(Don't miss other blog posts! Click "BLOG" in the header above!)
A lot of people, including the CDC, believe Lyme is difficult to catch and easy to cure with a month of doxycycline. For some, this regimen works. But if you grew up like I did on wooded properties (home, grandparents, etc); regularly tramped through the woods with your dad in search of rhododendron and mountain laurel; helped cut and load wood on the mountain, and had more than a few ticks have their butts heated with a hot match to get them off you or the cat; well, things can lie dormant.
And then they wake up.
Time goes on, and I'm hit with MRSA, spending time in the hospital with a PICC line hoping the super-bug will be killed. I get it again. Then I'm diagnosed with a relatively rare headache syndrome. I'm treated until insurance refuses to pay for multiple nerve blocks in the forehead. Then family stress crushes my heart because I'm the type of person who wants to cure/soothe/help everybody, but the strain is building.
Stress is a huge trigger for lots of illnesses, by the way. But I'm sure you already knew that.
That was my life. I think 2011 was the last time my blog Pretty Things had the readership and a degree of humor and any connection to actual Pretty Things.
Right now, my medical protocol is to teach my immune system to fight on its own. But I need extra help so I don't break my family or break myself. I have a therapist now (well, again). I feel she is the right person. She calls bullshit, which I love, when I try to take on things that are a) too heavy, and b) not my problem. I have to quit trying to be the person I used to be ... commenting on blogs, keeping up as much as I could with other people's travails, because I no longer had the energy or emotional strength. That in itself is a stress, because I feel called to help, on a personal level. Yet..and yet.
I ran across this article and I hope you'll read it. The corollary to AIDS is apt, as my current doctor originally worked with AIDS patients in the same way he started treating Lyme patients ...we can't kill what's killing you, but we can train your immune system to fight better ... but there's a significant cost, both financially and emotionally.
Currently I feel I have no choice but follow their aggressive protocol. After all, I talked to a dozen or more past and present patients. I watched and listened to him on the documentary "Under Our Skin" ( a must watch if you want to understand why this disease is politicized, has polarized and bullied the medical field, and why we're not getting proper diagnosis and treatment).
There's so much more I want to say, but that will be another day or twenty. Please read the article, find the documentary, and let me know, what do you think?
I read the article, very sad that there's not more being done since there are so many people affected.
ReplyDelete