When A-Z Lyme meets The Mighty

Over an year ago I became a contributor to THE MIGHTY, meaning they accepted to publish on their website some of my Lyme related articles. They offered me the exposure I needed to voice my story and raise more awareness for Lyme disease.

Thanks to them, some of my articles were featured on Yahoo and Huffington Post. I couldn’t have reached a wider audience on my own. In addition, they added a direct link to my A-ZLYME.COM on each of my stories that they published. That little link they added, helped me increase the traffic to my website and have it rank higher on the Google search, which made it more accessible to other people.

What did I get from joining The Mighty community? More than I could have ever asked for. I got an incredible exposure for my Lyme disease awareness campaign and a supportive community that helped me move forward with my struggles. They made me see that I was not alone. I also got a lovely t-shirt that I proudly wear. It’s the one in the photo below.

On The Mighty’s platform, I connected with contributors and readers. Some of them were touched by different illnesses while others were simply looking for answers. What they had in common was the need for support. The Migthy offered just that: a digital health community that aimed to empower and connect people struggling with health challenges and disabilities.

 

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Among the replies I got for my articles, I remember one from a Lyme-sufferer, a women from the states. She wrote to me, thanking me for voicing her cause and giving her hope for better days. Until that moment, I hadn’t fully grasped the impact my articles had on other Lyme sufferers, as I was more focused on preaching how to prevent Lyme or explaining others what it entailed to live with Lyme.

Her message made me understand that I needed it to open up and talk more about my personal experience with Lyme, which I did and continue to do. Otherwise how can one expect the rest of the world to know how it feels to live with an invisible illness, if he doesn’t talk about it? How can others know what he feels if he doesn’t share his struggle? Not everyone has the ability to read minds!

One year down the road and I still get asked why do I write for free about Lyme, or why do I refuse to put adds or monetize the website. My answer will always be the same: “Not everything is about the money!” When I created A-ZLYME I wanted it to address all possible questions related to Lyme, from A to Z, hence A-ZLYME.

It was designed to help those looking for information about Lyme disease and make their search easier by having all the data in one place. I know by experience it ain’t easy nor pleasant to spend long hours looking for information online while fighting brain fog and experiencing neurological symptoms of Lyme.

I might not have an answer for how to get rid of Lyme, but I learnt how to cope with it. I know that building mental strength helps the body perform at its peak which is key for living a happier life.

If you are struggling with a chronic illness or you have any health issues that you’d like to talk about with someone, you may want to have a look at THE MIGHTY and consider joining them.

EXPLAIN MY PAIN: LYME

A journey of pain and suffering

Being a Lyme sufferer prevented me from getting back to working full-time and made me jump through a lot of hoops. In a nutshell, I was one of the lucky ones who managed to see the light at the end of the tunnel, meaning that I managed to find a way to live a normal life after becoming a Lymie.

I won’t lie to you, this was a long journey with ups and downs and many dead ends. It was a journey that I did all alone cause most of my friends vanished on the way. I moved on and I learnt to enjoy my solitude. I saw it as in investment in my own person, not a waste of time for social formalities.

Throughout this journey I gained a lot of knowledge and I feel I grew like a person. Maybe I finally grew up?! I learnt about suffering, compassion, sharing and love. And I now see the slight differences among all of their levels. I learnt how to talk to myself and more precisely how to listen to myself. The most important thing was that I finally understood that the power to heal laid in me.

Self-pity and fear of loosing control

At a certain point the self-pity took control and I was unable to see the way out of this sickness. I experienced lots of episodes of anger, self-pity and frustration.

Suffering from a mysterious illness and experiecing a wide array of strange symptoms are more than enough to make one question his sanity. Especially when no doctor can offer a medical explanation for it! Not to mention when they imply everything is not real!

When my health went down the hill to the point where I needed assistance to walk or take care of myself, these were the most frightening moments in my life. Loosing my independence hurt even more than the physical pain. The day I had to accept I was no longer independent and I needed help was a crucial point in my journey. I was lucky that one of my friends insisted on moving in with me in order to help me.

I couldn’t even hold a coffee mug in my hand, or walk straight for 10 minutes without sitting down or feeling exhausted. Then the sleepless nights started – the pain levels were so high that I was falling asleep only when my body was exhausted by pain.

Since my health continued to deteriorate and none of the specialists I had seen couldn’t help me, I decided to take this issue into my hands. I felt I had no time left for fighting doctors, an incredibly stupid and unfriendly medical system or an insurance company who was treating me just like a number, insinuating I was faking my symptoms.

Lyme Disease awareness

Lyme is a serious threat for everyone. It is a shame that so many people have to suffer just because the doctors are not properly trained to diagnose it. It is hard to believe that a tick bite can do so much damage!

My story echoes the voices of many other Lyme sufferers who underwent the same experience of getting infected with Borrelia burgdorferi, one of the smartest bacterias on Earth, capable of evading the host’s immune system and spread throughout the body wracking havoc.

Thanks to the Internet, more and more people learn about it and discover that it exists in their countries as well!