How I Wish This Great Country Of Mine Would Hear The Plea “It Does Exist” & “It’s Not All In My Head”

Today I spent time sharing with others the complexities of Lyme Disease.   I think it was a great success. I sit here and recall what someone said to me. This is a “health” fair. For someone that has been able to regain their health, it bothered me a bit and still continues to gnaw at me.

Later in the evening my husband made a comment, “he says last year you were so excited and you had all kinds of stories to share and this time not so much.” I guess I really didn’t think about it until after I had already gone to bed and was awakened by my pooch to let her out. As I lie there trying to fall back to sleep, the day played back through my mind over again.

I saw many of the same people I saw last year that just walked right by, but this year it seemed that of those that walked by more of them stopped to share their stories of friends and family that have been so severely in pain or sick some for months and even years. How some were in wheelchairs, others had heart problems or that underwent surgery only for their problems to continue to escalate and then later was diagnosed with several of the tick-borne diseases including Lyme. I even heard a success story from a man that participated in the Stony Brook experiment that has been well ever since. Yet, this feeling continues. I finally placed a finger on what I was feeling—melancholy.

Last year, during the health fair I was still undergoing treatment for Babesia and had already regained half my hearing back. Although I looked great, as I was often told, it took every ounce of strength and determination to stand there sharing what I had learned with others so that they and their loved ones would have to experience the same thing as I did.

This year, however, I was completely well, I felt strong and have not had any symptoms or discomfort for nine months. Is it guilt? I don’t think so. But I still replay each story that I heard over and over in my head. Will the plight of those that have been abandoned by the medical community ever be heard? Will those that “look great” but feel absolutely awful day in and day out for years ever be helped? What is it going to take to have those “one size fits all” guidelines changed so that those that continue to suffer be able to receive the correct treatment they so deserve? Are those doctors that had provided treatment to those continue to be harassed despite good solid evidence that longer treatment according to each person’s needs is successful or at least alleviates many of their symptoms?

I honestly don’t know, but I feel that it is necessary for me to continue to do what I can to help those that are not directly involved to know about the two standards of care for Lyme Disease. To know that even though there is a large majority of people that aren’t so drastically affected by Lyme Disease that still leaves thousands and thousands of people that aren’t able to receive appropriate care. It leaves these hundred s of thousands still enduring tremendous amounts of pain each and every day.

I was listening to a song by Aaron Tippin, Where Stars and Stripes and Eagles Fly, which overwhelmed me because I am privileged to live in a great country. It offers us so much, but yet there are so many out there that this beautiful country has left behind (that is, in more ways than one). But I still love this great country of mine. Even if it is seems to be in a state of shambles and chaos at this point in time and is not perfect by any means. I know in this wonderful country of mine, there is kindness and greatness. But, how I wish this great country of mine would open their hearts to listen to the plea of those that still cry.  “It does exist” and “it’s not all in my head.”

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