Category Archives: Lyme

Lyme disease: My story (Part one)

05 Thursday Sep 2013

Posted by in Health, Lyme

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Lyme Disease: My Story For thirteen years I’ve been sick.  I have chronic Lyme disease. (Actually, now the Lyme tests are negative and I’m getting stronger and stronger.  I’m learning to say I had Lyme disease.) This is how it started.

How and when I got infected is a bit of a mystery, but I think it was the blackberry-picking that did me in. Every summer, my dear friend Suzanna and I would drive two hours south, into the Northern Neck of Virginia, between the Rappahannock and Potomac rivers, close to the Chesapeake Bay and beyond that the fresh ocean.  George Washington grew up here; Madison’s birthplace is not far away.  I imagine our presidents here hundreds of years ago in the sticky Virginia summer, in the oppressive heat and weight of the wet air, them with all their proper waistcoats and breeches, Suzanna and I in our shorts, with the beautiful Virginia countryside around us—the same countryside that nurtured these men who built our country. Continue reading »

This healing spring

29 Wednesday May 2013

Posted by in Health, Lyme

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cherryblossomsSpring is always a season that moves me to wonder and praise, this year more than most.  I watch the world burst with joy and beauty as God brings delicate, abundant life to branches that appeared to be dead — riots of diaphanous pink cherry blossoms, bright yellow forsythia, delicate redbuds.  I look at these and my heart dances to see the joy of creation (and God’s joy in his creation) on display in this annual resurrection — life from death.

I watched this year and felt like my own body was going through the same thing, like God was bringing life and healing to my body which has been so damaged.  There’s unspeakable joy in this for me as I have seen God healing me over these weeks and months, as my hope grows for what may come.  I can’t put it into words.  Continue reading »

Life & health

14 Saturday Jan 2012

Posted by in General, Lyme

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It’s been more than three years since I’ve been able to blog, and now I’m not sure where to start.  As readers and friends know, after dealing with a mysterious chronic-fatigue-inducing illness for years, I was diagnosed with Lyme disease in 2006.  I rejoiced to finally have a name, to know that it wasn’t in my head, and to have a plan of action for treating it.  Health seemed possible again.  But the journey getting back to health has been far more than I ever bargained for.

I assumed with my determined spirit and no-holds-barred approach to getting well that I could lick this thing in a matter of months.  I had no idea how sick I was and how little is known about chronic Lyme and how to treat it. Or that the treatment would, in some ways, be harder than the disease itself.

Eventually, my journey with Lyme will be a book.  (Actually, I was under contract to write that book, but was unable to finish it — ironically, because of the Lyme. Ugh.)  It’s been by far the most difficult thing I’ve ever had to deal with.  I can’t put into words what I’ve lost because of this illness — the years of not being able to work, the years of not being able to simply get off the couch and live.  I’ve faced depression unlike anything I ever could have imagined.  But — while I would never wish this on anyone — I also can’t put into words what I’ve gained.  An understanding of God’s great mercies, expressed so tangibly through family and friends.  The way this has molded me into someone different and in many ways better.  A sense of protection and strength in the midst of horrible vulnerability and weakness. Continue reading »