Welcome to life with Chronic Lyme disease!
This photo is the absolutely smallest insight into what it’s like to live with an illness with no cure or one route treatment, but what you can’t see in this photo:
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– The endless hours/days/weeks of research 💻
– The phone calls to the doctors, the tears of frustration when they can’t help
– The blood tests, the follow ups, the confusion when everything seems to come back *okay*
– The fact you can’t get tested properly for Lyme in the U.K
– The ridiculous amount of money spent on supplements/herbs/medications/tests/consultations
– Home test kits for all the vital things the local doctors refuse to test, followed by monitoring your own levels, adjusting medications when they don’t come back okay even though you have no idea what you’re really doing as you’re 100% on your own 👩🏽🔬
– The unrelenting 24/7 symptoms: fatigue, migraines, pain, sensitivity to light and noise (these will vary from person to person as no two people have the exact same symptoms – confusing? Welcome to our world!)
– All the science books, research papers, and forums read
– The folders, spreadsheets, and documents created to keep track of symptoms and medication changes 💉
– The heartbreak and frustration when yet another treatment doesn’t work
– The incredibly complex timetable of what to take when, making sure that all the 50 different supplements/herbs/meds you’re taking don’t counteract with each other, trying to fit in all their individual requirements (take in morning, take on empty stomach…) 🗓
– The dietary regimes, the amount of effort it takes to get to sleep each night, the rest, pacing, meditation, healing practises, visualisations
– The balance of trying not to always think about your illness and find a life outside of its walls even though you live with it 24/7
– The sadness that comes with realising that living with Chronic Lyme disease is a full-time job
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If reading all of this feels overwhelming, then you may be feeling a teensy amount of what we all feel! This is our world and it never stops xx
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#lymediseaseawareness
#chronicillnessawareness
(Originally posted on @mindfullyevie Instagram and Facebook)