Before 2021, Sandy Berenson never thought twice about being in nature.
But a Lone Star tick bite changed everything.
"It took a life that was this big and made it this small," said Berenson.
The Broken Arrow woman tells 2 News it all started during a trip to their family's Arkansas cabin, where she made what seemed like an innocent mistake.
"I sat on a dead limb, which was not smart, and unfortunately, this tick apparently was on the same dead limb," she said.
The culprit was a Lone Star tick brown with a distinctive white dot that gives the species its name.
"I was bit in 2021 and it was about a year and a half ago that I actually got a diagnosis," Berenson explained.
After being dismissed by physicians and given medication that made things worse, the diagnosis she finally received