Lyme Disease - A reality star battling with a rare disease has lost the ability to read and write as a result of the illness.
Real Housewives of Beverly Hills star Yolanda Foster who has been battling Lyme disease for about three years has lost the ability to process information following a relapse last month.
"I have lost the ability to read, write, or even watch TV, because I can't process information or any stimulation for that matter It feel like someone came in and confiscated my brain and tied my hands behind my back to just watch and see life go by without me participating in it," Foster said in her blog Bravo, which was last updated last year before Christmas.
The 51-year-old made the revelation of her debilitating health via her TV blog - she apologized to her fans for not posting new material because of her condition.
Yolanda Foster explains that "although writing is usually my favorite thing to do, I unfortunately have lost the ability to do so in an intelligent matter [sic] at this time."
Yolanda who is currently receiving treatment at Mount Elizabeth Novena Hospital in Singapore said she was making progress and had been 60 percent healed prior to her relapse in December. Her condition has since gone downhill from then.
"I guess God gives his hardest battles to the strongest soldiers," she said.
Lyme disease is a spirochete infection to the brain and can leave patients with serious neurological damage. Reports indicate that about 30,000 cases of the disease are reported in U.S. yearly.
The disease is mostly spread by a 'bull's-eye rash" which is triggered by a bite from an infected tick can be difficult to diagnose because it impersonates other conditions such as multiple sclerosis or lupus.
However, the key to curing Lyme disease is rooted in early diagnoses. Its symptoms resembles those of flu which include headaches, fever, chills, fatigue and general aches.
If Lyme disease goes undiagnosed and untreated it may lead to neurological issues such as arthritis, liver inflammation, heart palpitations and severe fatigue.
Yolanda Foster has expressed her frustrations at her treatment. " The most frustrating thing is that there is medical data on Lyme and spirochete infections going back all the way to 1908, but yet we still don't have proper diagnostic testing, a vaccine, or cure for Lyme disease while were are living in the United States of America, the most extraordinary country in the world."
