Alexandra’s Lyme Disease Treatment

Recently, my youngest sister Alexandra got diagnosed with chronic Lyme disease. The symptoms from this disease include chronic pain, nerve pain, joint pain, muscle pain, chronic fatigue, weakness, headaches, cognitive dysfunction, memory problems, depression, and anxiety, as well as various alternative medical diagnoses—most commonly neurologic and rheumatologic diseases. Due to this illness she has been forced to take a break from her studies at SUNY Cortland. She has always been an excellent student, but this disease has caused her to not be able to continue going to college. She needs treatment which can cost upwards of $75,000. I got treated about a year and a half ago. Now my sister has to be treated as well. Alexandra is pursuing a degree in foreign relations, took many AP classes in high school, was on the school council, is a very talented artist, was on the track team, and was voted “most school spirit” her senior yearly high school. She also enjoys playing the piano, practicing makeup, and running. Alexandra always jumps at any opportunity to help others, be there for people, and make people laugh. She is such an amazing young woman who is always willing to go the extra mile for people. It saddens me that she has to go through this, but I hope that once she gets the treatment she needs she will be happy as she makes those around her. Once Alexandra is treated she will be able to continue pursuing her college degree in foreign relations, and get her life back.  As some of you know, this disease has made a huge impact on my life. I want to share a little bit about my journey with Lyme disease and treatment. I think it’s important that people become more educated on this debilitating disease, especially if you live in the northeast where it is more prevalent! By educating ourselves and acknowledging this as a real disease hopefully more patients can get treated sooner rather than later. It took me almost 6 years to get a proper diagnosis. Many doctors told me I was fine or that they could not find anything wrong, despite my chronic pain. Many years without treatment went by and I just kept getting worse. This was a huge challenge for me because I was in my freshman year of college. My memory got worse, I was so fatigued that I could not get out of bed in the morning, I had a great deal of body aches and pain that made it very hard to sit through class, I avoided traveling because I could not sit for longer than thirty minutes without the burning in my back and down my legs to start, I had terrible brain fog which would make me forget words all of the time so it would take me awhile to have a normal conversation with anyone, and so on. After finishing my freshman year of college I had no choice but to take a year off of school to get treatment. I had to get a port-a-cath out in my chest for my IV antibiotic that I would have to get twice a day with the IV. I also took one other antibiotic. On the less traditional side of my treatment I took multiple herbs and probiotics everyday to make up for the good bacteria that the antibiotics were killing and to help with other things that the antibiotics couldn’t. Without the herbs and supplements I would have gotten intestinal issues and most likely other problems since I had been on antibiotics for six months. I was surprised how much my treatment plan had helped me. I am extremely grateful I have someone in my life who was able to help me and show me the benefits of other types of medicine as well. Without both types of medicine I would not be where I am today and I would probably not be able to go back to school. I’m grateful that I got over this and got treated, and I now I have my life back. I hope the same for my sister