AMHERST – A few months ago, Addie Warner started to get sick, and no one, including her doctors, could figure out what was causing her joint pain, headaches and vision problems until Amherst health inspector Brian Gleason paid her a visit.

Warner, 76, began noticing that something was wrong about eight months ago. Although she'd always been fit and very active, she was suddenly fatigued. Her joints ached, she was suffering headaches, and was beginning to lose both her sight and her hearing.

Warner began seeking the help of doctors to diagnose what was wrong, but kept hitting brick walls. Many of the symptoms she was experiencing were common in people of a certain age, but Warner wasn't buying it.

"When I'm fit, I have ambition to spare," said Warner, who moved to Amherst with her husband a few years ago. "I was pleading for help, but I wasn't getting any."

Warner began researching her symptoms on the Internet and thought she'd finally figured out her problem when she landed on electromagnetic radiation exposure.

"The exposure to high levels of electromagnetic radiation -- by living under power lines or being exposed in other ways -- can cause a sickness similar to the one Mrs. Warner was experiencing," said Gleason, who serves as health inspector and also heads the town's Emergency Medical Services department.

Gleason called on Tim Soucy from the Manchester Health Department to borrow a meter that detects electromagnetic radiation. Then he visited Warner.

Gleason performed a thorough scan of the home but could find no evidence of excessive electromagnetic radiation. But as Warner shared her story with him, a light bulb went off in his head.

Warner and her husband had spent many months in the fall clearing their land, taking down trees and moving brush.

"As I heard about her symptoms, I began to suspect Lyme disease," Gleason said.

Lyme disease, according to the New Hampshire Department of Public Health, is a bacterial illness carried by deer ticks that over time can cause a wide variety of problems from arthritis, to neurological problems, to cardiac illnesses.

Gleason encouraged Warner to get tested for Lyme disease, and a few days later, he got a call from a very relieved woman.

"She said, Brian, you'll never believe this, but the test was positive,'"‰" Gleason said.

Warner was put on broad-spectrum antibiotics and within a few days, her symptoms began disappearing.

"I've got no more aches and pains, the headaches are gone, and my vision is getting back to normal," said Warner.

Dr. Jose Montero, the state epidemiologist, said it's impossible to tell how many cases of Lyme disease are missed because most of the symptoms associated with the disease are generic to other illnesses, and because the disease manifests itself so differently from one person to the next.

The one symptom that clearly indicates Lyme "" a reddish bull's-eye-shaped rash around the site of the bite -- only occurs in 75 percent of patients. Without the rash, Montero said, it's possible that some doctors might not consider Lyme disease.

But with nearly 900 reported cases of Lyme disease in New Hampshire last year, Montero said he hopes doctors -- especially those in the southern tier of the state where Lyme disease is most prevalent -- would give more credence to the possibility of Lyme disease.

Montero said that the number of Lyme disease cases is rising, it's important for people to be protected while enjoying the great outdoors. Protection is fairly simple.

Tucking pants into socks, using bug repellent with DEET, and checking heads and bodies for ticks after returning from the outdoors are the easiest ways to avoid Lyme disease, Montero said.