Thoughts on my 11 Year Lyme Anniversary

11 years ago this week I contracted Lyme disease.  I was 15 years old, energetic, happy, looking forward to college, and planning to be a missionary to Thailand.  I traveled a lot that summer and never found the tick bite, so it’s unclear when exactly I was bit.  It was most likely at my high school summer camp, given the woodsy nature of the camp.

I came down with a flu-like illness with bad body aches.  But unlike the flu, the pain didn’t go away.  Instead it grew stronger and more symptoms sparked up over the next 5 years before I was diagnosed.  I became more and more sick as the bacteria was spread unchecked to every bodily system.  By the time I finally was diagnosed with Lyme disease, I had colorful spots and large white opaque shapes in my blurred vision.  I had night terrors, anxiety, and sleep paralysis…