Living with Lyme disease, searching for answers

The Panora, Iowa, woman wondered whether it was Lyme disease, a bacterial infection transmitted by deer tick bites. She looked at pictures online, but didn't think her outbreak matched the red bull's-eye associated with Lyme disease. She didn't have a doctor check her hypothesis. She regrets that.

Hathaway, 38, now believes she suffers the long-term effects of untreated Lyme disease. The rash eventually faded, but bigger problems quickly emerged. Sleeplessness and anxiety gripped Hathaway in late February. By early March, her muscles burned and her joints ached.

There are so many unknowns. Most doctors believe Lyme disease isn't the problem, that it's other ailments such as chronic fatigue syndrome or fibromyalgia.

Gervich, the Mercy doctor, said sometimes the body continues to react to an infection even after the bug itself is gone. And some research suggests long-term inflammation may be a result of previous infections.

"I've been practicing in the field of infectious disease for 36 years," Gervich said. "When I was a young doctor, I thought we knew so much more than we did 10 years before, and we had it almost all figured out. Now I know that what we don't know vastly dwarfs what is known."

So the search for answers goes on.