*Originally published 9/11/15*
I am now a college freshman, and Picc line free. Needless to say, a lot has happened since my last post. Here is the recap.
In May, my family and our friends did the Loudon Lyme walk/run for the first year. Despite being a new team, we had the biggest team, and a lot of donations. It was so inspiring to see so many Lyme warriors and their friends and families out fighting for the same thing as me. I hope that in the future, there will be these walks all over the country, with thousands of people joining the fight!
I went to my senior prom with my love, and danced my heart out. I graduated high school at the end of May, with a 4.0 GPA despite having been sick for ¾ of my high school experience! I was also able to go to my senior week and have a great time, even though Pete the Picc made it impossible for me to swim. After senior week, I met up with my chickens again!
This, Chicken Love fest as we like to call it, took place in New England. It was so awesome to be with my best friends again! We spent most of our time relaxing and watching girly movies, but that’s why being together is so much fun. We understand that we need to take it easy and rest, so none of us end up feeling horrible. We took a photo shoot on the beach, got to experience Newport and be our version of “normal” together. I had a great time and I can’t wait for next year’s trip!
When we got back, I got a face time request from Jessica! It was so amazing seeing her beautiful face and talking to her, something I hadn’t been able to do in over a year! I used my family member’s phones and got Hannah, Abby and Kerry on too so all 5 of us were talking to one another! Jess is doing much better; she’s signed up for school and even was having “guy talk” with us! It is so incredible to see pictures of her standing, and experiencing life again.
I was feeling okay for most of the summer, thanks to the IV medicines. I was not as tired, barely had tremors and my stomach was healing! When we had a phone consult with my doctor, we discussed my symptoms, and decided that the IV could no longer help these symptoms, so I got it taken out. Since then, things have gone a little downhill.
My stomach started hurting with the oral antibiotics, but I wasn’t getting the nausea so it was tolerable. Then last week that nausea and shooting pain started. I moved into college 2 weeks ago in the midst of all this. Getting up early has been hard, but I only have 2 classes a day so I have plenty of time to rest. I’ve also been able to go to the gym everyday with my amazing roommate and suitemates! My joints are all super swollen after, but it’s worth it. My stomach and mouth ulcers, however, are not cooperating.
My mom has probabaly emailed my doctor every day this week with something else wrong with me. In the meantime, my school is not being very accommodating with my gluten free diet, and that along with the nausea and pain is causing my first few weeks to be somewhat of a downer. I have, however, been able to get all of my school work done so that is an upside.
While exercising the other day, my legs were hurting and I wanted to stop, when Stronger, came on my ipod. I can remember probably 2 years ago, I was driving with my cousin, feeling sick, and that song came on and I started belting it out, and I knew that I was strong enough to beat this disease. Well, the same thing happened while on the bike. Despite my arthritic bones, hot flashes, tremors, nausea, and all the pain I endure on a daily basis, I know that I will come out stronger than yesterday, and have a healthy life. I’ve made it this far, going to college, something that didn’t seem possible this time last year, and even though the road ahead may be bumpy, I know that someday, I will be okay.
And even when I am in remission, my fight won’t stop. Every chance I get, I try to spread Lyme Disease Awareness. On my second day of classes, my teacher asked everyone what is one thing, if we had the opportunity, we would speak out about, and I said Chronic Lyme Disease (I was also wearing my Lyme shirt).
When I hear people say “I had Lyme disease once, it sucked,” or “It’s from a tick bite,” I always find myself correcting them. Once you have Lyme, it is always in your system, sometimes it can go dormant but it can always come back. Ticks are not the only way Lyme can be spread too. They are finding that other species, such as mosquitoes, can spread it, as well as mother to child. It may sound rude when I correct people, but if we let these misconceptions keep getting spread, the ignorance to this disease will grow. The only way to find a cure is if more people believe in this epidemic, and try to do something about it. I am going to beat this war on the inside, but I am also going to fight the one on the outside so no one else becomes a victim.
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