Taking a Paige from Lyme Disease

Many might not know but I spent my junior year of high school in Wilton, Connecticut. It was a total game changer for this island girl. Saw my first snow fall, had to stop speaking pidgin, had to wear pants and shoes. Was a great year; I made some amazing friends that I still hold close to me today. One of the things I had to become super aware of was deer ticks and Lyme Disease.

In Hawaii our dogs always had ticks but in Connecticut the ticks were sometimes the size of a freckle and carried one hell of a punch. I remember my aunt freaking out because she found a tick on my cousin and they had to save the tick and send it out for testing. I remember a friend had to get an IV put in her arm and once a day she clutched a ball of medicine as it hooked into her IV. I remember being scared. The worst thing you caught in Hawaii was sings from Portuguese man-o-war or catching Leptospirosis from swimming in some stagnate water.  For my friends living with Lyme Disease a tick bite turned into lifetime of medications, treatments, therapy and struggles.

But what is Lyme Disease? It’s a bacteria. It can be cured with early detection but for a long time doctors kind of ignored it as a valid illness. It mirrors so many minor things like the flu or a cold or even allergies. It starts with a rash from the tick bite, fever, headache, fatigue. These symptoms are easily overlooked and ignored and the longer the proper diagnosis stalls the more it takes over. Your joints, heart, central nervous system. After months of not being treated the symptoms become chronic and severe it can cause widespread pain and numbness throughout the body, paraparesis, chronic fatigue, arthritis, inflammation of the brain and spinal cord, and a myriad of other symptoms that make everyday life not only a challenge but some days impossible.

There’s a vaccine out now and there’s antibiotics but for those diagnosed late. For some where the disease has found it’s home inside their bodies the treatments seem endless, expensive and exhausting. Lyme Disease grips tightly. It grips tightly and it spreads. People with Chronic Lyme Disease can pass it onto their children.

I’m writing about Lyme Disease not because I have it, not because it was a passing thought about my past but because I have friends. Yes, I know, it’s hard to believe. I have a lot of friends diagnosed too late who are suffering through the effects of Chronic Lyme Disease.  It breaks my heart to see them strain. To know they are getting IVs put in, needle pokes daily, to hear the fatigue in their lives.

I have one friend in particular whose strength astounds me. Her name is Paige. She has 2 beautiful children and her diagnosis of Lyme Disease was give years too late. She has good days and bad days. She has gone through a divorce and raises her two kids lovingly.  Paige’s struggles are constant and her worry, pain and hardships are real. There is no option of giving up for her.  Living with her disease, fighting through her divorce she has gotten hit with another shattering blow. Both of her two wonderful children also have Lyme Disease. It took a lot of time and effort for her to get her children tested and diagnosed. Paige is a beautiful, strong, independent woman. Me saying it doesn’t make it true but me knowing her since 11^th grade, watching her daily exertions of being a single mom with Lyme Disease and still being a drop dead gorgeous, smart woman is just awe inspiring.

Paige has been through a lot and she’s only 29. I’m writing this as a call, as a hope,as a voice that my friends and family who read this might take the time to understand this disease and help a very brave woman. The treatment to help her is a staggering amount of money. If you can find it in your hearts and souls please take the time to give this mother some much needed relief. Please visit and donate on this site. 

Help Paige

This is Paige with her beautiful Children Sienna and Caleb.

HER Life

It was when her perceived world shifted that she began to understand. Life was not about money or love or her dogs. Life was about breathing and putting her feet in front of her. Recognizing that they are her feet and they’re weird and unique and hers. Worlds shift and crumble and shake and fall apart. Worlds are formed and melted in a day. They’re fluid. She was fluid. She had to be willing to feel the tides, taste the wind, see the obstacles and smell the decay. Everything was temporary except for her will, which carried her out the door.

She dragged her feet. She dreaded her steps. Slow but willing her feet met the ground one step at a time. Her life was not what she wanted but it was the life she made. No one had a life exactly like hers. In many people’s eyes, she was a failure. She knew this. It was an accepted fact.  Living with the fact didn’t make it any easier but she continued down the path she made. Her low pay, working several jobs and still not making ends meet. People saw her degrees, her hard work, as trash. That’s okay. She used it as temporary fuel. Burned her papers to keep her warm for the hour, for that one job interview, for that one moment. People suggested changes, other career paths. They suggested she read books and follow what their sister’s daughter’s cousin did who now makes such a substantial amount of money more than her. She smiled, said “Thank You.” Moved on, moved away. Maybe her life isn’t measured in dollars and cents. Maybe it’s not measured in children or careers. It’s not measured in coffee spoons and sawdust restaurant with oyster shells.

Her life is measured in cooking meals, not elaborate meals, not fancy meals but meals made with her heart for people who appreciate it. Her life is measured in hikes and long walks with her dogs and kindred spirits. Measured in laughs and smiles and singing.  Measured in conversations and debates. It’s measure in kisses and hugs and feelings and ideas and expressions. Her life is her own. Her world is being torn down and rebuilt daily.  She takes the pieces of her world and tries to reconfigure them. Daily. To see if there is another way. Out.