Staying grounded while recovering from Lyme disease
I would have missed this award-winning documentary on PBS by a young woman named Jennifer Brea had my brother not alerted to me to it after he heard a segment on NPR. (See below for streaming links).
Here are a few words that were in my mind as I watched: Brilliant. Inspiring. Courageous. Talented. Heart-rending. Timely.
Carolyn with her pooch Betty and, from left to right, the friends who have banded together to help Carolyn get treatment: Mark Gordon, Jim Pettengill, Teresa Gordon, Bruce Hoppenworth, Marianne Antonelli, and Gary Antonelli. Not pictured: Maggie Gobie.
Photo: Randy Martinek
Lyme affects the heart in more ways than one. Just ask Carolyn Ross, who was loving the outdoor life on a Virginia horse farm back in 2007. Then ominous change came overnight.
She can tell you the day her health crashed: December 27. After a holiday party, flu-like symptoms came on, and a few days later she noticed a rash on her arm.
Photo: LifeLoveLyme
I miss cooking, I really do. I used to prepare meals all the time—for friends, for my kids, just for myself. I’m not an amazing cook, mind you. But I love the process, from chopping and stirring to arranging everything on pretty serving dishes.
When Lyme hit and left me breathless with shock, I couldn’t stand up long enough to stir a sauce, much less haul my pain-riddled self up and down the aisles of the grocery store and stand in the check-out line.
Buttercups.
Credit: LifeLoveLyme
One of the many reasons I love getting away to the house I visit in a small community in Maryland on the Chesapeake Bay: Buttercups.
Back in my suburban neighborhood, herbicides have wiped out “weeds” in every perfectly manicured yard. But a few weeks ago at my get-away, I saw the cheery flowers in the photo above growing in the yard across the street with wild abandon. No weed killer there.
Granddaughter, grandmother: generations of life and love.
Photo: LifeLoveLyme
On days like today when I’m feeling too sick to write—well, that’s when I most need encouragement from the words of others. Here are some quotes that really speak to me; be sure to click on the links to read a little about these inspiring women and men.
1. Where there is love, there is life. Mahatma Gandhi
2. Only when we are no longer afraid do we begin to live. Dorothy Thomson
Photo: LifeLoveLyme
After months of being severely limited by Lyme – worn out by an hour or two of daily activities and resigned to holding court on my red sofa for most of my waking hours – I am enjoying a period of respite from herxing between treatments as I build up my immune system for the next big round of IV antibiotics. Mind you, at the moment I still only have maybe a quarter of a tank of gas per day to run on, but that’s enough to get me a fraction beyond just the basics. It’s enough to allow me to drive myself to the weekend house all by myself on better days when I’ve planned well, which means an incredible sense of freedom. The first day, I settled in to read a stack of library books and a bagful of New Yorkers and simply…rest. But yesterday I was seized by the exuberance of the season and went to the hardware store to pick up a small shovel and hot pink petunias. Continue reading
Major news day for lyme disease!
As many of us know, Lyme disease identified and treated early means a quick road to health.
Left to invade the body deeply over time, Lyme and other tick-borne infections can be disabling—and even fatal. Treatment in those cases can be a long, expensive, and rocky road.
I should have been on the shortest path. I was treated based on a tick embedded in my hip, a rash, flu-like symptoms, and severe pain all over my body.
But when my test came back negative, my practitioner stopped the month of antibiotics that would have saved me from a nightmare that has been going on for three years now.
On Tuesday, members on the House side of Virginia’s General Assembly voted on a bill requiring doctors to tell patients that Lyme testing is inaccurate. So when I had the chance to join fellow Lyme advocates in Richmond the day before and help inform delegates, I grabbed my cane and pain medication and climbed carefully into a friend’s van.
I wouldn’t have missed that day for anything.
Photo by LifeLoveLyme
Apparently there are people who actually hate Valentine’s Day. Too commercial, they say. I’ve never experienced it that way.
LifeLoveLyme 