Cheryl's Story

WELCOME

I moved to Connecticut in 1990. I had 4 dogs,10 acres and a pond, plus a lot of trails to walk on, which my dogs and I did daily. In 1993 my 20 year old daughter, whose baby was 3 months old, was diagnosed with leukemia. I became overwhelmed with her care, the baby's care, and the worry, so when I became so tired and sick feeling a lot, we attributed it to all of that.

My daughter lost her fight in August, 1994. I became constantly ill, with fever, headaches and constant aches. Then I started getting sinus infections and my doctor said that I had low immunity and that I would have to build my immune system up. I went and got every vitamin imaginable, spent a lot of money on books, organic foods, read magazines, kept a journal of what I ate, and tried walking 2-3 miles per day. While walking, I was crying because the pain in my knee was awful but my (used to be other half) kept telling me that I just wanted attention; no pain no gain etc. I began to become very depressed and found myself avoiding people.

My MD was also of this belief and put me on prozac; well that didnt take away the pain. My husband left to go out west and be the cowboy that he always wanted to be and I moved to an apartment in the city. One day I had to call my neighbor down to help me get out of bed; I could only crawl and cry. Well my neighbor took me to my doctor and he was very puzzled.

I asked him about Lyme disease and he told me that all of the antibiotics that I had been on for all of the sinus infections, would have done the Lyme bug in and my test would show negative. I told him to humor me,so he sent me to the lab and a couple of days later he called me at work to tell me that my test was positive. He went on about a titer and stuff that I didn't listen to; all I heard was that YES THERE IS A REASON THAT I AM SO SICK!!!!!!!!!

So comes the Doxycyline; nothing, other than now the headache is worse and I am crawling. I missed so much work that I stopped getting paid -- I have a job with the state of Connecticut, and they couldn't let me go or they would have. I went to my doctor and told him that I couldn't go on like this, so he put me on IV Rocephine for one month. I was then told that I was all cured and to get back into shape. I had gained 40 lbs. and during this time my husband divorced me.

I moved to Massachusetts with my son and his wife and their two small children. I now have an hour drive each way to work. I since have been sent to other doctors who say I have fibromyalgia; NOT LYME DISEASE. I can go for about a month of feeling better, then wham, I get the headache, aches and limp, and get very depressed, and have a very hard time sleeping.

I felt as if I had found a goldmine when I read about Pat in Family Circle and sent her an E-Mail, and she sent so much information to me. I am still very frightened about the memory part; am I ever going to be able to take care of myself? Is anyone going to really understand me? I am 52 and always have been an optimistic person, but I'm not anymore.

Cheryl

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