Athlone woman home after Lyme disease treatment in Germany

An Athlone secondary school teacher searching for a cure for her debilitating Lyme disease returned home last month after three weeks of intensive treatment at a clinic in Germany.

Auburn Heights resident Cara Hurley had set up a Go Fund Me page in late December to cover the costs of her expensive treatment overseas, and over €21,000 was raised through the appeal from more than 500 individual donors.

Cara, who is out of work on illness benefit due to the effects of Lyme disease, which she contracted while on holiday in Greece in 2019, attended the Fachklinik clinic with oncologist Dr Alexander Herzog in Nidda/Bad Salzhausen, on the outskirts of Frankfurt.

She said the treatment she received there was very tough and included hyperthermia, which heats the body up to 42 degrees in an effort to kill the bacteria, Borrelia burgdorferi, which causes Lyme disease.

"They put me into this thing that looks like an oven, made out of tent material," explained Cara.

"It has all of these hot lamps and they put you in there for about four hours and heat you slowly. It induces a false fever so your body, your immune system, is like, 'fight, fight, fight.'"

Cara was also given intravenous treatment in order to help detox her system. She returned home three weeks ago and will be continuing with treatment from the clinic in Germany in the coming months.

While she has noticed an increase in her levels of energy since getting the treatment, Cara said it's too early to say, at this stage, whether or not it has been effective.

"It can take six months, and so far it's only been three weeks, so I can't say that all of this worked yet," she said.

"I do have a lot more energy, and I'm going for walks, but I don't feel like I'm disease-free yet."

Cara said she also recently had mercury fillings removed by a holistic dentist in Dublin after being advised that the mercury in the fillings can affect the immune system.

"These are all the things that Lyme disease patients go through to try to heal their bodies. I'm doing everything I can to try and get better, because this has been going on for too long now," she said.

She has an appointment in the Mater hospital in mid-March with Dr Jack Lambert, an infectious disease consultant who treats chronic Lyme disease patients, and is hopeful that her condition will continue to improve in the weeks ahead.

"At the moment it's still really tough. I am improving slowly, but it's not good news yet. I'll have to see how things fare over the next two months," said Cara.