Chronically Awed

Well, whoa. Just whoa.

A dear friend drove me to meet a new LLMD this week and I have come away with my mind blown (LLMD = Lyme Literate Medical Doctor.) Not only do I finally test undeniably positive for Lyme, but for a wide variety of co-infections, and I can actually see how all paths have been leading to this moment. I'm not saying I'm just going to stand here forever, but right now it's a pretty amazing view.

I've imagined this day since I got sick in April of 2002 ... being able to turn around and look backwards on all those who were wrong, looking inward and promising not to doubt my "gut" again. I had Lyme and I knew it.

I'd love to list the name of every single one of the 30+ insensitive, cold hearted, uneducated doctors with whom I shared a "patient encounter." Really. But I'm thankful to be able to say my medical team is full up and none of the aforementioned made the wait list.

The enemies have names now: Lyme Disease, Babesia, Bartonella, Anaplasma/Erlicha, Chlamydia Pneumonia, HHV-6, EBV. I think that's it. But here's the news ... I win. I am now on a kick a$$ regime that at the very least will put me into a loooong remission, and if I'm fortunate, cure me.

I'm on day three and I hear days 4-6 of each new med usher in a new level of hell to be endured just long enough to get one's head out of the toilet and clean up before the next medication is introduced. For some it's a year of treatment. For some it's five. Who'd have though that 11 years into an illness and seven years into disability I'd be in the mid-range, but I am. Three years and I could be looking back on ALL of this and forward to a new career; one that utilizes both my educational degrees as well as my work AND life experiences. I can hardly wait and so soon as I take my next 17 pills and wait the requisite 20 minutes until I can throw up, I'm going to start staging my comeback.

And now a quote from one of the good guys:

"In the fullness of time, the mainstream handling of chronic Lyme disease will be viewed as one of the most shameful episodes in the history of medicine because elements of academic medicine, elements of government and virtually the entire insurance industry have colluded to deny a disease."

Kenneth Liegner, MD.