An Untreated Tick Bite Made Her the 'Bionic Woman'
At just 29 years old, she’s had 16 joints reconstructed and 8 joint replacements. More surgeries will come, all due to Lyme disease.
While it could be easy to become angry, or even resentful, for her late diagnosis, Bradshaw has shifted her focus toward tick-borne disease awareness advocacy, which has been “very healing” for her.
“I can look in hindsight and see all of the things that were wrong in my path and in this experience,” she says. “I’m like, ‘Here is how it should be. And here’s how we can fix it.’ I want to be a part of that.”
After being misdiagnosed, woman, 29, learns Lyme disease led to debilitating arthritis
“There’s never been a patient in a textbook or an article that I’ve seen that is anywhere close to hers," Meghan Bradshaw's doctor said.
When Meghan Bradshaw began fainting and experiencing joint pain, she visited many doctors. At first, they suspected that she might have a vitamin D deficiency or that she was anemic. By her early 20s, her symptoms became “debilitating” and she passionately searched for answers. After years of being misdiagnosed, she learned she has Lyme disease, which caused arthritis, leading to 16 joint surgeries before the age of 30.
“While it’s extreme, my story really highlights a lot of the things that other people experience, like delayed diagnosis and misdiagnosis and having a general unawareness of the dangers of ticks,” the 29-year-old from Charlotte, North Carolina, told TODAY.
Journey into Becoming the Bionic Woman: The Meghan Bradshaw Story
How does a perfectly healthy and active 28-year-old woman quickly change into a bionic woman in less than three years? For Meghan Bradshaw, this became her life. Growing up in New Jersey, Meghan had a happy and healthy upbringing and was a dancer and cheerleader before she attended college at UNC-Charlotte in the fall of 2012. After graduating in 2015, Meghan prepared to make the cross-country move to Seattle, Washington to start a new job. However, the problems that came next, she never saw coming.
IGeneX Patient Success Story Interview
“Let’s see, when I had been newly diagnosed I think that what I wish I had known was just how difficult the terrain is to get proper care for this illness. So, as I mentioned I had kind of had this false sense of hope that, oh, it’s just Lyme. I can treat it with antibiotics. I can get, you know I can get this behind me. I can put this behind me. There’s a means to an end and boy, was I wrong.”
National Disease Research Interchange Interview
Inspired by her journey with Lyme disease, Meghan has since sought to educate the public about the prevention of tick-borne diseases and the need for additional research funding. Referred to NDRI by the Bay Area Lyme Foundation, Meghan discusses her commitment to being a living donor and her experience working with NDRI and the Lyme Disease BioBank to facilitate the acquisition of tissue for Lyme disease research.