HARPSWELL, Maine (NEWS CENTER MAINE) -- Avid gardener Patty O'Brien Carrier use to tend her plants wearing shorts, flip-flops and a tank top. Now she wears long pants, boots and treats her clothes with chemicals to prevent tick bites.
In February, O'Brien Carrier was diagnosed with the potentially life-threatening alpha-gal syndrome, which causes a severe allergic reaction or anaphylaxis, after a bite from the Lone Star tick, according to the American College of Allergy, Asthma and Immunology.
O'Brien Carrier was hospitalized twice, after delayed symptoms that lead to anaphylactic shock, and eventually went to Allergy & Asthma Associates of Maine in Portland where she was tested for every allergen. She had almost immediate reactions to lamb and pork, and then a much larger response to beef. Her blood was sent to the Mayo Clinic and five days later she was diagnosed.
"I was actually cooking dinner, a pot roast and they said, ‘you may never eat mammal again.’ I was a vegetarian in one phone call," said O'Brien Carrier. "Honestly, people infected with Lyme (Disease) from a tick, I think they suffer a great deal more than I do, and I am very blessed that this is the only complication that I have had."
She still goes in her garden, carries multiple EpiPens, and is extremely aware of finding ticks. She mails ticks to the University of Maine Tick Identification Lab in Orono for continued research.