Damn Ticks Suckin the Life Right Out of Me...

Maybe I should have stayed on my Lyme meds a little bit longer. I feel like I'm slipping. In fact, I've felt this way for about a year, but it's gotten increasingly worse. I don't have the strength to get out of bed in the morning, I don't have the focus I should have for school work, I don't have the patience for this right now.  I'm just tired. I want to sleep, but that seems to make it worse. STUPID TICKS.

Relapse, but with HOPE

Well, it's the middle of August, and school starts up again here in a couple weeks. I can't wait! Unfortunately, my Lyme has decided to slow me down a bit. I'm sleeping about twelve hours every day, I'm not moving so well, and my fatigue is back. Whether it's just Lyme or Babesia, I don't really care. It sucks either way.

The funny thing is-- I don't really care. Maybe I should and maybe I shouldn't, but I'm really quite happy. I'm miserable and happy at the same time. Weird, I know, but I feel like with the more miserable I am, the more I turn to God, and that's what I need more than anything right now.  I'm kinda happy that I have Lyme and PCOS and thyroid issues and gluten issues... it gives me something to offer up to God, and I feel better then.  It's so crazy to be miserably happy, but I am!!!!

Lyme and the Tricky Ticks it Comes From

Before 2005, I don't think I had ever heard of Lyme disease. I first heard about it when my mom was diagnosed with Lyme that year. She had been mis-diagnosed with Fibromyalgia since 98. My sisters and I also found out we had it in the years to come. The bills, finding a Lyme literate doctor, and all the drugs were really overwhelming, but it has been worth it to feel as good as I do today.

My mom had it the worst. When she went un-diagnosed for so many years, her symptoms left her bed ridden for close to a year, and she started to lose some of her senses. She noticed that her senses of smell and taste were diminished and she described her sense of touch as "having gloves on my hands." She also had some major nerve damage so when she would pick things up, sometimes they would drop right out of her hands because her nerves would force her hands open. She also had heart problems and there were days where she couldn't move from bed.

My symptoms were a little different. Besides Lyme, I also had a co-infection called Babesia. I had severe fatigue which made it hard to wake up and stay awake during the day. Luckily, I caught my Lyme disease much earlier than my mom. After spending months on meds, I lost over 30 pounds, felt all of my energy come back, and was able to go back to college.

Even though I've had relapses since then, I have been doing so much better in the last couple years. I've gone back to college and have been able to maintain over a 3.5 GPA since.