1 Year and Counting

Hello, friends and fam!

It's been over a year since I've posted an update, which means that it's been a year since I had my PICC line removed and stopped treating for Lyme disease altogether.  A year!

There has been no better feeling in the world than being free of Lyme symptoms, pain, needles, IV lines, round-the-clock alarm clocks for medication reminders, appointments, lab draws, etc. etc. etc.

I just sighed the hugest sigh after finishing that last sentence.  When I make myself stop and think back, it makes me lower my head, shake it, and my eyes fill with tears.  What a difficult road it is, treating for Lyme and co-infections, let alone convincing everyone around you that you're battling a real disease.  But I won't linger on that here (although more on that below).

I'm lingering on one year and counting of  f r e e d o m.  That's what it feels like.  It felt like I was trapped for so long, and now I'm free.

We moved to Hawaii last August, which has afforded us time and a beautiful setting to be outdoors constantly -- walking, running, biking, swimming, etc.  I haven't run and stuck with it in years, and I'm running again.  The most miraculous thing is that I'm running and I don't have any pain...  Not while I'm running, not after.  I don't have fatigue either.  I don't "pay for it" after putting in a work out.  For the first time (in my entire life), I'm able to work out and feel what it's like to have more energy later.  I'd always heard other people say that working out gave them energy, and doctors always told me that working out would help me and would give me more energy (nothing was farther from the truth for me, with Lyme).  And for the first time in my life, it is the strangest thing to experience working out, enjoying it, and feeling good afterwards, too.

Every single day, as I head back home from my run, I look up at the sky and just say "thank you" over and over.  I mentally scan every part of my body and notice how I'm pain-free and I'm strong.  And every fiber of my being is filled with an unbelievable amount of gratitude.

As I pass this one year anniversary of stopping treatment and literally removing the physical attachment to illness (the PICC line), I'm full of reflection and an even greater sense of gratitude.


Wishing everyone health and love,

Kristen

-------------------------------------


Okay on another note, I'd like to chime in my two cents again on how real Lyme is, how it can be contracted anywhere, including Oregon, and how immediate, proper treatment is imperative to healing.


After 20 years of Lyme disease, six months into remission, and exactly one week before we moved to Hawaii, I contracted Lyme disease again.

I'll bring down the shock level by saying that I went to my Lyme doc immediately and got proper treatment, and we took care of it and I continue to be well.  Thank the heavens.

Now let me bring the shock factor back up by saying that this isn't a guess.  Lyme is one of the most controversial diseases out there, but did you know that all doctors agree upon one thing, and one thing only (regardless of what else they know or believe about Lyme)?  The bulls'-eye rash is the only fool-proof identification that you've contracted Lyme.  No one messes with the rash.  That's the one thing, ONE THING that everyone can agree upon.  I know I'm emphasizing that a lot, but the reason that's important is because you know where I was when that rash showed up this time?  Beaverton, Oregon.  In fact, I was sitting in our apartment when I noticed it on my wrist.

Let me also clarify that we had not been hiking, in the woods, in the brush, in tall grass, or anywhere else that the world still tells you that you have to be in order to even consider the possibility of contracting Lyme.  We hadn't gone anywhere.  We definitely hadn't left Oregon recently and we hadn't left Beaverton.  I'd walked my dog around our neighborhood, and that's it.  We were preparing to move across the ocean.  I was busy finishing up lessons with my students and packing.

The other awesome part?  My doctor agreed that the site of the bite looked like a spider bite.  Yes, according to my Lyme-literate doctor, spiders carry Lyme disease too, and he wasn't a bit surprised.  Go ahead and laugh (I see you hiding behind your screen).  But I suppose regardless of which insect you think may have had to bite me, I had a standard bulls-eye rash, didn't I?  And it was either from a tick in Beaverton, Oregon, if that's easier for your to believe; or it was from what appeared to be a spider bite in Beaverton, Oregon.  Either way, the take-away here is a bulls-eye rash from Beaverton, Oregon.  

So the next time you hear anyone say that Lyme doesn't exist in Oregon, or that they don't hike so there's no way they could have gotten it, or they've never been bitten by a tick, or they never found the tick, or any of the other dozens of excuses...  Let me be very clear that I contracted it twice in Oregon, and I had the indisputable bulls-eye rash, both times, I repeat, in Oregon.  So there's no arguing about that.  I'm glad we've gotten that settled.

Let me also clarify that over HALF of people who contract Lyme don't get the bulls-eye rash, so don't let all this rash talk fool you into into thinking you have to have the rash to have Lyme, either.  I'm just using my rashes as the one piece of agreeable evidence that Lyme exists in Oregon.


And now I'll step down off of my pedestal.  Just, please know that Lyme is in Oregon.  Lyme is everywhere.  Don't be frightened, but don't be ignorant.  :)