Many blessings everyone and happy May! I am in disbelief that 4 months of this year are already behind us. Praying for better to come throughout the year as the world slowly reopens.
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This month is Lyme Disease Awareness Month. Throughout the month I will be posting facts and research that I’ve learned from the field, I will also do some videos as well to share my personal story and hoping I will appear on a couple of shows so I can educate and advocate as I always do.
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Raising awareness about this disease for me is 365 days, but this particular month you may see your timelines blow up in green. Right now in the United States according to the CDC it’s estimated that 476,000 people have this disease and I believe that that is really undercutting the actual numbers.
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My personal story is that I’m a survivor of this disease and I was diagnosed December 2012 after being poorly misdiagnosed 10 times. I was bitten by a tick September 2012. I didn’t have the typical bullseye rash if they tell you to look for nor did I know it wasn’t tick when I was actually bitten and my life has not been the same since. I am doing a whole lot better, but I have what you call, “Chronic Lyme disease” or some call it “Post Lyme syndrome” where thousands of us, millions globally, although we have undergone an array of treatments are still dealing with residual symptoms that just don’t want to quite go away. I also have been treating for a stubborn co-infection called Babesia (babesiosis) and I am the poster child of someone who looks very well and like nothing is wrong with me health wise. I will say again I have come a mighty and marvelous way from where I once was, but there are more days than I care to have where I am symptomatic. Everyday I live with symptoms…sometimes they aren’t really bothersome and other times I have flares.
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I Don’t Look Like Anything I Have Been Through
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My symptoms are not totally in remission yet and when that day comes I will probably wait it out for quite a few months before I deem myself in full remission. I am not saying all this for people to feel sorry for me or to feel bad, I believe in transparency because I want people to learn from what I have been through.
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Anyway please look forward to more posts. If you can gain anything from this post it’s to please be kind to people because you never know despite how they may physically look, that they really may feel crappy internally.
Lastly I have written poetry about what I’ve gone through as well as my fellow Lyme warriors and there is a memoir on the horizon so stay tuned.
Thank you to everyone who has watched my videos and read my posts about Lyme Disease Awareness. Although the month of May is over I will continue to share facts, my journey, others paths with this disease and research discovered. If you missed the epic conversation on The Dr. Vibe Show about Lyme Disease and COVID19 you can go to my YouTube channel at divinewryte or check out the replay below.
Some good news to share, people can heal from this horrid disease and live a life with symptoms in remission. I now live a life with only a few residual symptoms from Lyme Disease which beats the 30+ I had years ago. My goal is to be symptom free and I believe that I will one day.
Photo credit: ATC Comm Photo from Pexels
I’m steadily praying for a cure, accurate testing and for insurance to really start approving more (all) holistic, integrative health and naturopathic ways to heal Lyme Disease because it does work.
Praying for all of my sisters and brothers who are really in the midst of the battle with this disease and their healing 🙏🏽
Photo by Pixaby
If anyone has questions please reach out to me through the contact page.
May peace be with each of you and your loved ones.
Dr. Vibe Show about Lyme Disease During COVID19 Pandemic with Serena Wills as the Special Guest
Blessings everyone. Here is another Lyme Disease Awareness Post. As you can see from the video I address some questions asked about statistics in the United States. I also talk about deficiencies that Lyme can cause and how to detect what’s happening.
I also invite you to go on my YouTube page where you can view other videos about Health and Wellness and even my writing ventures. Please like them and subscribe to my channel at “divinewryte”
A picture of me and my son taken weeks before the tick bite.
Parenting is quite a task. You want your children to have the best in life. So what happens when the parent or both parents become very ill?
I was diagnosed with Lyme disease winter 2012 although my mental health started crashing before this after losing my sister and mother 2.5 years apart from one another. My son had just turned 1. There were days when I didn’t know how I was going to function yet take care of my son. Its one thing to be a parent but a whole other ballgame when you’re a single parent.There were moments when fear struck and I went to very dark places in my thoughts. Many days and nights I cried asking God to please heal me because I need to be there for my son. But every morning I was just trying to get out of bed in pain, fatigued, foggy, poor balance or whatever else struck me that day. But my son would look at me in his crib with those big brown eyes and he gave me the determination to get our day started. Even when he would cry out for me or when he was just simply giggling it gave me energy and hope.
When I reached out to other parents on the forum called The Healing Well I knew I was not alone. All of them like me had one thing on their mind and that was getting well for their children and spouses for those who are married. Whether they were/are bedridden, hospitalized or able to function but were still ill.
What I did instead of thinking about a lot of dark thoughts was turn those into prayers and meditation. I won’t lie there were challenging times when I wish my life was different and that I wasn’t alone everyday with my son. But for some reason I believe that this illness is gonna make me so much stronger as a mother and a person. It’s also preparing me for my future husband (whomever and where ever he is).
Dealing with an illness takes a lot of patience as well as raising a child. I’ve had to learn to grow my patience even more. Between waiting for my complete and total healing, numerous doctors appointments, maintaining my household and also raising my now two year old.
A few things I would like to tell other parents that are dealing with an illness is to try to remain positive, focus on other things besides your self such as your children, if you’re married write down things you would like to do after you heal with your family and lastly don’t be afraid to ask for help.
The last one was the toughest one for me. I was always so used to reaching out to my mother when I was in trouble but now that she is deceased I have to reach out to other family and even friends.Also during that time I became very close to quite a few single mothers who tremendously stepped up and helped me out. We created our own support group to lean on each other. They might not have been physically ill but a few of them have some emotional stresses, financial challenges and we’re there to really pray and support one another. There were also married couples who have embraced us and help us out, give advice, talk when needed and they are a glimmer of hope for me as well.
If you can reach out to other families like yourselves and whether its for help or you just want somebody to fellowship with it really does make a difference.
For those parents and loved ones who are not ill the one thing you can do for parents with illnesses is to reach out to them and ask them how can you be of service to them. Whether it is a phone call, a visit, even a letter goes really long way. I have a good friend in New York City who is like a sister to me and she got groceries sent to me because she knew I was low on cash and needed them. It meant so much to me to know how much people cared.
Photo by Pixaby
There is one parent on the forum I belonged to who truly inspired me. Her kids are now grown but most of their childhood if not all of it she was very ill. She told parents on the forum that she was afraid that her kids would grow up to resent her. What she decided to do was home school her children. This effort took incredible strength and courage on her end. As they got older they told her how much they loved her and that they never resented her.
There is also nothing like a kiss or a hug from your child or having them cuddle next to you when you’re not feeling well. It’s truly healing. My son played a game with me. He would run into the bedroom and run under the covers and it’s as if he was waiting for me to find him.
Children are healing and beautiful angels sent from God and if you have a spouse please let them help you and also accept their love.
I will leave you with these few pointers that I found to be personally helpful:
Pray
Meditate
If you can move then do light workouts and have your family join you like yoga or stretches.
Do small activities with your kids like color, read a book to them OR they can read to you.
If you have older kids talk to them about their day and if they want to know how you are feeling tell them the truth. Teens want to know what’s going on and are helpful.
If you can’t attend school activities have someone record them, FB Live, Skype, etc.
Try to stay in a positive place mentally…you’re allowed to go to dark places at time (we are human) but don’t stay there.
Fellowship with other parents. Invite them over…they can be helpful.
Write in a journal (things you want to do with your family once you’re well, dreams and goals for your family).
Try to do some of your favorite things that don’t require a lot of energy (I know it’s hard…trust me). I couldn’t African dance for years but I would watch and get the energy. I couldn’t attend church so I would stream online.
I’m with you in this journey…love and light.
Photo by Tom Swinnen from Pexels
(This is part one of this article as I know some illnesses aren’t temporary and are terminal, stay tuned for part two in the future).
Blessings everyone, I hope all is well. Here is my second post on Lyme Disease Awareness Month which talks about prevention. Just a correction to my video, the infected ticks can pass on the bacteria Borrelia to a person that could cause Lyme Disease.
Not every person who is bitten by a tick will get Lyme Disease.
Take good care, be well and wishing each of you good health.
