All these years, I assumed I’d sidestepped the worst of it. It’s been 25 years since I first contracted Lyme disease, and I told myself I was one of the lucky ones. But maybe not so much.
Years ago, I was at a trade conference for insurance fraud and a bunch of claims examiners were laughing about how they deny coverage for chronic Lyme. (Assholes.) I mentioned that I’d had it, and was never treated. They got quiet; one of them finally said, “That’s not good. You’re probably going to have problems with your heart later.”
Not me, I thought.
Well, now I’m very short of breath, all the time. Even sitting down. The cardiologist who tested me said my heart was “fine.” I feel like I’m going crazy, that no one understands that I feel like an 85-year-old. “You need to lose weight,” my primary care doctor says. “Yes, I do, but that’s not the problem,” I tell him. “I can hardly walk across the room. This can’t be normal.”
I’ve turned into a hermit, because it’s so exhausting to go anywhere.
I finally talked to someone who’d also had untreated Lyme, and she said, “Oh yeah, that sounds just like me. It’s Lyme carditis. I was so bad, I had to get around on a scooter. You need to get this test.” (It’s $400, and naturally insurance doesn’t cover it.)
If you’ve been reading here for a while, you know how much I hate taking antibiotics. The thought of IV antibiotics sounds like a nightmare. But I’m going to see what I can do to get diagnosed, and possibly feel normal again.
I understand your fears, but really, if you’re correct in your diagnosis, we’re talking about radical improvement in your quality of life. As someone who passed the half-century mark some time back, we can use all of that we can get. Fuck I’ll chip in for the test, just let me know when.
The hardest part is finding someone who will order the test.