17/07/2023
I was recently (last week) diagnosed with Lyme Disease. This, after decades of incorrect diagnoses beginning in my late 20's. Although this particular illness can be quite pernicious, having a verifiable diagnosis is quite relieving, as you might imagine. At 52, the very real fear that I may be getting Early Onset Alzheimer's has been pretty intense. Understanding that it's neurological damage from a raging and unchecked Lyme infection seems somehow less awful. Because there's hope with this diagnosis. Hope that much of what's been happening to me can be stopped, and some of it maybe even reversed to some degree.
But still, I expect that, though my medical journey now takes a bend in the road leading toward real answers, the road I walk will not be without it's ups and downs. Knowing me, I'll want to talk about it. A lot. Hence, "Chronic Lyme Chronicles" was dreamt up as a means by which I can do that, but without burdening my friends and family by constantly posting about the topic on my personal page. And my UserName aka "page id" is a double entendre: TheChronicLyme.
I know I need to look forward, but also, I can't help wanting to track down where and when I first got Lyme, and how many times I've tamped it down with antibiotics given to me for some other infection? I want to know how many new tick bites over the years might have added new and different bacterial strains to the "Lymenade"?
My symptoms began in older childhood, after a tick bite around 5th grade. The worst was an excessive sleepiness and inability to wake easily at all. We were only learning about Lyme Disease back then, and it was thought only to be a danger in certain places. Untrue, as so many people who have been stricken with Chronic Lyme Disease/Post Treatment Lyme Disease etc. can tell you.
I have a great many thoughts swirling around in this addled mind of mine (yay! Dementia-like symptoms), but I should probably spend more one on one time with them before sharing.
Due to the type, severity and length of symptoms I've been living with, my P*P has referred me to the Neurology and Infectious Disease units of URStrong.
My referrals have been received but are still under review. I am hoping that a positive Lyme test, coupled with my lengthy and specific presentation, will be more than enough evidence that I am an appropriate candidate for their specialists. Please, please, please dear baby Jeebs, let them accept me as a new patient, in both clinics, so that the neurological situation can be assessed, and appropriate therapies to relieve me of some of the most debilitating symptoms and co-occurring disease from years of untreated Lyme can be administered post haste. Like, post post haste if possible.
