An Honest, Hopeful Journey Through Chronic Lyme

…and the long winding road back to myself. For anyone needing hope, to feel less alone, or still waiting to be believed.

Welcome

When I was diagnosed with chronic Lyme disease, I remember googling everything I could find about it. I had never heard of it before. What stayed with me most was how comforting it felt to find someone’s page sharing a bit of their own experience. For the first time, I felt less alone.

Here, I’ll be sharing pieces of my experience with chronic Lyme disease - the before, during, and the now. Please take what resonates and leave the rest, because chronic Lyme can look very different from person to person.

It would have meant the world to me if someone had believed me when I knew, deep down, that something was terribly wrong, even though I didn’t yet know what it was. My body and brain were shutting down, yet I was being told nothing was wrong and my labs were normal.

If you've been diagnosed with Lyme disease, any other chronic illness, or you're still trying to figure it out, let me be clear:  I trust you know your own body, and when you say something's not right. And if I have to be the first person to say this to you, I will gladly be that person:  I Believe You.

A Couple Housekeeping Notes…

You will not find giant photos of ticks on this website. Every time I looked up Lyme disease, I got ambushed by the biggest, ugliest tick image imaginable. I’m over it. I already know what a tick looks like, and if you don’t, well… the internet is waiting.

And one more thing: it’s Lyme disease, not “Lymes.” There is no S. Lyme disease was named after Lyme, Connecticut, where it was first identified, and people started referring to it as the city's disease (Lyme's)....but it's not, so please don’t make it plural or possessive. And for anyone who thinks this stealth bacteria only exists in Connecticut, please do some research. It is everywhere. You do not have to be frolicking through a heavily wooded forest riding bareback on a deer to end up with a tick bite.

Now that that’s out of the way…