There But Not There

My caregiver took this video of me after vaso vagal syncope hit – pulse went down into the low 50’s (edit: my caregiver informed me the day after I posted this that it went lower, into the 40’s) everything went blurry slowly and then started to swim in front of my eyes.

The next thing I knew I was “waking up” on the couch with the CG’s voice calling me back from wherever I went. In the past I would go out for 60 seconds or maybe 90 seconds.. but the CG said this one lasted about 10 minutes until I was back and talking to her. Quietly talking; it was hard to push my voice up to audible tones.

Now I’m back in bed. Each limb feels like it weighs several thousand pounds. I can communicate but more by text than by speaking.

May is Lyme Awareness Month. It’s Spring and ticks are coming out of the brush, climbing the grass and are dangling their legs, questing for a mammal or lizard to come by so it can climb aboard and have a meal.

This hasn’t been a problem for many centuries as this is a way that nature culls the human herd. But after Borrelia was studied and used as a bio weapon with no regard for the overall consequences, problematic cases have popped up.

Then there was the discovery of “Lyme disease” in the 1970’s — but that is from Borrelia burgdorferi, one of the 3 hundreds of types of Borrelia known to us.

Besides Borrelia there is Bartonella, Babesia, Ehrlichia, Anaplasma, Mycoplasma, Rikettsia, Tularemia, etc etc etc

(This is why I’ve defaulted to “BorreliaEtc” even when Borrelia is such a small part of the problem.)

So what gets to my brain and shuts everything down? Wish I knew. I can tell you it’s scary. Quite sobering to see the recording of me there, but not there.

Saturday 4 May our family will be out by the ‘Welcome to Purdy!’ sign, and we welcome anyone who wants to join, or even stop by for a little bit!

Why do we do this year after year?

Tick numbers aren’t decreasing, in fact in recent years we’ve seen significant increases. Disease reports have increased as well. More people are seeking support through this battlefield of illness.

So we come out to remind you to be prepared.

Many species of ticks live here in the Pacific Northwest; each type carries their own risk of different infections.

Be prepared even in your own front and back yards. We are seeing the effects of climate change on ticks – it’s good news for them, bad for us. Ticks are being found further north than ever before. Temperatures don’t go low enough during the winter, any more, for them to seek shelter, they love the mild winters we are having.

The numbers of disease are rising at an alarming rate, yet “Lyme” is still used as a punchline in sitcoms.

The narrative around Vector-Borne Diseases needs to change. So we rally. We talk with people. We share what wisdom we can.

You can show your support! Do you have a shirt or pants that have the color lime green in them? If so, PLEASE wear them this month! You are showing support to a community that is millions strong and worldwide. It will be much appreciated.

You are welcome to pull into the parking lot to say hello, tell us your story and/or ask us any questions.

If you can’t leave your car, please show your support for your neighbors and WAVE or HONK your horns — we’ll be at the Spit from 2-4p.

This year we are donating Tick Ease tools to our Fire Department, our free clinic, our veterinarian, the local nursery, and a professor who teaches nursing students… if we can think of anyone else we will try and provide for them the best tick removal tool we have so far. http://www.tickease.com

We want our community to be as safe as possible and not go through what we do.

For every picture and video that I have of me walking Saathee, playing with her, training, etc… it costs me. It costs mental and physical energy that leaves me exhausted after.

I wouldn’t wish this experience on anyone.