Growing Deeper Roots: My Story of Invisible Illness

As I mentioned a while back, I was in a senior thesis production this semester. It was a two character play called Running by Arlene Hutton. I took on the role because I needed to have a creative outlet while pushing through my last year at WAC. It was a tolling process and there were many times, like two weeks ago when I could barely stand without fainting, when I thought that I had made a horrible mistake when I committed to the show. I was terrified of fainting on stage or falling into a brain fog period while performing. I took a major gamble.  The crew worked to develop a plan for every possible situation that could arise. I had an understudy ready to take my place in the worst case scenario and the ushers and house managers were alerted to the possibility of a potential episode. I had a heart monitor on the whole time and the stage manager monitored my heart throughout the performance, with a threshold in mind for an indiction that I was symptomatic. We even had a "fainti...

Okay, so I have another big upside to the fact that the Lyme community is huge. With lymies ranging from all ages and demographics, you have a huge range of friends and in addition to being sick and tired and weak and everything, they are the sassiest people ever.  Here is a collection of memes I've found on blogs and forums from other lymies.  For when I am tired of being told that I don't look sick...   ...or for when I can't handle another doctor in denial...  ...so much denial...                                                              ...or when it is all just too overwhelming...   ...and treatment seems so unattainable...   ...and so costly... ...and I just end up terrified of the tick invested world...     ...but w...

When you fill out patient forms in doctor’s offices, especially when visiting a specialist, there is often a reoccurring question, “When did you last feel normal?” I’ve always struggled with this question and it wasn’t until I heard the words “Chronic Lyme” that I understood why. My Lyme disease story starts in 2000. I was only 5 years old and I can only remember bits and pieces of my initial contraction, the rest of the story is filled in by my parents. Everything went right for an early diagnosis; my mom saw the tick on my eyebrow, I developed the bull’s-eye rash, I went to the doctor immediately. But there was one big hurdle. It was allergy season and my primary physician at the time was convinced that it was just a case of allergies and I was given a dose of Benadryl. Still, my body was persistent in telling me that I had Lyme. A few weeks after my first visit to the doctor, I developed Bell’s palsy in my face and had severe vision and hearing issues. My mom, the advocate she ...