A journey of pain and suffering
Being a Lyme sufferer prevented me from getting back to working full-time and made me jump through a lot of hoops. In a nutshell, I was one of the lucky ones who managed to see the light at the end of the tunnel, meaning that I managed to find a way to live a normal life after becoming a Lymie.
I won’t lie to you, this was a long journey with ups and downs and many dead ends. It was a journey that I did all alone cause most of my friends vanished on the way. I moved on and I learnt to enjoy my solitude. I saw it as in investment in my own person, not a waste of time for social formalities.
Throughout this journey I gained a lot of knowledge and I feel I grew like a person. Maybe I finally grew up?! I learnt about suffering, compassion, sharing and love. And I now see the slight differences among all of their levels. I learnt how to talk to myself and more precisely how to listen to myself. The most important thing was that I finally understood that the power to heal laid in me.
Self-pity and fear of loosing control
At a certain point the self-pity took control and I was unable to see the way out of this sickness. I experienced lots of episodes of anger, self-pity and frustration.
Suffering from a mysterious illness and experiecing a wide array of strange symptoms are more than enough to make one question his sanity. Especially when no doctor can offer a medical explanation for it! Not to mention when they imply everything is not real!
When my health went down the hill to the point where I needed assistance to walk or take care of myself, these were the most frightening moments in my life. Loosing my independence hurt even more than the physical pain. The day I had to accept I was no longer independent and I needed help was a crucial point in my journey. I was lucky that one of my friends insisted on moving in with me in order to help me.
I couldn’t even hold a coffee mug in my hand, or walk straight for 10 minutes without sitting down or feeling exhausted. Then the sleepless nights started – the pain levels were so high that I was falling asleep only when my body was exhausted by pain.
Since my health continued to deteriorate and none of the specialists I had seen couldn’t help me, I decided to take this issue into my hands. I felt I had no time left for fighting doctors, an incredibly stupid and unfriendly medical system or an insurance company who was treating me just like a number, insinuating I was faking my symptoms.
Lyme Disease awareness
Lyme is a serious threat for everyone. It is a shame that so many people have to suffer just because the doctors are not properly trained to diagnose it. It is hard to believe that a tick bite can do so much damage!
My story echoes the voices of many other Lyme sufferers who underwent the same experience of getting infected with Borrelia burgdorferi, one of the smartest bacterias on Earth, capable of evading the host's immune system and spread throughout the body wracking havoc.
Thanks to the Internet, more and more people learn about it and discover that it exists in their countries as well!
Image credit:Pixabay
Here are other Lyme-related posts:
GOT LYME? MAKE A LYMONADE!
LYME DISEASE COMES WITH CO-INFECTIONS
CHRONIC LYME DISEASE IS A REAL THING
TOP 10 WORST SYMPTOMS OF LYME DISEASE
WHAT ARE THE SIGNS AND SYMPTOMS OF LYME DISEASE?
WHY IS LYME DISEASE TOUGH TO DIAGNOSE?
HOW CAN YOU PROTECT YOURSELF AGAINST TICK BITES?
HOW I FOUND THE SILVER LINING OF LYME DISEASE
9 WAYS TO KEEP A RELATIONSHIP GOING WHEN BOTH PARTNERS ARE ILL
All of the above posts were written by me, as part of my Lyme Disease awareness campaign. They were originally published on my personal website A-ZLYME.COM .
If you would like to learn more about Lyme disease, visit A-ZLYME.COM. On my A-Z Lyme blog, I post weekly Lyme-related articles which I might re-post on Steemit, in order to increase the awareness about this infamous illness.
Thank you for reading, I hope you enjoyed it! Feel free to re steemit or up vote it!
Please leave your feedback in the comments, I would love to hear your thoughts!
@2018 LaviPicu aka The Lyme Poet. All rights reserved.
Have I ever told you how much I appreciate your frank and honest writing about your disease? I really do.
Losing your independence. My greatest fear.
I get the fighting doctors and insurance companies. I absolutely hate guzbucking GPs that think they know what I have. I have entirely given up on the medical community. Better to die free and knowing than at the hands of some dumbass that thinks he knows what to do. Which always seems to involve more medication.
Urrggghhh. Sorry. Thanks for the wonderful post.
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You're welcome! Thank you for your continuous support and your comments!
I guess that this is everyone's greatest fear! It's hard to imagine that tomorrow you won't be able to take care of yourself and you'd have to ask for help.
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I upvoted your post.
Mabuhay, keep steeming.
@Filipino
Posted using https://Steeming.com condenser site.
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Thank you for stopping by!
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Thanks for the awareness, I only have a vague notion of just how bad this disease is, and here in New York I know there are a lot of ticks as well... Really makes me on guard in the woods or at the beach...
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You're welcome! NY state is known to have a high tick population. Better to be cautious than sorry!
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I recognize so much in this. You're such a strong person and you write about these struggles and what you've learned from it so well. I admire all that you share about your journey and I'm so so glad you came out of the 'self-pity' phase - it's a logical one to have, but the best one to keep :-)
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It took me a long time to understand that if I don't talk about my struggles, people won't know about them. In order to be heard or visible you gotta shout. I can't shout but I can tell stories, my one included. Thus sharing my journey is the least I can do to raise more awareness about Lyme.
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Same. You're doing great <3
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Oh my @lymepoet, I am so sorry...I can't imagine the torture you have been through. It is such a dreaded disease for many and you are right, science has not figured it out. I often call it frankenstein science....I pray you are finding some relief, thankful for your wonderful friend coming to stay with you. I pray you will heal soon! Thank you for sharing this with us
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The problem is not only that, but also the medical community and the whole medical system who treats people as numbers! Thank you for your support!
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@lymepoet,
Alas ... but now you've made some new ones and are, perhaps, the better for it. The friends we choose during the good times, are rarely the same as those we choose during the bad.
The dichotomy causes you to redefine the word "friend," and become the wiser for it.
Not "one of," Lavi ... Borrelia burgdorferi is THE SMARTEST bacteria on Earth. By a mile.
It is the ONLY life-form on Earth that doesn't require iron to manufacture proteins (it uses manganese instead). This alone should make its existence impossible. This renders ineffective one of the host's primary immune defense mechanism's against bacterial infections and makes BB a super-competitor relative to all other bacteria (all other bacteria are hyper-iron-dependent and must compete with one another for limited supplies).
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/10834845
The doctors who think you're faking it are morons. The evidence in support of the existence of Chronic Lyme Disease is overwhelming. The naysayers prove only that education is no guarantee of knowledge, let alone insight.
Quill
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Thanks for the correction. I wasn't sure and I did not want to sound bias. As for gaining new friends, you are absolutely right! I was lucky to stumble upon those who stay around no matter what, an endangered specie ;-) Not to mention those I met in here, like yourself! Big hug!
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@lymepoet,
Back at ya.
Quill
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Thank you so much for sharing your knowledge and bringing awareness to us according to what you have personally experienced. I am so sorry to hear about the pain you are going through and losing your independence to do things on your own. I hope for comfort and healing very soon~ 💗
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Thank you, @steemitmamas!
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Hi @lymepoet!
Your post was upvoted by @steem-ua, new Steem dApp, using UserAuthority for algorithmic post curation!
Your UA account score is currently 3.578 which ranks you at #5678 across all Steem accounts.
Your rank has improved 42 places in the last three days (old rank 5720).
In our last Algorithmic Curation Round, consisting of 219 contributions, your post is ranked at #66.
Evaluation of your UA score:
Feel free to join our @steem-ua Discord server
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I can't even begin to imagine how scary it was. This disease is awful! And all that pain and suffering can be caused by a tiny tic bite! They are horrible nasty little critters :( I have to check my dogs for tics regularly because we live in the woods and near long grass. People don't realise just how common they are! All it would take is for someone walking in the woods to brush past one and BAM!
I am so sad that you have this disease, but I am happy that you have found the strength to overcome the issues you face. You are a true warrior my friend!
BB xx
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Recent studies showed that ticks can be found in the cities as well, not only in the woods! The ironic part is that a vet offers a course of antibiotics right away to the dogs, as soon as you mention the word tick. No issue repeating the cycle. When it comes to treat humans for tick bites, there is a different scenario.
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my father was researching in lyme disease when he worked at the "serum institute" so luckily I have always been very aware of the disease!
But do you mean the doctors didn't recognise that lyme disease was what you had? How did you find out?
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Before getting a Lyme diagnosis, I have seen over 20 specialists and each one of them gave me a different diagnosis. None of them was able to link everything together and have a better look at all of my symptoms. Some doctors still refuse to consider Lyme as a chronic illness, especially those working with the insurance companies - that's another can of worms I won't touch now.
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oh my, i'm sorry to hear that! Good to know that you've come out stronger, though you still have to live with all that pain. I wish you all the best on your journey!
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What an ordeal. Here in France they are just now finding viable treatments; most people head for Germany where there are better medicines and more comprehension. I caught it twice, but was lucky to get antibiotic treatment before it spread beyond the localized area affected. I had it for 5 months before finding a doctor who recognized it for what it was.
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I am sorry to hear you had to deal with it too! I heard about French Lyme sufferers getting treatment in Germany. It is a shame not to be able to get treatment in your own country. I had to go to the states for it, so I know what they must be going through. Thank you for your support!
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