Relaxing

I'm currently reading Cure Unknown: Inside the Lyme Epidemic, by Pamela Weintraub. So is my dad, at my recommendation. This book simultaneously scares me to death and highly intrigues me.

My dad - who is almost done with it, while I'm only about half way through - says he doesn't think I should be reading it because it paints such a scary picture of Lyme. No, I said. Yes, it's scary. But it's also really interesting. I'll keep reading.

His advice not to continue on reading made me think. Hmmm.... I'm actually a whole lot more relaxed these days than I had been before Sweetie's diagnosis.

Before, I felt like a crazy, anxious person - sure that something was not right with my daughter, yet surrounded by medical professionals who assured me she was just fine.

Now, with her awesome new Lyme literate doctor, I've found someone who not only listened(s) to me right away, but immediately saw the pale, dark-eyed, not-quite-right look of Sweetie and knew from her gut what the tests she ordered would find - Sweetie is not rid of the Lyme we treated last summer.

Of course, that diagnosis of late stage Lyme is a tough one to hear. So much uncertainty lies ahead of us. Will she be able to kick it once and for all? While that may be doubtful, anything can happen. We at least now know for sure what we are dealing with, and are treating it correctly with a doctor who's observant enough to notice Sweetie's little improvements or steps backwards and brave enough to advise us on the proper steps to take to keep Sweetie moving forward as healthily as can be.

Sweetie's case, compared against the case stories I'm reading about in the book above, also gives me a little piece of mind. The cases in the book are just plain awful. Miserable, terrible stories of the extreme illnesses that can strike a person with Lyme down where they stand. And then I look at Sweetie. And she's doing pretty darn good. Her worst symptom - cyclical vomiting - is, in the grand scheme of things, a pretty manageable thing. So she throws up every once in awhile! We can handle that! Not to mention (knock on wood) that she hasn't even had this problem since February!

Her doctor tells me that Sweetie shouldn't at this point get any worse with her symptoms. Sure, she could relapse. Sure, a different symptom could crop up. But she shouldn't fall to any of the extreme situations I've been reading about. She's being treated now, appropriately, aggressively. She's eating a healthy, anti-inflammatory diet (no grains, no sugar). She's taking her antibiotics and her probiotics, spaced out appropriately so neither one cancels the other out. We are doing all great things to help her along. As I see it, she should only improve at this point. Maybe maintain? But, no - improvement is where we're headed now, I can feel it!

So, while we do in fact have our late stage Lyme diagnosis for Sweetie, and Lyme - "the great imitator" of diseases - is notorious for being a tricky thing to tackle - I'm happy to find myself much more at ease these days, knowing we have the right doctor behind us and realizing Sweetie, comparatively speaking, is, in fact, doing pretty darn great in spite of it all.

We will survive!