"I lost hearing in my left ear and my short-term memory, started going blind in both eyes, developed heart arrhythmia and palpitations, spinal meningitis, fibromyalgia, gallstones, colitis, arthritis, chronic headaches, chronic pain, rashes all over my body, my hair fell out, and I was completely emaciated," says Brooke Landau, traffic reporter for Channel 10 News and arguably one of the most popular TV personalities in San Diego, on her bout with Lyme disease.

On a fine morning in Connecticut, Landau walked outside her home, barefoot, to check her mail. Looking back, it would be a tick bite on her foot that would cause her symptoms. But it wouldn't be until seven years later that she would be clinically diagnosed with the illness.

"I was out of college, climbing the corporate ladder. I had a great life and a great career," says Landau. "I literally went to bed one night absolutely fine and woke up the next morning unable to move from the waist down and the neck up, and wouldn't walk again for over a year and a half. I had zero quality of life."

Lyme disease is an illness that has no cure. If the illness is not treated early, it can lead to life-threatening symptoms. And, according to Landau, the test for diagnosing the disease - a blood test - is inaccurate 50 to 70 percent of the time. For seven years, Landau's blood tests were negative, but it didn't mean she didn't have the disease.
It was not until she developed spinal meningitis that doctors grew fearful for her life. After Landau's seventh spinal tap, she was officially diagnosed with Lyme disease. Doctors decided to move her to Miami, where the warm weather would do well on her joints.

Her stay in Miami involved an experimental treatment that had never been performed on a Lyme patient. Doctors inserted a tube into an artery that led into her heart, which was connected to a pump that was strapped around her waist. The pump pushed antibiotics directly into her heart for two months. In combination, she was treated in a hyperbaric oxygen chamber for 30 days. By hyper-oxygenating the diseased cells, doctors hoped the medicine would penetrate deeper, since the disease imbeds itself deep into tissues where oral antibiotics can't reach. The experiment saved her life.

(One of the doctors involved in Landau's treatment ultimately had his license suspended. Since Lyme disease tests are inaccurate, the insurance company reprimanded the doctor on medical billing fraud. Although a clinical diagnosis can be made, a test is the final determiner in treating a patient. Landau has appeared on Good Morning America, The Today Show and the Discovery Channel to discuss this controversy.)

Today, Landau is doing better than ever, but continues to undergo treatment. She still experiences constant headaches, pressure in her face and eyes, digestive problems, heart arthymia and palpitations (a condition she was born with), and more.

"Every day that viewers see me on the air, I am in pain," Landau says. "Funny because co-workers would tell me ‘you have so much energy, you're always smiling,' and I think it's just a choice. I think you have to choose at a certain point how you're going to live your life by these circumstances."

Landau is currently on the board of directors for the Turn the Corner Foundation, an organization dedicated to research, education and innovative treatments for Lyme disease. She also gives keynote speeches around the country on her story.

"I don't believe that surviving is being cured," she says. "I think survival comes in the fight, and that's the attitude I've always adopted."

Get involved in Landau's fight at
www.turnthecorner.org