BROKEN ARROW, Okla. — 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 was Alpha-gal Syndrome.
It's a rare condition that leaves people allergic to red meat and anything made from mammals. It turned Berenson's life upside down in ways she never could have imagined.
The syndrome robbed Berenson's of some of life's most basic pleasures — sharing meals with loved ones.
"Christmas, Thanksgiving, I cannot sit at the table with my family," she said. "I have to sit in the living room, and if you don't think that breaks my heart when we have it here. I cannot cook. My husband and I cannot sit down to the table to eat together."
Her reactions range from convulsions and numbness to hives, spiked blood pressure, and severe physical illness.
"I cannot go out to eat in any restaurants because I'm allergic to the smell and I can immediately go into reaction," she said.
Beyond taste and smell, Berenson can't touch any mammals or made from them, stripping her from the passion she said she was born with.
"I loved horses from birth," said Berenson. "It has taken me from someone who was showing horses, having my horse out there for 35 years, I showed and competed with horses… I can’t. I can’t be around them.”
The mammals she once loved and worked with daily are now a health threat she must avoid completely.
Most devastatingly — there's no cure.
Rather than retreat into isolation, Berenson is using her experience to warn others about the hidden dangers of tick bites.
"I love Broken Arrow, I love Tulsa, I love Oklahoma," she said. "I just don't want people to deal with this. It's just a nightmare."
2 News got this story from our listening booth at the fair.
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