The Golden Ticket

The bar was loud.  The red wine was heavenly. The company was unbeatable. The 'cards against humanity' were widely inappropriate.  And I felt like me. I have longed for evenings like these, and my lil heart is just so darn grateful to have them back.

Since proclaiming myself: in remission, my entire focus has been on finding a job.  And getting back to drinking red wine.  After all, my tolerance isn't going to build itself back up.  Work.  Due to my switch in priorities I have neglected Lyme for a while.  I needed a break.  Being sick so easily consumes ones life and focus.  And it was fantastic to simply not think about Lyme for a while.

I used to bike to work, to dinner, to bars, to brunch.  I loved biking.  I loved not dealing with traffic.  I loved not paying for parking or the metro.  I love biking to a bar in heels.  Swag.  Then Lyme snatched that joy away from me.  But recently I had a wonderful opportunity to get back on the bike.  A guy named John and his team of bandits are biking across America to raise awareness and morale concerning Lyme.  So I dusted off my helmet.  Layered up and hopped right back onto my bike.

4 minutes later I hopped off my bike.  Got in the back of the bandit's RV as they drove my out of shape ass up a hill.  They edited that part out of the video, yet still a pretty rocken video.

I ended up biking a total of 15 miles!  It was bitterly cold and with each pedal the burning in my throat escalated. They were slow miles.  The guys were able to text and catch up on facebook as I was hoofing to keep up.  But they were magical miles.  I had felt like my body had failed me when I got sick.  But as I biked I was simply grateful for what my body could again accomplish.  No, it wasn't what I could do pre-Lyme, but thats life.  Shit happens and you have to adjust.

There are over 300 different strands of Lyme. Which translates to - just because something works for me it in no way means that that treatment will work for you.  I hated that when I was sick.  Why couldn't someone just tell me what to do to get better?  But we are individuals who need individualized treatment plans.

I have found my Golden Ticket.  My ticket consisted of a whole hosts of items, which can be found on the treatment page. Even though I am much better, I am not 'back'.  My body was put through the ringer and it will take time for me to get back to where I was - aka being able to have some whiskey.  Sometimes being sick can beat you down.  I had plenty of those days.  But I won the war.

One epic battle I won - I negotiated with doctors before I ever saw them or paid them any type of money.  You common folk with normal disease may not be hip to this.  Not all doctors would treat me.  I realized that shit early on and refused to go to a doctor without up front knowing they were going to recognize my disease and not act like this was all in my head.  More commonly known as being an arrogant douche bag.  Technically speaking.  I also negotiated with my Lyme doctor.  I said I would only try different treatments for a maximum of 6 weeks and if there weren't results I wanted a new treatment plan.  I emphasized that unless he agreed to that I would not need his services.

You should see me at a flea market.

The symptoms and the pain could all come back.  Possibly due to stress.  Possibly due to over exertion. But my hope is that since I have that 'Golden Ticket' I won't go through the countless months and agony of not knowing what will make me better.  Even if the ticket needs to be upgraded I now have a strategy that works for me.