As 2024 comes to a close, I thought it would be a good time to update everyone on a few items that have been worked on this year, as well as provide some additional information.

First of all, the submission of our petition to the NS Legislature will be a few months later than intended, but it will still be happening. Our intention is to have it tabled in the spring. Therefore, if you are still helping to obtain signatures, you can send them off to me by late January, at the latest. If you would like to help obtain signatures, please reach out to me for the printable link. This time of year would be great to obtain more signatures as friends and family gather for the holiday season. As an FYI, as of December 16, 2024, I have 1,673 signatures in my possession. Way to go everyone!

I am pleased to advise that as of November, the Nova Scotia Lyme & Tick-Borne Diseases Association is an officially registered non-profit with a Board of six. We would still love to have representation from the veterinary and/or medical doctor areas so please give it some thought. The Board presently consists of: Lisa Ali Learning – President; Donna Lugar – Vice President; Alexandria Brinkhurst-Bauer – Secretary; Léna de la Loire – Treasurer; Scott Wilson – Director; and Claudette Garland – Director.

The new Association is already working on a website that will hopefully be up and running early in 2025. Please let us know if there is anything specific that you would like to see included. It will be meant for Nova Scotians, with a lot of Nova Scotia specific info; however, it will have helpful information for all.

The Association is also looking at ways to help finance all that we would like to work on so please let us know if you would like to help out, or have some insight in this regard. We could also use help with events, especially in the spring. Please let us know if interested. Many hands make light work!

The NS Lyme Support Group is still meeting monthly on the 2nd Tuesday of every month at 12pm, via Zoom. All are welcome. We are still using Zoom, which was started during the height of COVID, because people from all over the province, and elsewhere, are able to attend. It has worked very well for most. An in-person meeting in the Bedford area is still being looked into re day, time, and location.

I was recently interviewed for a CTV piece on ticks and tick-borne diseases. It’s great to see something out this time of year as many tend to forget that ticks can be active anytime temperatures allow. That includes in December, January, February, etc. Here is a link – https://www.ctvnews.ca/video/c3039531-ctv-national-news–lyme-disease-concerns-in-canada?__vfz=medium%3Dsharebar. I have been having difficulty getting it to run so you may have to Google it yourself for a better link.

During a recent NS Lyme Support Group meeting we discussed the fact that all medical school programs need to start looking at merging eastern and western medicine, or at least giving more consideration to eastern medicine. All doctors should be able to consider what is causing symptoms, rather than just looking at, and treating, all the individual symptoms. We also need to include prevention measures, such as diet, exercise, stress reduction, sleep quality/quantity, etc., within the medical school program.

We, as individuals, also need to take more control of our own health and stop totally relying on a medical professional that may have only received limited, or no, training on what is causing your ill health. Most mean well, but nobody has all the answers and they will never know as much as you do about your own body. Don’t listen if someone says that there is nothing wrong with you, that you are just getting older, you are not getting enough exercise, you are not socializing enough, you are not eating right, etc., etc., etc., especially if you have never had a conversation regarding your diet, social life, or exercise. I was told all of the above before finding out that I was dealing with tick-borne diseases.

Past blog entries include information on proper tick removal, prevention measures, boosting your immunity, etc., etc. Please take some time and educate yourself.

As the year comes to a close there is still no vaccine that would be effective for all tick-borne diseases that can potentially be transmitted; however, there are several different types of vaccines under development. An earlier post is available in this regard. In the interim, and even once available, prevention is key!