Lyme Disease- New Mother; Recent Car Accident

Most of the stories that I have seen on here seem to be written by professionals. I hope it's not uncommon to hear stories straight from the source, but I desperately need help.

I was bitten by a tick almost 4 years ago when I was 17. I got the classical flu-like symptoms, but I just thought it was caused by the giant "spider bite" on my leg at the time. Turns out, this classic bulls-eye mark is a symptoms of having contracted Lyme Disease. From that point on up until now is almost a blur. My life constantly seems to be a haze of difficulty concentrating.. all the time. I wouldn't know where to begin with the timeline of pain that Lyme Disease has caused me. I have not been able to get any help whatsoever with this pain. All I know is that it has been getting worse since the beginning.

Soon after I had gotten bit, I finally became convinced that I had Lyme Disease after an extensive amount of research. Especially since the bulls-eye mark is a symptom of contracting it (although one won't always get this mark if they have contracted it, but when you do, then one knows for sure why it is there- Lyme Disease). I made an appointment with a Lyme Disease specialist 2 hours away, which was quite expensive, and my mother had to pay for it. All I remember from that visit was waiting so long in the doctor/patient room, and when he finally came in, he talked to me for a few minutes, said something about me being too young, and left. My mom and I were shocked.

Feeling quite depressed on what to do after that, since my symptoms of nerve pain, neurological difficulties, body twitches, muscle spasms, joint pain, abnormal bodily sensations seemed to be taken very lightly by General Practitioners. I have not been to one doctor, other than a more recent Lyme Disease specialist, who believed that I have Lyme Disease.

Here's the problem. The standard test for Lyme Disease is almost useless. Don't let any doctor or online article tell you otherwise. There are many people trying to make this known. Doctor's are extremely uneducated about Lyme Disease. I have been doing years of research and watching seminar's from highly educated and respected professionals, so I could have some inkling of what's going on inside of my body that makes me constantly feel the way I do. This is not the life I want to live! Everything costs money, and I won't be capable of getting better without it. I have finally turned here for help. So many people are suffering from Lyme Disease (some know it and some don't), that can't get help because the standard test they took came out negative. I have had at least 4 of the standard Lyme Disease tests come out negative. But what do you know? I sent a sample to a DNA lab testing facility (top rated in the country), and it came back not only positive for Lyme Disease, but 3 other co-infections as well. This was approximately 3.5 years after being bit. On that note, the CDC doesn't believe (or say they don't) Chronic Lyme Disease exists. There are very obvious reasons why (once one does their research).

My motivation to make sure I get better is my newborn son. He is almost 6 months old now. He is my joy in the saddest hour, my light in the darkest days, my motivation when I think I have nothing left to give. Before I had my little one, I would get so depressed that I would just give up and not care where life was going to take me. I had been so accustom to having Lyme Disease, that I let it define me, and consume me.

I'm making a stand against my disease and desperately want to start controlling it, instead of the other way around. There are treatments. They just aren't recognized by General Practitioners, insurance companies, or the CDC. It just requires me to start seeing my Lyme Specialist again to continue the treatment plan we were starting. My mom has helped more than I would publically say, but she deserves to be paid back for everything she's given to me and helped me with through all of this. I have so many medical bills that I still need to pay.

On top of all of this, I was in a rollover accident in February '17. The roads were wet from just having sprinkled that morning, and I was going around a curve on a back road when my tires lost traction. I collided into a truck and blacked out. It was a brand new truck and my insurance will only cover a very small amount of replacing it. I fractured part of my spine and have an immense amount of pain still. Lyme Disease makes pain that is already there from something else, so very much worse. It can be absolutely unbearable sometimes, but I don't feel comfortable going into the details of my pain. The point is that I suffer from it constantly, and all I want is to be able to hold my son whenever I want to, or make dinner for my fiancé, or do the dishes, or take the dog on a walk when I please, or lay on the couch, or sit for longer than 5 minutes, and same with walking.o

If you donate, you would be helping me help my family. Thank you so much for caring enough to even read my story, even if you are unable to donate. The more awareness raised about this disease, the better!

I set the goal at this particular random amount because I have no idea what the future holds with what I described above.. I just know that all these things are effecting my family and making it very hard for us to get by. I'm especially very limited with Lyme Disease. I don't want to be. I have so much will inside of me that has nowhere to exert because of my physical limitations, and I can't let them define my future.