I fucking hate babesia. Babesia is one of my co-infections, a malaria-like parasite also called a “piroplasm”, whatever the fuck that is. It clouds my mind and saps my energy. I get angry and depressed for no reason. My eyes go wonky. All the normal boring crap, too, like fatigue and muscle aches and joint pain. For once, there is no anger at this flare-up. Am I being forced into accepting Lyme? Or am I worn down with fighting? I don’t think either is quite true. Acceptance, at least for me, smacks of giving up, worn down implies defeat. I’ll settle for the gentle euphemism of “learning to live” with Lyme.
My doctor shared his frustrations with his inability (another tricky word) to predict the outcomes of his Lyme patients. He felt I should be well by now. He wonders what factors we’re missing. So do I. We discuss my lifestyle. Am I drinking? Why, yes. I tried to drink twice in the last month. It didn’t work out too well the next few days. Alcohol is off the table once again. How about rest? My number one priority. I nap most days and get at least eight hours a night. I am like a four-year-old trying hard to give up naps but too sleepy to actually do it yet. What about stress? Yes, what about stress. Oh, you mean the stress of living? There is the stress of existing, which is essentially what I did for almost two years, and the stress of living. Existing is a sealed bubble of eating, sleeping, and being sick. Living is working, socializing, exercising, going out, traveling, and interacting with the world. YES IT IS STRESSFUL! I almost always feel behind the eight ball of my own life. Do one of the things and be sick. Do all of them and feel great. That uncertainty is stressful. So is deciding which one to prioritize on any given day.
I can accept that lifestyle choices and managing stress are all on me. My doctor accepts managing my protocol. What both of us struggle to accept is what we are missing. Was it the eleven surgeries I’ve had during my life? Perhaps all the antibiotics I took for acne in my late teens. The drugs I enthusiastically experimented with? Maybe something in the environment. It sure as hell isn’t my disposition. I’m fricking Pollyanna. We may never know for sure, and that in itself is a stressor.
Today marks the first day in weeks that my brain is working well. I had no idea how far down the slope I had gone. That’s the hallmark of Lyme brain (such a warm, fuzzy little description for losing your mind). It’s so subtle. I hope I can learn to recognize relapse symptoms more quickly. I don’t like the sensation of somnambulating through life. I may appear and act normal (well, as normal as normal is for me), but if you ask me to remember too much, or do something mentally challenging, like math, you’ll see the gaping holes in my speech, thought and memory.
I am ambivalent about this latest flare-up (relapse, setback, shitshow, whatever you want to call it). Overall, my symptoms are sputtering and losing steam. Either that or I am learning to live with my new normal. Is that acceptance, or is it defeat? I must confess I am satisfied with my current situation—lifeguarding, Airbnb, writing, exercising, and keeping the house together. I can control this amount of stress and chaos. I can adjust the intensity and frequency of all these activities when I need to, and I can push it, or I can take naps and rest. Of course this isn’t what I want. Like Veruca Salt I want it all and I want it now! I hate having limitations. Waaah! I know, cry me a river.
I guess acceptance means being content with the parameters of my illness. When I first typed this, I said “the illness”. I can scarcely admit even now, that it is MY illness, an illness that will be mine and belong to me until I die. This is just for now. I don’t want to be in this particular phase (which is basically the lifestyle of a five-year-old) forever. However, it is not merely existing anymore. It is a life, and not a bad one, either.
