A BENDIGO grandmother who caught Lyme disease while on holiday in Europe now has chronic symptoms because she didn’t get the treatment she needed in Australia.

Judith Mellington was travelling on a tour bus in Prague in 2006 when she got bitten by a tick.

She developed a bulls eye rash, a red rash distinctive to Lyme disease, when in Budapest for three days.

She went to a doctor to find out what was wrong with her once she had returned to Australia.

“He looked at it (the rash) and said he’d never seen anything like it before,” Mrs Mellington said.

“He recommended nothing. End of story.”

Mrs Mellington went back a couple of weeks later but the doctor still had no answers. 

“It was building up in my system. I had more aches and pains,” she said.

“I couldn’t get out of chairs and was in constant pain. 

“I tried to hide a lot of it from people around me. I didn’t want to overload them. 

“It became something I just put up with but my family saw me at my worst.

“I don’t know what I’d have done without a supportive partner to help me. It’s a cruel disease.”

MRI and CT scans followed with no diagnosis.

Finally, six years after being bitten, a New South Wales doctor took a blood sample and sent it to the United States and it came up positive for Lyme disease. 

She has been on penicillin injections for the past year and said she now has a reasonable quality of life.

But the disappointment in the Australian medical system for not finding out what was wrong with her earlier still remains.

“It is so frustrating because it is a treatable disease,” she said. 

“I know I have this hanging over my head for the rest of my life and I’ll be on medication to keep me feeling like this.”

Mrs Mellington describes herself as a “lucky one” because she contracted Lyme disease overseas.

“I am getting a little bit more help because I was bitten overseas. 

“The ones bitten in Australia have a real battle.”

She said Australian doctors and the public have to become more educated in recognising the early symptons of Lyme disease.

“I think a lot of it is about education for people and doctors to recognise the signs.

“If I went to a doctor overseas they would have recognise the bulls eye rash right away and I wouldn’t be in this position.”