When life gives you Lyme

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Hello, I am 22 years old and have been sick for over 9 years with mysterious symptoms. Last year I got tested for Lyme Disease and it came back positive. So, I finally have a diagnosis: chronic, or late stage, Lyme Disease.

I am a “missionary kid” – I grew up in Papua New Guinea from the time I was born, and it was a wonderful experience! It was during one of our furlough years in the States when I was 14 that my symptoms first became really noticeable. Over the next 8 years I was seen by a number of doctors and specialists, but no one could find what was wrong with me. Meanwhile, I kept getting worse and worse.

Last March (2013) my health went into a serious crisis and I had to drop out of Bible School for the second time. My parents rushed back from the mission field to help care for me. I got the Lyme diagnosis in June and started treatments right away.

My parents have taken on Stateside ministries with our mission so they can be here with me and support me. I have been unable to work, so they are paying for my medical expenses out of their meager income, which is the support sent to them by friends and churches.

Insurance doesn’t cover any of the treatments, so we have to pay for it all out of our own pockets. My treatments cost twice as much as my parents’ monthly income, and they have now used up all their savings and retirement funds. I want to finish getting all the treatments that I need so that I can get well, but we don’t know how we’re going to be able to continue without the finances to pay for it.

I have improved a lot since I began treatment, but it is a very slow process because of the difficulty my body has in trying to detox. I have at least 3 more months to go, but we will be reevaluating at that time based what kind of progress I’ve made.

When life gives you Lyme, you need to