How has Lyme disease affected your life? What inspires you?
About one month ago I was sitting in my college dorm, and I looked at my arm, seeing a tick literally go into my arm at 2 am, while I was cranking out some crazy studying for my World Civ. midterm. I panicked and called my friend to help me get it out of my forearm. 2 days after I went to my college’s wellness center for them to do testing regarding if I had gotten Lyme from the tick exposure. After the Lyme blood test it took me 4 days to get my results, and I had zero worries, considering that I had gotten the tick off within 2 minutes of it being on me.
My doctor at school delivered my results over the phone while I was at my on-campus job, she had told me that I tested negative for recently getting Lyme!!! Yay! I was happy, but that quickly changed. She took a 5 second long pause and continued that sentence with, “But the test also showed that you have had Lyme for months now instead”. And I was very confused. Essentially she explained to me that a recent contraction of Lyme would show in my blood from producing the antibody LGM, however mine was producing 5 different strains of LGG, which is the antibody produced after an old exposure to Lyme, (I’m sorry if any of this isn’t necessarily correct, I’m just now learning about these things). But of course this scared me to death. Considering that I’ve had many symptoms that I thought were just normal, everyday—they don’t matter—symptoms. I never pieced together that my constant problems could be Lyme. I have had migraines that last as long as 2 days, constantly tired, memory loss, joint pain, and simply just feeling constantly down.
I am trying my hardest to fight this, but it is so very scary. In terms of my schooling, it’s so hard to just remember things and study for exams. I’m in the library for upwards of 30 hours a week studying, I’m just trying so hard.
“However difficult life may seem, there is always something you can do and succeed at.” – Stephen Hawking
I’m inspired by my mom everyday, she inspires my drive to work so hard in school.