*Originally published 8/28/19*
Hello everyone!
I’m back. It’s been a crazy few months so I thought I’d give everyone an update on what’s been going on in the life of Cass.
For those of you that don’t know, I have been living with Chronic Lyme disease—and multiple other tick-borne diseases—for over seven years now. My illnesses have caused my life to be turned upside down, inside out, diagonal and any other direction you can imagine.
The one good direction my illness led me in was finding Dr. Nancy Fox and working for the Lyme Education Awareness Foundation, or LEAF. Last summer, Nancy and I embarked on our first Lyme Education Tour where we educated about 1,500 children in 8 states. Well, this summer, we went a little wild—in a good way! Nancy and I traveled over 11,000 miles, in 16 states, at 50 locations, and educated 4,000 children on Lyme prevention and awareness.
These past few months have been so amazing! I got to see some new magical places (I want to move to Stowe, VT) and met some amazing kiddos all while doing what I love—stopping others from getting this truly life altering disease.
This tour was also really eye-opening for me. I saw first-hand the lack of education that is out there when it comes to teaching our children about the dangers of ticks and tick-borne illnesses. We would be in highly tick-infested areas, yet these kids didn’t know the basic ways to protect themselves.
Children make up approximately 25% of all Lyme cases. So next year when they estimate 2,000,000 people will be contracting Lyme disease annually in the U.S., 500,000 of them will be children. That number makes me sick. 500,000 kids not able to play with their friends because their bodies hurt too much. 500,000 kids falling behind in school because they literally can’t stay awake to go to school. 500,000 kids who will lose their childhood to this horrifying disease.
Witnessing this really added fuel to my already burning desire to spread Lyme awareness. When people hear “Lyme disease” they normally think it’s just Lyme disease and that people will be “cured” in no time. They don’t realize that it can cause paralysis, or leave people wheelchair bound. They don’t realize that it can cause families to go bankrupt trying to find life-saving treatment. They don’t realize that Lyme disease can kill.
My goal is, and has been from the beginning, to shine light on the truth behind life with Lyme disease - the good, the bad and the very, very ugly. The world needs to become more educated and aware of all the horrors that come with ticks, and we all need to know how to protect ourselves. Education is our best defense and I am so honored and proud to be part of The LEAF Program and work to save children’s lives, one lesson at a time.
The summer tour ended last week, and now I am about to embark on what will ~hopefully~ be my last semester at Montgomery College, and I will receive my Associates Degree in December. I will also be nannying my nephew and brand new niece (see photos below) as well as dj’ing twice a week. This is all pretty big considering where I was a couple of years ago!
I had been doing Chinese medicine since last August and felt a lot better, however, in May, I started noticing I was plateauing and stopped treatment in June to focus on some GI issues. How many 21 year olds have had the honor of having an endoscopy and colonoscopy during their summer break?
I also started an even stricter dietary regimen of no gluten, dairy, sugar, fruits, potatoes, honey and limited grains but I have since noticed problems with grains so they are now gone too. When people hear my diet they often make comments like “I would die without ___”, but it honestly doesn’t bother me. I learned the hard way that there is no magical easy cure to this disease and I have to do everything in my power to get healthy. So if that means I can’t eat pizza, or a milkshake or apples with peanut butter (my favorite snack) then so be it.
The only supplements I am presently taking are turmeric for joint pain and inflammation, melatonin to sleep and my medical marijuana for insomnia and paralysis, as well. If you recall, I went months without paralysis, but in March it started again—not nearly as bad as before though. I get paralyzed once every few weeks now, if that. It’s been almost a month since the last episode so fingers crossed everybody!
I have my own regimen now. I go into my infrared sauna a few times a week and exercise daily. I also drink 2 cups of IASO Tea daily to help with GI issues (seriously this tea changed my life) and my turmeric detox tea every night. Sweating is the key to me staying at the OK point I am at right now. And I am OK right now—not 100% but not horrible either. I still get fatigued, my hands and chin will shake, I get heart palpitations, I have trouble concentrating and joint pain—but it’s livable at this moment.
This summer was the first time, since I was 14, that I felt like I was actually living my life and I really liked that feeling. So here’s to hoping that things keep moving forward and upward this semester.
I promise I will be updating more frequently, and make sure to check out the Lyme Education Tour on social media to see what I did this summer!
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