debilitating and require different treatments.

Most Lyme patients could have five or more tick-borne infections, which leads to more symptoms and confusion.

Schlick: If you’re experiencing chronic symptoms like fatigue, joint pain, brain fog, or neurological issues, and your labs keep coming back ‘normal,’ Lyme disease should be considered.

Many people go years being misdiagnosed with conditions like fibromyalgia, multiple sclerosis, autoimmune disease, anxiety, or depression, when the root cause is actually Lyme.

If you suspect it, the most important step is finding a Lyme-literate doctor who understands how to make a clinical diagnosis and use accurate specialty labs.

You can find one through ILADS or Global Lyme Alliance. These providers are often the only ones equipped to recognize the full picture, including co-infections and the chronic inflammatory impact of Lyme. Early action is critical; the longer Lyme goes untreated, the harder it is to manage.

Schlick: I have been in remission from Lyme since undergoing stem cell therapy using my own stem cells. But remission does not mean I am back to my pre-Lyme self. (Ed.: Stem cell therapy is not a standard treatment for Lyme disease, nor is it approved by the Food and Drug Administration.)

I live with what I call the ‘Lyme Aftermath,’ lasting conditions [that may be linked to Lyme], including celiac disease, Hashimoto’s, alopecia, chronic inflammatory response syndrome (CIRS), and lipedema [abnormal fat growth]. The lipedema caused me to gain 50 pounds in less than six months. I underwent four lipedema removal surgeries in 2024 and can finally say for the first time in nearly 15 years, I have some peace with my health.

Today, my health is stable and manageable, but it is a new ‘normal.’ I follow an anti-inflammatory, gluten-free diet, use detox therapies like infrared sauna and lymphatic drainage, and avoid mold and other triggers.

My lifestyle now centers around restorative sleep, regular exercise, emotional regulation, and avoiding any potential re-exposure to Lyme, including ticks. Staying in remission means living intentionally, listening to my body, and creating an environment where healing can continue every day.