Getting Diagnosed With Lyme

 If you read "My Story," then you know that I've been sick for a long time, but I wanted to share the process of actually getting diagnosed with Lyme Disease. 

It started in September of my junior year. I was 16 years old. I had always gotten sick around that time every year since elementary school, so it wasn't anything new at first. What was different was how long it lasted. And I say "it" because no one ever knew what was wrong. I was just down…bad lol. Just horrible. Barely alive. This would usually be a week or two, then I'd be fine, but this time, it didn't go away. I was out for probably two weeks went back to school for a day, and then was out for another two. That cycle just continued over and over again, and I was basically living at the doctor's office.

It was the beginning of my junior year, the most important year for college and everything, so that added a whole other layer of stress. I think I'm going to stay on the topic of physical health just because the mental aspect is a whole different story for another time. Saying it was an ugly time doesn't even begin to cover it. But what I will say now is that I basically gave up on school (and life) after a certain amount of time just because I couldn't keep up with anything. It wasn't just my body that was sick; my brain was not functioning either. 

I was so sick for so long without any answers. The biggest difference this time around compared to the years before was that I was sleeping for 24 hours at a time. I would fall asleep at 4 pm and wake up the next day at 4 pm. I know it was 4 pm because that is when my mom would get home each day. If she didn't wake me up, who knows how long I could've slept for. I wasn't sleeping for 24 hours every day, but there were some full 24-hour days for a few weeks. On average, I slept about 18 hours a day (day…not just night). Minimum 12-15 hours. And then, of course, waking up feeling like absolute crap and in so much pain. I mean, everything hurt. My knees were always the worst. My head was always killing me in different places and in different ways. My bones hurt. People look at me like I have 8 heads when I say this, but it was like I could feel my entire skeleton, and it was all just pain. I know that makes no sense, but that's what it was like. Just imagine your whole femur having this dull pain, and then imagine every bone in your body like that. That's what it was like. I could also feel every ligament move and cause more pain every step I took. I was shaking and couldn't see straight. I was just a mess. There were so many symptoms, but I just do not have the time or energy to get to all of them. It was just so horrible. How I survived and how so many others survive is crazy to me. Especially when everyone loves to tell us that it isn't even real…but that's a conversation for another time. 

I was getting tested for every possible thing almost every week. I got tested for both mono and lupus about 18 million times, and it got to the point of me being like, "I don't think that's how it works, hahaha." I think if I had lupus it would've shown up by then lol—the same with mono. I'm also a massive germaphobe, so there was no way I was getting mono. But no one knew what to test for. It wasn't until January of the next year that I was finally tested for Lyme Disease. It, of course, came back negative, but 7 of the 10 bands were there, so we knew I had Lyme. I was so relieved and looking forward to getting back to life. I was given my 2 weeks of doxycycline, and that is just where the story begins….

Ha. Ha. Ha. I really thought….

I never could've imagined the world of hell I was about to enter.