*Originally published 5/1/18*
Happy Lyme Disease Awareness month! I happened to start celebrating a few days earlier when I had the honor of attending the Midcoast Lyme Disease Support & Education conference in Augusta, Maine alongside Dr. Nancy Fox this past weekend!
From the amazing people, to the monumental vendors, I was blown away! Surrounded by my new Lymie family, I met so many wonderful people and learned so much! I am so thankful for this opportunity and cannot thank the members of the MLDSE enough for taking me under their wing and giving me this opportunity!
Because it was so wonderful, I decided I would share some of my experience with you, starting with the amazing vendors!
First, Dog Not Gone. Dog Not Gone makes clothing products with No Fly Zone fabric to repel ticks and other bugs. I have seen tick repellent clothing before, but never for pets and never this cute. Definitely check them out!
The next vendor I loved was Soul Being. Soul Being is a website that you can go to and it helps you find doctors for any treatment imaginable! While it is based in New England, they are expanding all over the continent.
Another vendor there was NutraMedix. NutraMedix produces all natural supplements that many Lymies find beneficial, but they are good for everyone! Also, the business has a charity that gives back to many disadvantaged places.
One of my favorite vendors was Spoons to Spare. Spoons to Spare is run by a fellow lymie and her husband. She makes all of her products and they can even be customized!
I also got to hear about some wonderful books that I can’t wait to read!
I truly cannot even put into words how amazing this experience was. Every time I meet new Lymies, my heart grows even more. When I hear their stories, and share my own, I think it helps us both to realize that we are not alone. I heard some great speakers who made me feel empowered and believe that change is coming. One speaker, Dr. Neil Spector, said that he will no longer take negative as a result and I found that extremely moving. We cannot rely on tests for answers since we know first-hand how faulty they are. We must fight and be our own advocates in this messed up world. This conference was life changing and I cannot wait to go back next year!
On a different note, we also started Dr. Fox’s Lyme Education Tour while on this trip. She plans on going all around the East coast (and hopefully someday the country), educating children abut Lyme disease. When I found about this, I jumped at the chance to be a part of it! So when we got to Maine, we went around to local schools dropping off parts of Dr. Fox’s Lyme curriculum.
This curriculum is AMAZING! It was written by teachers and has complete lesson plans from grades K through 12. It helps educate kids on ways to protect themselves from ticks, what to do if they find a tick, and most importantly, what Lyme disease actually does to a person.
Yes, the medical world needs to be educated on Lyme disease, but it is hard to change stubborn, arrogant thinking. So, by educating the children of our future, we are educating the doctors of our future. So not only are we, hopefully, preventing these kids from getting sick, we are giving them the knowledge to DO something about this disease in the future.
I cannot put into words how terrifying the lack of knowledge people have on this disease is. Every time I see children playing in the grass, I cringe. Every time I hear someone say they pulled a tick off of themselves, I want to scream. People think ticks and Lyme disease are “no big deal,”; in fact, one of the nurses at the school told us she had just pulled a tick off a kid before we got there, but it was “just a dog tick.” Well, did we have news for her. It is not just deer ticks that carry Lyme and other tick-borne diseases; in fact, there are now studies showing that not only do almost all ticks carry infections, but even some mice do, as well. Education is KEY. There are so many misconceptions out there surrounding Lyme disease and they can lead to drastic circumstances. There is so much that people do not know, and do not understand about this disease. This is why I will be writing a post every week throughout the month of May for Lyme Disease Awareness month!
I never want to see another child lose their childhood and adolescence to this disease like I had to. I never want to see another person go years without a diagnosis and treatment because they weren’t “CDC positive.” If people do not learn about Lyme disease, there will never be an end to it. I am so excited to be a part of The Lyme Education Tour and hopefully provide the tools and education needed to have an impact on this horrible epidemic.
And please, get educated on Lyme disease and always check for ticks!
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