AJ's Adventures in Lymes Disease (Get to know the Blogger)

This exact page of Blog posts has mentioned the ailments I have gone through in the past 2 years. I think now is a good time to expand and elaborate on what exactly I, as a person am being put through every day. You will read my story and learn all about Lymes Disease. I hope in some small way the point of today's post can be to raise awareness for those who are affected by this horrific crippling life-altering disease. Hearing anyone's story is enough to feel lots of empathy, but I wanted the main topic that involves what encompasses most of my life in these recent years, and what is the most critical aspect. Right now it's the disease I'm fighting with every day. It is my demon, and I have to slay it, and I want you to be as informed about this kind of hardship, and how it affects people.

By explaining my journey it gives people a look into the enigma that is the elusive Lymes Disease. Before I go into my Journey I would like to mention that you should absolutely look into Lymes disease through Facebook or through online searches because there is an entire community out there under so much distress, and it's so hard to find relief from constant physical and mental trauma. Send your support if you feel like investigating.

My Journey begins in November 2018. I wake up and I begin having facial recognition issues. My friends all have distorted faces. In the next week, I start having, what I didn't know at the time, panic attacks. I didn't know this because I had never had anxiety up to this point. After a few weeks of turmoil in a few areas. We managed to book meetings with doctors at the Mayo Clinic in Florida. Long story short the doctors found no such issue with me, and at this point, I felt the worst I had ever had. I could barely sit still around strangers and eventually started conducting myself day to day with crippling anxiety. After a tooth infection. I engaged in Anti-Biotics, After being affected we finally realize that Lymes disease was the cause of our issue. We were Diagnosed with Lyme Disease by Doctor Daniel Cameron in April 2019. In August of 2019, after oral antibiotic therapy, we went to the path of something called a Pick Line. Basically, a portable IV where a doctor replaces a patch monthly covering a hole in my arm where a wire is inserted. I was prevented from swimming and I was mailed injections and it actually was able to combat my symptoms, which I'll get into at the end, but while I was doing this Pick Line Therapy I moved away from Highpoint and began school locally, it was a hard decision but being hundreds of miles from home was and still is an almost impossible task. When 2020 began I had a huge setback and I was bedridden for 2 months straight and missed a local school semester. Finally, in 2020 and the era of coronavirus my PickLine was removed with little to show for having it in my arm. I began Online classes to mark a half return to High Point University, and before that, in April 2020, we began something known as BVT (Bee Venom Therapy) It's a brutal method of intentionally stinging oneself with Bees, and using their venom to restore broken cells within my neck and back, which is where a lot of the damage done by Lymes is centralized. It is painful, but we've seen a slight improvement. 

It is so hard to track how well I feel, but I based it on a percentage. I used to feel 100% like myself. From January 2019- April 2019 I was at 0% not feeling like the person I knew myself to be. After the Pickline, I was able to achieve 70% and was actually enjoying more of life. Then I huge setback put me at 40%. After all, is said and done I am operating at 50% of the person I know that used to be. It's a major interpersonal crisis that makes every waking moment a Hardship. My symptoms are so personal and some indescribable, but the way I live consists of a lot of anguish. We are working day and night and I'm putting myself through crazy physical pain, but I'm still fighting. I want to live out the rest of my life, but I don't know what that means or how that looks. Right now I want to complete school successfully which is extremely hard, but I'm putting in as much effort as possible. But oftentimes it's hard to know which way is up. People with Lymes disease go through physical torment. Mine is mental. It's all ambiguous and half the medical community doesn't consider it a valid disease. Hence why I wasn't helped at the Mayo Clinic in Florida. However, the people that care about me and I realize that it is one of the worst things to happen to someone. For the record, it has ruined my life, and I'm still looking for a breakthrough. It's hard to say I'm optimistic, but I think the point I'd like to make overall is that I'd like you to spread Awareness of Lymes Disease. I implore you to discover things like Pick Lines and Bee Venom Therapy if you aren't aware of them. Doctor Daniel Cameron has a great website and Instagram page. I'll put links to his site and show some pictures. In the meantime wish me luck, I'm gonna need it.

Pickline

 

https://danielcameronmd.com/