Leanne Wingrove was a jeweler and back-to-the-land homesteader living in Erbie (near the Buffalo River) when she tested positive for Lyme disease in 1998.
“They didn’t know much about it then,” Wingrove said. “I went on a couple rounds of antibiotics, and was told I was well. But it got into my brain and central nervous system. It came back with a vengeance in 2010. I lost my ability to walk. I couldn’t eat. I couldn’t sleep. I had so many symptoms I couldn’t even name them all. And I knew it was Lyme because I had the same symptoms as when I first contracted Lyme.”
Wingrove lived far out in the country at the time.
“It was pretty rustic. I couldn’t handle that lifestyle anymore,” Wingrove said. “My family wanted me to move to a city, so I moved to Eureka Springs in 2010. When I first got here, I was pretty much bedridden. Lyme disease consumed my life. I couldn’t drive. I couldn’t read. I have six children, and the two youngest children were still in high school living with me. I couldn’t get help in the medical field because I was told chronic Lyme doesn’t exist, that it is a psychosomatic symptom of Lyme disease.
“I’ve been turned away from doctors. I’ve been turned away from emergency rooms. Two of my older kids dropped out of college to take care of me. It changed their lives, but I am thankful to them. I did finally have to apply for disability because it was such a burden to my family.”
She had tremors similar to those that accompany Parkinson’s, as well as acute kidney failure and autistic symptoms.
“My symptoms were endless,” Wingrove said. “If someone asked my name, I could remember it, but I couldn’t get it out. There was a disconnect from the brain. I always told my kids it was a short wiring going on. I couldn’t read because I couldn’t remember the word I just read. The family wouldn’t let me cook because they were afraid I was going to burn the house down.”
One of the hardest parts was getting no medical help, even when she went in after shaking uncontrollably for hours.
“The biggest stress was I gave up on doctors because it made it worse,” Wingrove said. “Doctors said they couldn’t treat me for Lyme disease or they would lose their medical license because the insurance and pharmaceutical companies are dictating what doctors can treat and how they can treat it.”
Although at the time Arkansas denied Lyme disease existed in the state, Wingrove won disability for chronic neurological Lyme.
“I had a very compassionate judge who knew something about Lyme himself,” she said.
She said the issue is compounded by the fact that Lyme is a complex disease with a lot of other tick-borne disease co-infections.
“People aren’t just dealing with Lyme,” Wingrove said. “I have four other co-infections that came along with that tick bite.”
When she was so sick, Wingrove lost her income, so couldn’t afford treatments. But she was determined that she wasn’t going to be debilitated the rest of her life. She did a lot of research and started doing alternative treatments.
“I found things that really helped me,” Wingrove said. “I am 98 percent over Lyme now, but it was a long hard road.”
Wingrove did some herbal medicines, but really improved when she started using a controversial alternative treatment with a Rife machine, a harmonic radiowave device which is not FDA approved. It works by using radio frequencies to bust up and kill the Lyme spirochetes.
“Rifing, a total lifestyle and diet change, proper supplementation and daily detoxing is what turned it around for me,” Wingrove said. “I’m able to drive, cook, and get out in my garden. I still have to stay on treatment. If I don’t, I backslide very quickly.”
Wingrove said the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and the Arkansas Department of Health have let down people in Arkansas horribly by refusing to admit there is Lyme here until earlier this year.
“I believe there is a coverup going on because they didn’t want to hurt tourism in Arkansas,” Wingrove said. “And there is a lot of information out there about the government using it in biological weapons experiments. I believe that may be why information about Lyme disease has been suppressed in the U.S., period. And I think Arkansas is probably afraid to deal with it because of the masses of people who have it and the great financial burden it would be to test and treat them.”
Lack of proper treatment cost Wingrove dearly.
“I lost my homestead,” she said. “My husband walked out on me after a year and half of disability. He couldn’t handle the stress. We were financially destroyed. Every day I was in crisis having emergency seizures and excruciating pain. I couldn’t be involved in my two younger children’s schooling.”
She still has good and bad days after seven years of treating Lyme. But she has also made time to help other people with Lyme disease, including her friend Jeannie Feltmann.
“She was already doing a lot of good things like detoxing, but I recommended the Rife machine,” Wingrove said. “Within six months, the improvement Jeannie was incredible. She was here the other day, and we are reveling that we are doing better. People in town started seeing me getting better. I have other friends in town who have Lyme. They are also making progress. I try to help anyone who has this.”
Wingrove can be reached at (479) 244-5557.
I, for one, am really glad to have you back. Oh, and thanks for all of the work that you do helping others to control their symptoms too!
Thanks for printing this story and Leanne for sharing it. What a healing journey you have been on Leanne. I am so sad that the medical community didn’t understand your sickness. God Bless!