Lyme Life Monday – Hope or Dismay

I read a good number of articles and testimonies about Lyme. Some people discount the veracity of research showing Lyme as a culprit for symptoms: many akin to Alzheimer’s type dementia and MS symptoms, which is what sent me to doctors back in the ‘80s. For so many Lyme is a roller coaster. You don’t know from one minute to the next, if you’ll encounter hope or dismay.

Doctor, Doctor

Back then, I saw dozens of doctors. I landed at the head of neurology at Brigham and Woman’s who told me that there was something wrong with me, but he didn’t know what. I was sent home with a quasi-diagnosis of chronic fatigue syndrome. Which I would consider a cluster of symptoms and not a proper disease in and of itself.

So, for at least 28 years, I managed my symptoms with very limited help from doctors. Most of the doctors in that first year said I was stressed. I told them that they would be stressed too, if they couldn’t work.

In July of 2015, I saw a neurologist who was knowledgeable about Lyme. He spent almost an hour with me explaining how treatment would go. Then, when the MRI came back with brain lesions, their office called and told me that he didn’t treat Lyme patients and he didn’t want any “hard cases.”

I’m a hard case. Most neglected Lyme sufferers are. Too many people go undiagnosed for years and years. The standard test is very unreliable, if they get tested at all. Better tests can be had, but most mainstream doctors don’t know about them or don’t believe any more than what their medical books from school taught them.

Lyme doctors are as close as you can get to the free market system in medicine. Most don’t take insurance. Many people call them alternative. That makes their job hard, but even more importantly it makes care expensive and hard to come by. If they keep a medical dispensary, stocked with supplements and medications, for their patients, their overhead is even higher. They have to charge big bucks.

Tell Me the News

The other issue that impacts our decision ability to choose hope over dismay is how we’ve built our lives and support systems. Illness and financial strain are no match for strong caring relationships.

If we have been kind and generous, thoughtful and maintained good boundaries, we are better able to hope and keep hope alive. People will always be more important than things, achievements, or positions.

I often talk about the eternal hope that is in Christ. I don’t think that is always enough for us to have hope for today or tomorrow here on earth. We need to have hope to make it through each day; hope that the pain and fatigue will not overwhelm us; hope that we can accomplish something, anything to build our self-confidence; and hope that we may be able to resume more activities of daily living.

Reassurances from doctors and the people around us that this is temporary or at least that we can adapt to the new normal are essential. Usually, this comes from sowing and reaping. When we have sown encouragement and grace and so we reap encouragement and grace. If we have not, there is no better time to start than right now.

Bad Case of the Blues

Dismay happens. It comes when we try to float, effortlessly allowing the circumstances to dictate how we feel. Keeping hope alive takes real effort.

It is an intentional mindset. We must remember to think thoughts that align with hope. We must catch thoughts that are destructive, toxic, or aggravating and speak thoughts that are pure, lovely, of good report, and that encourage. They need not be our own thoughts, but we choose them. We choose to live life more abundantly from the inside out.

I hope you choose well, My Friends. Hope or dismay happen to all of us. May you be able to hold onto hope more often than not.