I don’t write much about the symptoms of Lyme. For one, it’s a rather long list. For another, who really cares, except for me, who experiences them? But I’ve been thinking about symptoms lately, because now that I’m getting out more, people ask me what my symptoms were. I kind of hem and haw and tell a light anecdote to give them the picture. Here’s the big problem: there are over one hundred symptoms for Lyme . Lyme mimics fibromyalgia, MS, ALS, Parkinson’s, Alzheimer’s and up to 350 more diseases. To try and standardize the list for all patients is impossible. I never had much problem with arthritis-like swelling and pain, where others are wheelchair bound. Every Lyme patient has their own peculiar set of symptoms.
Taken one by one, most of the symptoms aren’t that bad. Combined, though, and suffered day after day after day, they wear on you. The final insult comes when you start treatment. You get sicker! Woo-hoo! Nothing like endotoxins and side effects to ice the cake on sickness. I’m not sharing this for pity. I don’t want to hear “I’m so sorry you’ve been so sick.” Well, maybe I do, sometimes. What I want is to help anyone avoid Lyme in the first place. I want people to understand what Lyme disease can become if not caught early. The physical, emotional and financial toll is too high stand by idly.
I keep journals. I have kept them off and on for the past twenty years, but I’ve been fairly consistent post-divorce. There is a row of notebooks in my office, each one filled out from the top of the first page to the bottom of the last page, front and back, no paragraphs or indents. Just words. The ones from living with Lyme this past fifteen months give me a glimpse into my sickness, in case I want to forget.
Okay, here is one from December 8. It was crisp outside and my one goal for the day was to walk the dogs. I had returned from New York where I was diagnosed with mid-stage Lyme disease: borrelia burgdorferi, babesia , and bartonella. I had fifty-six symptoms checked off. One of the worst was an abnormally slow heart rate. That morning I shuffled one quarter-mile. I have a pulse rate app. I did it three times during the walk. 42. 88. 44. I talked to myself, told myself I could do this. Every bone and muscle in my body ached, I had foggy spots in the middle of each eye. My teeth hurt, as did my head. I had to stop twice because of dizziness. I made that damn walk. I went to bed and slept. I woke up and took my meds (I’ll write a blog about that soon…it’ll blow your mind). I watched the Hallmark Channel (still trying to figure that one out). Cried. Ate. Went back to bed. And that was all the entry said for that day. I’ve paraphrased here, because much of my journal writing is a stream-of-consciousness blast of cheerleading and venting.
I feel a tremendous sense of guilt about being sick for so long. After all, if you are sick, you are not being productive. And not being productive is a sin. A mother’s definition, America’s definition, and mine, apparently. So. I am working on this notion that it is okay to have happiness after a long illness. I don’t have to plunge into everything, all at once. I played pickleball this morning. It made me happy. I saw old friends and felt the heady rush of playing a game. The rest of the day has been better. I’m working harder in between bouts of playing. It could be that play is vitally important to recovering health. Play gives me a truer taste of life as it was. Life has been lots and lots of watery gruel the past sixteen months. I’m ready for spice and comfort food.
You get the picture. Telling this out loud, in public, is almost as terrifying as taking off all my clothes in public. Why do I balk at talking about this? Was it my parents’ no nonsense midwestern sensibility? My own bias towards sickness and sick people? What? I can’t figure this one out. Maybe it has to do with whining? I am NOT a whiner (I’m a bitcher, but that is a whole different skill set). Or maybe it’s the fear of the “poor me” syndrome. Awful. This brings me to play time. Now that I’m getting better, I am eager to date, to play pickleball, see friends, get out and do something. Well, what should happen but guilt. Big chunks of shoulds and have tos weighed me down. I should be working if I feel better. I have to get this yard in shape and take care of business. I bitched about this problem (curse words were involved…see the difference from whining?) to my therapist. I’m pretty sure he answered with a question. “Why should you feel bad? Don’t you deserve to have some fun?” W.T.F. Have fun? Was he mad?
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