The Two-Year Mark

Happy New Year!

It's hard to believe it's been two years since I was diagnosed with Lyme and company — two years since my perpetual hodgepodge of mystifying symptoms was validated, recognized, affirmed, and my dishonorable labels as "that girl who just wants attention" and "that hypochondriac" got stripped off me like a giant Band-Aid in the biggest "aha" moment of my life.

I'm gonna keep this entry short. As usual, I'm exploring some new treatments — let's face it, in spite all the confusion and misdirection in the Lyme treatment world, one thing we have going for us is a seemingly never-ending array of options from which to choose. Even those who feel like they've tried everything only need to look a little harder to see just how many healing modalities they have not yet tried.

So I'll be back (hopefully soon) to update you on that. It's a bit early to get into it at this point.

It's definitely been a harder couple of years than I ever anticipated — partly due to the terrible herxes, but also as a result of some pretty hardcore frustration. Everywhere I turned, I felt incredibly frustrated, whether from the up-and-down Yo-Yo effect (otherwise lovingly referred to as the "false alarm that I'm finally getting better!!!!!!!!!") or the plateaus in between those periods of up and down, in which I made little progress at all.

Over the last two years, I've learned that there are no fast cures for late-stage Lyme disease. If you try to imagine the most complicated puzzle you can think of, well, Lyme disease is probably twice as complicated as that. Or three times. Or fifty.

Another big challenge I faced was figuring out how to explain to people that I haven't been letting my illness win, just because — by all outward appearances — I've taken such interest in it. There is a big difference between letting one's illness own them and trying to educate oneself on something for the exact opposite purpose — to not let it own us.

I've also learned that most doctors are completely unfamiliar with chronic Lyme, to the point where they not only don't comprehend it but they outright deny it, in spite of the mounting (and boy do I mean mounting!) evidence to the contrary.

I'll be back with a lot more soon!