The WILD Life

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I was an active, happy, healthy, working wildlife biologsit...wife and mom of two young children until almost overnight I fell apart with health issues. I had spent my career and recreational life in the woods. Years of unexplained issues...sudden onset gastrointestinal issues, insomnia, nightwaking diarhea, fatigue, anxiety, weightloss. I was told it was stress and depression...I went doctor to doctor to doctor...test after test, surgery after surgery. It was nearly 8 years before I had a confirmed diagnosis for Lyme and co-infections. At the time of diagnosis I had 24 hour a day nausea, couldn't eat, all over body pain and abdominal attacks that would regularly send me to the ER and then hospitalization. I had unrelenting headaches, extreme fatigue, migrating nerve and muscle pain, cognitive dysfunction, rashes, stabbing let eye pain, headaches, insominia....just to name a few. I was no longer driving...taking a shower was sometimes my daily accomplishment. I had to fight for 3 years to even get a doctor to sign off on testing me for Lyme. I was told that "Lyme doesn't exist in Colorado"..."that it would be highly unlikely", "tests are unreliable" and "treatment was controversial"...never mind that I was born and raised on the East coast...traveled to endemic areas for both work and recreation..spent my childhood in the the woods camping, hiking, riding horses...and that I spent my entire career working in the outdoors as a wildlife biologist and wildland firefighter. In 2013 I was finally diagnosed and began treatment. It was at this time that I knew the rest of my family was ill...we had been putting out spot fires since my son was 6 months old. Both children and my husband also tested positive for Lyme and multiple co-infections. It was the worst day of my life. To think that my family was permitted to suffer due to pure ignorance of these diseases is maddening...We are all getting better with treatment...but, the fight is still a daily battle.