Samantha Stosur Lyme Disease Story – How She Survived
Dr. Peter Dobie
The famous Australian tennis player Samantha Stosur is a survivor of Lyme disease. Read her story to know how she fought with this chronic disease. In July 2007, Samantha Stosur started getting symptoms of Lyme disease. She was participating in Wimbledon and noticed a lump on the side of her neck. She immediately went for some medical test, which failed to find out the exact reason behind the lump and doctors weren’t sure about the problem.
After a few days, Samantha Stosur started developing more signs of the disease. These symptoms were headaches, rash all over her body, inflamed glands, extreme tiredness, body aches, puffiness on her face and neck, swollen hands and feet. Every single day, Samantha Stosur visited new doctors who failed to find out the exact reason behind her illness. She visited nearly 4 doctors while her stay at Wimbledon. She got a few blood tests which failed to show anything too definitive. Some doctor suggested that it might be rubella. She returned home after these tests.
Samantha Stosur took a break from all types of tennis activities for a few months and started feeling a little better. Her physical puffiness made it looked like as if she has gained weight, though her weight was still the same. She was determined to tennis again, so she started practicing, and later went To USA to play in a tournament as a preparation for the US Open tournament. She wasn’t prepared enough and performed badly, losing in the first round of the US Open. Affected by Lyme disease, (which was still not diagnosed) she became completely exhausted after playing only the first four games of her firstround match. She got really upset with the developments and stayed within her apartment for most of the time.
After suffering for weeks, visiting numerous doctors and undergoing loads of tests, finally a Lyme disease specialist diagnosed her with Lyme disease. Samantha Stosur had no idea about this disease and had never heard about it before. The doctor helped her to understand what the disease is all about. The doctor explained that Lyme disease is hard to diagnose as we need proper tests results and base it on symptoms to ensure that the patient is suffering from Lyme disease. Samantha Stosur then went on a 2 weeks of oral antibiotics which were followed by 4 weeks treatment of intravenous antibiotics twice a day for 4 days every week. Later, a treatment for another 2 weeks of oral antibiotics was given to her.
While the treatment was going on, she was told to not do any exercise and opted out of all the remaining tournaments for the year. She realised that Lyme disease is a dangerous illness and followed every single step told by the Lyme disease specialist to recover soon. Samantha Stosur regained full health and hasn’t felt any symptoms since then. She has been playing tennis for Australia again.
Address: Pymble Grove Health Centre, 11/924 Pacific Highway, Gordon 2072, Sydney (Australia) Email: info@drpeterdobie.com Telephone: (02) 9418 1388 Fax: (02) 9418 1418
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