Skip to main content

Lessons from Lyme

May is #lymediseaseawareness Awareness Month, and I just wanted to take a minute to say thanks, Lyme, for literally changing my life. Lyme is horrible and painful and terrifying and I would have never volunteered for the physical symptoms I have experienced, but it’s forced me to reevaluate so much and given me a priceless education on many subjects...

Health: health doesn’t just happen and shouldn’t be taken for granted. Health is not as simple as if A, then B, it’s complicated and takes unraveling and digging. I am responsible for my health from small daily choices like diet and toxin load to larger ones like choosing to follow a doctor’s recommendations or not and researching and asking questions when things don’t sound right.

Compassion: I had no idea how hurtful casual, dismissive remarks could be until I was told that I wasn’t that sick, it couldn’t hurt that bad, and I was probably just faking it to get what I wanted. Now I know that remarks like that can leave you scarred for a long, long time. I’m learning to consider the weight my words carry.

Mental health: Pre-Lyme I would have said, “What’s that?” I thought depression and anxiety were byproducts of wimpy attitudes... until I experienced them both. Once you have experienced panic attacks where you can’t breathe and you’ve felt so hopeless you’ve considered trying to die, you realize that there’s more to it than just “getting over it” and “praying about it.”

God: When all I could do was lie in the couch in pain, Lyme is what brought me to Christ for real and to understand that the gospel was a message of grace found in Christ’s already finished work, not a list of demands I had to meet. Lyme is also the cause of many tears and a lot of “why God” and “how long oh Lord.” But I’m learning that’s ok, God can handle my questions and my pain.

Priorities: I'm learning to say “no” to things when I’m overdone without feeling guilty. I’m learning to choose wisely where to put my limited energy. I’m learning to slow down and notice the small things. I’m learning to get real clear on what’s important to me and put those things on the calendar first.

There’s plenty of posts and info out there in the destructiveness of Lyme- it’s oh so very real- and I would encourage you to read up a little on it and TAKE TICKS SERIOUSLY! But instead of adding to the doom and gloom noise I just want to encourage especially those of us in the trenches dealing with it on the daily that it’s not wasted, and God uses it even when we’re mad and sad and super over it (which full transparency, I have been lately 🙄). The end.

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

More Funnies.

To continue the "laugh at Moriah" post from like 2011... I went to DC with my college roomie this last summer. We were taking the train in and coming back after dark, and I reasoned that taking my pocket knife (read: 4 inch blade) was a logical step. Museum security checkpoints, however didn't line up with my reasoning. I was told to "get rid of it" if I wanted to come in. So, for the next 4 museums we visited, we took a stroll through the bushes before and after to hide and retrieve my knife. At the end of the day, we headed home. With the knife. Take that, Smithsonian security. Every fall, our school does the TP Game (yeah, my school is awesome). First game of the season, and when we score the first basket, we incur a technical foul by throwing rolls of [clean] toilet paper on the court. Well, the students living off campus usually help themselves to a few rolls of school provided game TP for their houses. We lived off campus, but instead of walking out w...
Post a Comment
Read more

Check Yo' Facts, People

The number of Christians spewing Rachel Scott's father's speech after Columbine all over Facebook and via email is unbelieveable. Sure, it applies to the Newton shooting, but guess what??! Contrary to popular opinion, IT'S NOT ABOUT THE NEWTON SHOOTING. He made that speech after the Colombine shooting in 1999. (Link above takes you to the house.gov record of the speech) Christians, please check your facts before you present heresay as truth! I remember one time in high school everybody was passing around a chain email that said Mars was the closest to earth it would ever be, and to go look at the stars on a particular night to see it. Well, without checking our facts, we went with some friends to the observatory at the local university to view the sights. When we asked about Mars, the professor was like, "uhh, did you get an email?? Because Mars is as far away from earth as possible right now..." It pays to do your homework, people. Did we believe any of the ...
Post a Comment
Read more

The Still, Small Voice

Like any good human, I'm waiting for the earthquake that determines my next move in life. I'm waiting for the hurricane, or the volcano, or the atomic bomb. Something obvious that will tell me what to do. You're not being faithful in the little things. I was driving down the road on my way to work, whining to God about why I had to be doing this, why I couldn't move somewhere new, do something new, try something exciting. Then came the still small voice. You're not being faithful in the little things. And it was gone. It wasn't the flowery message we so often pass around of God has great things for you, just wait, it will come, it will be better than you could imagine... It was you're not being faithful . Ouch. Words never sting so much as when you know, no question, they're true. The time I waste. The half-hearted job I do on certain tasks. The avoiding of certain people. The fact I'm sitting here flipping between Facebook and ty...
Post a Comment
Read more