002 Aaron & Sarah share their Lyme story!

From the creators of Lyme Voice and Disappearing from Society comes a brilliantly simple idea, but this time it comes as a book. Imagine a world in which birds can talk like people. You'll get a bird's-eye view of life with Lyme disease as one bird family must unite to overcome the obstacles of life with Lyme disease. Guaranteed to make you laugh and cry. Written in a way that helps you articulate the losses you are experiencing as a household while simultaneously empowering you to keep fighting. Little Bite, Big Trouble is available today at Amazon.com.

Congratulations, Lyme Fighter! Today you had the courage to open your eyes and face another day. Welcome to Lyme Voice. We're your hosts, Aaron and Sarah Satchis. This show's purpose is to help you put the puzzle pieces of Lyme into place. Each episode is designed to inspire, to educate, and to encourage you on your Lyme journey to wellness. Together we will fight, together we will heal, and together Hey you people!

Thanks so much for tuning in to part 2 of our story! We're gonna jump right in with today's episode, the second half of our journey!

So we're going back, we're at 2000, we've painted the picture up to 2012 and 2013. So right, so So this is the, this is, this is the point in fall of 2012.

This is where I'm waiting for herniated disc surgery. I'm, I've applied for disability. I'm literally not able to keep up with the house. Like, I remember telling Aaron we had a two-story house, I wanted to sell it and move into a tiny little place because I couldn't keep up with it. And, um, we could, we couldn't afford help anymore.

Yeah, you had long passed keeping up.

Oh yeah.

I mean, you hadn't done cleaning by this point. You had, it was, it was really on my shoulders to clean and your mom's shoulders to clean.

Yeah, and my family would come over consistently. My mom and my sisters would come over and start folding laundry or clean or sweep. But what happened during this period is that was no longer enough. Like, even though my family was helping, um, nothing— everything was falling through the cracks. It literally looked like a bomb of toys and clothes exploded because I could not physically make myself. I had pushed myself all those years, just get up, you know, be a mom, be engaged, make the most of it. And I couldn't push myself anymore. Like there was just nothing left. And something very, very key for me started to happen psychologically. I, I felt like I was dying. I felt like the people around me really didn't understand how sick I was. But I also remember, like, literally beginning, I didn't see my personality anymore. Like, when I thought of who I was, all I saw was, like, the disease. And, like, I just felt dark and broken. And there was nothing left. All I saw— I didn't see myself. I just saw darkness and death and decay. And that, that's, that's a scary spot to be at when you have 5 kids because you're starting, you know, to really figure out how to leave them in the best possible situation, which is awful.

Yeah, numbingly scary. Yeah, I remember at this point, at these points too, I quit functioning as well. In a sense. I mean, obviously I was still going, still getting kids.

Yeah, and at this—

yeah, you feeding children, feeding, you know, make— taking care of their needs. But there was no— I was so scared, I— there was no room for proactive.

Yeah, we were just surviving, and that was like barely, barely functioning. And I'd already gone gluten-free, and that helped for a little bit. So we had done everything we knew to do up until— tried different diets, tried every medication Um, I would—

yeah, drawers.

As I began to have more and more neurological issues, they were kind of toying with the diagnosis of MS, and they— I was on a couple different MS medications. And so really what really began being triggered by the herniated disc was just like the beginning of the very end, because, um, I remember going into my doctor and saying, look, like, I can't walk, I can't go to events, I can't do anything. Like, I have to— you have to give me a wheelchair. And I remember her saying You're too young for a wheelchair. If you get in a wheelchair, you're never gonna get out. And I'm thinking, I remember looking at her like, of course I'm too young for—

stupid.

That's the problem with this whole thing is I'm 35 years old. I shouldn't be needing a wheelchair, and yet I can't physically walk from the car to the parking lot anymore, or from, you know, from the parking lot into a building. And so if I wanted to be involved in anything and take my kids to the theater or do anything, I needed, I needed a wheelchair. But really, I went downhill so fast in 2013 that I went from, okay, I need a wheelchair, to, okay, I can no longer get out of bed and go to the bathroom. Um, and so in 2013, like I said, I just, there was nothing left. And I began to think, oh my gosh, I waited too long to like write my kids letters. And I just knew, I just knew something I couldn't I literally couldn't even lift up my hand to get a drink of water anymore. Like, everything was just too much. And right March of 2013, I remember about 3 days passed where I would just push myself every morning. Okay, get the kids dressed and on the bus because they've all— they're all in school now. Get the kids dressed and on the bus, and then I can lay down and rest till they get home. And I was just getting to the point where I couldn't even get them, um, I remember them leaving and for a 3-day period, I literally didn't go downstairs to eat because I didn't— I couldn't— I couldn't walk downstairs to go get an apple. And I would tell myself, obviously I'm so used to taking pills, you have to have food in your stomach, so you have to eat breakfast and you have to eat protein right away in the morning to function. And I couldn't do it. And I remember thinking, oh my gosh, I'm dying. This is what happens, like, when you can no longer eat and you can no longer drink. And even if I did eat, I was throwing up so much because I just— my body was just shutting down. I couldn't keep anything in, and it was just so excruciating. But just thinking like, okay, and here's the thing, when that 3-day period happened and I began to really understand, okay, this is the end, I'm dying, I was so relieved. I was so relieved because it had just been so excruciating for way too long. And I was sad that I was leaving my kids, but like, honestly, I couldn't take care of them. They needed someone. They needed, they needed a parent and I couldn't do that.

And it's, this is so hard even for me to hear now because the first time we've talked about this. This, obviously, but it's so hard for me to know this now, to hear this now, because I was there. I was, I was working from home at this time because we could— I could not leave the house any longer. You were not fit to be alone by yourself. The kids weren't— yeah, I mean, you were more work than the kids at this point. So yeah, I was not leaving the house, and I don't understand how that happened. Where you went 3 days without eating. I was there. I was caring for you. I was constantly in the room. What can I do for you? Yeah, I, I really don't.

But, and I remember telling, like, I remember telling him, I think I need to like check into a clinic for exhaustion. Like, I had heard some famous person had done that, and I'm thinking, oh man, check me into a clinic for exhaustion? I've been exhausted for the last decade. Like, And I remember you saying like, for what? And I'm like, I don't know, I don't know why I need to go into a hospital, but I can't, I can't get up anymore, I can't do this. And yeah, that— it was, it was really interesting because even though I really did feel like, okay, this is the end, like that literally opened the door. From that point I sent out a couple emails to some medical people that we knew, and I just said, this is where we're at, like, what do we do? And at this point, I was having seizures. I was starting to black out.

They were so painful too.

Oh yeah, my muscles were literally from my toes all the way up to my chest were like cringing. They like were turning hard as rocks, and it was this like diabetic seizure that literally would hold me captive and stretch every muscle for, you know, anywhere from 2 minutes to 10 minutes, and I could feel them coming.

Um, and then those seizures would cause you to black out?

Yeah, I was blacking out for 10-15 minutes.

Um, like, like one time I caught— you had a seizure at the computer, your finger on the keyboard, and you fell out of the chair, and I caught you before you hit the ground. Because you were just frozen. Another time that happened in the bathtub where the bathtub overflowed.

Oh yeah, that was horrendous. I— because, you know, again, we don't know what we're dealing with. And so I'm having all these sensitivities. Like, for years I didn't understand when I got in the shower and I had a hot shower that the Lyme was reacting to the heat. So any extreme temperature, hot or cold, would send me into spasms or different symptoms. And so I— and I never hadn't slept. It had been a solid 10 years. I hardly ever slept. I was awake constantly. Um, it was just excruciating. You're—

yeah, she would take 2 or 3 of those pink— or not painkillers, the—

oh yeah, I had been on a ton of different sleep meds, almost never slept. But one night, because I couldn't regulate my body temperature at this point, and so I was just freezing cold, and I'd fallen asleep without my with just like a sheet on. So when I woke up, I was freezing cold, like, like when you're running a fever and you just are chilled to the bone. So I had my phone and I put it on the side of the tub, and I actually left the door open because just in case something happened, because I was so fragile at that point. And it was like 3 in the morning, and I turned the water on. I'm taking a bath at a big garden tub and ended up having a seizure, and I was completely frozen. And by the time I came to, It had probably been about 10 or 15 minutes because I had flooded the entire upstairs of our house, like my bathroom, our closet, and water was running down into the living room. And it was just— I couldn't even— I couldn't even call for help because at that point, like, those spasms had worked themselves up to my jaw.

So you were awake and watching the water overflow, or you were kind of out?

No, I blacked out. I remember it starting, and then I blacked out. And when I woke up you know, I had flooded the whole upstairs. And finally I was able to call to you because I couldn't even get out of the tub then.

And I came in and he was just going from one mess.

It was just like we were putting out fires. I would throw up and he'd come clean it up, and then I'm having a seizure and I'm knocking stuff over. And it, it was a nightmare.

I remember one night when— oh my, but it was something crazy. Like, there was a kid throwing up, so I remember that night. I took the Shop-Vac from your room, cleaned up whatever mess— throw up, blood, urine, who knows what was happening in there— went to the next room, which was a baby or, or one of the kids, the bathroom, unclogged a toilet and throw up all over.

Yeah, that was awful.

That was an awful night, but it was like 6 hours long where I was literally up to my elbows in feces. And stomach bile. Oh my gosh.

Yeah. And we didn't— I remember, like, I had been saying for a long time, this isn't working, I can't do this, like, this— something has to change, like, I need to go to a hospital or something.

Yeah, it was getting scary. Like, the kids couldn't— it was getting to the point where the kids shouldn't be seeing you like that anymore because it was literally your last days.

Oh yeah. And that was the thing, like, even though I had been sick, I always had my door open to the kids, like That was one of the few things I could do. So they'd come and sit and watch TV, and I'd scratch their backs or color with them or whatever. I did not— I really tried to never shut my door. And when I started having seizures and I was having all this lockjaw and stuff, I had to shut my door because I didn't want the kids.

We didn't know what at the time, but Lyme rage— you were struggling. Well, I mean, you're sick, you feel bad, you're not a happy person. But there is also a thing which we haven't talked about yet is Lyme rage. Lyme rage is a common symptom for Lyme's patients where their neurological damage is actually causing un— um, unnecessary anger. Is that a proper way?

Yeah, I mean, I don't, I don't know if unnecessary is right because that's— I mean, yeah, that's that fight or flight of like, okay, we're dying, what needs to change in order to sustain life? And I mean, it had been so many years.

Lyme rage is a little bit maybe not the right word. I'm not sure what the right word is, but it's a panic, and you react extremely in panic.

Yeah, and but that's when you should react. When you're dying, you— yeah, hopefully if your body is telling you, hey, something's really going on. So really, 2012 and just in the beginning of 2013 were just this whirlwind of just like one tragedy after the other. Like something with me was always happening medically. It was always— I went to 2 or 3 appointments week, and I literally was just living from one appointment to the next hoping they could figure something out. Um, but in—

and financially, so during— financially, we're also suffering extreme by this point because we have no insurance at this point.

Yeah, we're paying out of pocket for a ton of stuff, and we're in—

we're not making good decisions financially, etc., because we have no other choice because we're literally in the ER trying to make sure that she stays alive.

Yeah, and at this point I'm going in and out of ERs trying to get somebody to listen to me because— and I've—

bills are getting missed.

Oh yeah, we're just literally falling apart. Like, we're keeping the kids alive, but I remember, like, for some reason you weren't around. There was different periods where he didn't always work from home, and I remember that I had to go pick up Nathan because he had like an after-school something. And I remember, and I'll share it on my blog, um, eventually, but I literally didn't think I could get— they had made this walk into the office to pick your kid up. And I'm thinking, oh my God, I cannot drive over there and walk into the office. And so, so I'm driving home and this was the— all of a sudden the, the school is less than a mile from our house and I cannot figure out how to get home. And I have Nate with me and I literally am driving. I've never driven drunk, but I'm pretty sure that's what it was like because I could not stay on the road, couldn't really remember where I was going. And I remember being in tears because I thought I should not be driving. But who do I call? What do I say? Hi, I'm a— I'm an adult and I can't find my way home. Like, how do you— I feel like so— I had said so much, I felt like, you know, I didn't want to overburden people, but I also talked. Like, anyone who knew me knew I was suffering. That, that was not a secret. But when you come to these places where you're like, oh man, I don't know if I can take care of my kids anymore, there's no book that you can read that says, here's how to tell your family you can no longer care for the kids you have. Like, it's these atrocious situations.

They're unthinkable. They're unfathomable, especially for us. We, we never Work. We never struggle with that.

Yeah, we've embraced responsibilities. We didn't shy away from them.

We were the go-to people.

We were.

I mean, if you wanted, like, in church for instance, if an event was happening, there's a few people you call to get your help because you know they'll help. We were those people that were always on the list of who you call, always around, always participating, always contributing and enjoying it.

But then, yeah, you get to that point where it— everything just is taking from you and you have nothing left to give. So you can't, you can't be a part of things. You— but this period, so many families out there listening are in this period of you don't have a diagnosis, but you're at that point where you've made all these modifications to your life to accommodate the sick person, and yet it's still not enough. And so for us, it was like in June that finally one of the physicians that I had seen through a friend, um, sat me down in her office and she said— because I'm going to her, I have videotape of the seizures I'm having, and I'll also put those on the blog— and, um, you know, just this horrendous stuff. And the neurologists are basically saying, hey, come check back with us in 6 months, we don't know what's wrong with you, might be MS. But just offering no— I mean, I knew I was panicked, I was having seizures, I was blacking out. I couldn't, my jaw was locked 24/7. I couldn't, I could barely eat. And yet, and yet you're still there trying to figure it out by yourself. And you're not, you're not in your right mind. You don't have the resources you once had because the disease just like sucks everything.

Yeah, it's merciless. It is the, I can think of other evil. I mean, it is, it is the closest representation of evil. It acts without mercy, it acts without remorse, it takes all, it destroys your family, it destroys your marriage, it destroys your relationships, it destroys your family, it takes everything. Thankfully, we found out, and now we're here to We stopped the loss. We struggle more than we've ever struggled every single day, but we've stopped the loss. We are at a low functioning position, but we stopped the loss and we're starting to gain back. We're starting to take back the loss. It's possible. Be encouraged. You don't have to be in this spot. We're going to keep bringing resources. We're going to keep bringing ideas. We are going to help you through your Lyme journey. Where you don't have to stay where you're at. If you know people that are— that sound familiar to our story, tell them about us. Please encourage them. If maybe it's not Lyme's, maybe it's something else, but encourage them to keep fighting. Encourage them to keep pursuing, to not let go, not give up, not to give up on their relationships, not to give up on their family, not to give up on their marriage. You cannot battle this on your own. You need outside help.

Yeah, and unfortunately for people who have been sick for those a decade or two decades, um, there's very— there— I, I know for me, I just felt like I hadn't been a friend in so many years. I still have friendships, but I was— I wasn't able to contribute anything. And so it wasn't that I lost relationships, it was that I didn't have the physical strength to be a part of them anymore because I was literally using every ounce of energy to stay 5, and you just become irrelevant. And I think that— and yet even I was even so mentally confused that even if somebody wanted to bring me a meal, it was hard for me to say, oh yeah, sure. Like, I was just at this point, and I'm— I couldn't, um, implement anything. I couldn't organize my thoughts in a way.

Yeah, I mean, it really was— we were such in a desperate spot, and we were struggling so hard And it was so desperate that when an extended hand was reached out there, we didn't know how to grab a hold of it.

Yeah, I think one thing that I would want other families in this position to just understand is like, that person may not be capable of it. Like, they were just— I'm a pretty decisive person, but during this period I couldn't articulate. I was losing my vocabulary. I was struggling to speak. I wasn't in a place where I could make some of those decisions and implement things. And So until other people took on those tasks and a friend of mine said, I'll put together a meal plan for you so that people can just sign up online. Like, you need a support team to come alongside you and for different people to handle different tasks. Because I'm at the point now where I'm taking care of myself and the kids and I work part-time, but it's taken that full, like, 18 months of just constant— that has been our whole world. Is getting to a place of healing and strength. And so, but for us, I got— I was fortunate enough to see a doctor who said, this looks like Lyme disease. But when I started treating you, you were presented— you presented with a car accident that you couldn't recover from. And so she said, this looks like Lyme. Did you ever get a bite? And I was like, no, I've never, you know, I've never been around ticks or anything. And except for one time I got bit by a spider when I was in high school. And basically we end up Google Imaging bullseye rash.

This is the first time you've ever—

which was the—

yeah, you've never seen a bullseye rash up until this point?

Yeah, I had no idea that my bullseye rash was a bullseye rash. And so as I said, no, it was this huge thing and it was oozing and pussing, it was disgusting. We ended up pulling it up on Google Image and for the first time I'm like, oh yeah, that's my bite. And sure enough, like, it's Lyme disease. It's the only time in all of nature that you're gonna get that bullseye rash is when you have Lyme. And so even after that point though, my, my first test came back negative even though I knew I had it, right?

Well, and we didn't— this, this bite happened 15 years ago. No one ever photographed it or documented it.

No, that was before Google Images existed.

And you never were seen by a doctor at that point, so there was no evidence.

Yeah, I didn't have a picture, but as soon as I saw on Google, we have no concrete evidence that we have Lyme at this point, right?

According to our medical system.

According to the medical system, I had no proof. Yeah.

Okay.

So at this point, I am— I am no longer able to even just be home by myself. Like, my mom had basically come over every morning to help make sure I got food, because then we went to my parents, even though they knew so much of that, what was going on, and they had been such a help to us all these years.

Yeah, it was bad. Like, if I had to leave for a couple hours, I had to have two sets of babysitters, one for you and one for the, the kids, right?

Because my mom was taking care of me and the kids, and even a couple of times she left me at home for like a half hour while she went to go pick a kid up, and I couldn't cope. Like, I literally was so shaky and so fragile, I, I needed help getting to the bathroom. I needed— I couldn't eat anything. So I had read a book called the Gerson Therapy, and, um, I'd wanted to implement it, but just just didn't feel like we could afford it, didn't feel like I had the, the physical strength. So when, you know, we told my parents, which they were aware what was going on, but still they were in the same boat, like, okay, what do we do? And but Aaron and I remember having this conversation because we had built a workshop at the— in the back of our house that he was working out of. And I remember going out there and basically saying, like, this is not working. We can no longer take care of ourselves and the kids. Like, is that, is that the point we're at? And I remember just thinking, I can't believe we have to start telling people that we can't take care of our own kids anymore. But it, but it, that's what it was. We weren't, we weren't meeting their needs. We couldn't take care of them. And that day that I went to go get Nathan and I felt like I was drunk driving, I remember because there was literally nothing clean to wear. Like, I hadn't done laundry, he hadn't done laundry because of all the chaos. And I literally like picked up jeans that were so filthy and old, like I had never worn filthy clothes. And I remember it didn't matter. I was wearing— I was filthy, my sheets were filthy, and I'm laying there on this— on our bed. And I literally am at the point where I can't even like put my head on the pillow, and I'm just crying, you know, constantly crying. Because I know that like my days are numbered, and yet we're still having all these weird conversations about trying to explain to people why some days I can walk and some days I can't. It gets very confusing because people within our group and in our church are like, we didn't know that it was this bad. And I'm like, yeah.

And, and actually, and not to be too critical of them, but oh, it wasn't being critical. Yeah, no, and I know I'm about to be I'm not trying to be, but we never told any of them that we were better. Everybody assumes, right, time you get better. So we got sick a couple months, they didn't see us for a while. A couple months go by. Oh, she's got to be better by now. How's it going? Oh, it's dying here. What? I thought you guys were doing okay. And we're like, uh, why? We never called you and told you that. But it's— and then, and I realize now it wasn't intentional. It was more of a— it are normal, normal people.

Normal people get better. Yeah, normal people don't stay sick for a decade. Normal people. So yeah, it, it's incomprehensible to people that— okay, and then obviously we don't go to church, you know, we don't see people at church, and you know, so you run into someone that you haven't seen in 3 or 4 months and they don't realize that that's the first day you've been able to get out of bed and you happen to run into Walmart because you have to.

And it's funny, even to this day, even to this day, after we have had conversations upon conversations, especially with some of our family members, where they, they forget and they come to us and they're like, oh, you're still dealing with that? And I understand where they're coming from, but at the same time, I'm like, uh, yeah. So I mean This is still happening. It's not over. And this is one of the reasons we wanted to get our story out there, is that so hopefully healthy people are listening to this podcast who have someone that they love with Lyme and they're trying to understand. So if you, if you are that person, keep checking in until you're not going to hear they're better.

Yeah, and that's the thing, like, we're— I mean, I'm so much better than I have been. I'm not in pain for the first time in years and years, so my quality of life is vastly improved. Improved, but I am not better. But I am nowhere near—

I, I think I said it earlier, we have to go— what we have to do, go through every day just to survive is way more than, yeah, we ever imagined we would be in.

Yeah. And we'll talk more about like home protocols and daily protocols that people do. As soon as you know that you have Lyme, you realize very quickly that there's not— for most people, there's not this simple solution of just taking 2 or 3 weeks of antibiotics and moving on with your life. Like for me, even now, I have about a 3-hour routine every day that I have to do to take care of myself. And that comes before everything. And, and it has to be that way in order for me to keep getting better.

What would you say, so, your level of productivity is, like if you put a percentage, are you running at 50%, 60% of normal healthy you?

Yeah, I, I don't know. I feel like it's probably around 50%. Of what I'm able to do, about 50% of what I would like to do.

And is that going up or is it going down? Are you—

No, it's still going up. You're gaining. But the thing is, is I don't have the stamina that I once did, so I have to be very intentional about each and everything that I do. I can only do a few events per day, so if I have a meeting or different things, I have to be very, very scheduled. And then I also have to schedule about 2 to 3 chunks of time to rest each week. So Aaron works from home on Wednesdays. He lets me sleep in on Wednesdays. I usually sleep in Saturday and Sunday, so I have the strength to get the kids on the bus and that whole routine. So I have a lot of responsibilities. I still do work part-time from home. Um, but there's a lot that I can't do. Like if the fridge gets disgusting, um, I can't necessarily just say, oh, I'm gonna take an hour and clean the fridge on this day. I literally have to schedule it in because if I do that, if I do something like that that requires stamina, there are other things in that day that I can't do. And, and I'm doing better, but it's very slow. You have to be very intentional. And, um, so even going back to what I talked about, the Gerson therapy, that I had read a book that talked about chronic illnesses and chronic fatigue and just getting a really healthy, um, basically restarting everything and just, okay, if I come up with a diagnosis other than fibromyalgia or chronic fatigue, which is what I had, um, the Gerson therapy, they offered a clinic where you could go in and do coffee enemas and juicing. And there's all these stories of people who are getting their lives back. So my mom, I think it was like in June of 2013, came over every day and started juicing for me. Helping me to do coffee enemas. And really, we were just— it was— I felt like it was this last-ditch effort. And we also started emailing all the people that we knew who had medical experience saying, where do we go from here? Right? Like, we've got to get out of the state. There's no— there's really— I don't see people getting better quickly because I was at a place I couldn't go through 2 or 3 years of antibiotics. I did not have 2 or 3 years left.

Left.

I needed a quick, a quick cure. And yeah, because there was just nothing left. If I had gotten a diagnosis sooner, it maybe wouldn't have been that extreme, but that was where we were at. So it's just a very confusing time. It's confusing. You're exhausted. Your resources are gone depending on how long you've been sick. I mean, we had just spent— by the time we figured out that I had Lyme, we had spent a fortune for years. Everything we had had gone into just keeping me functioning or just keeping me up, surviving as a family of 7. Yeah. And when you're the mom and you can't do stuff, you can't drive your kids places, you know, we had used to do sports and love sports, and we had to give up that part of our life because I couldn't even trust my body to be able to drive them to a practice. And But yeah, you're— I think your friends and your family, they do assume that you're gonna get better and you just don't. But, but as a society, I think we don't really know how to help people who are continually sick. And I think the whole American pull yourself up by the bootstraps, you know, get in, get it done, make your own destiny, you know, a lot of that You know, you internalize and you just think, okay, I'm just doing something wrong. So yeah, understanding the tests, even understanding that, you know, I know a lot of people are out there who know that they have Lyme and they're having a hard time finding adequate treatment. And that is, you know, part of why we want to do the podcast, just because there are so many going out to Shea Medical in Arizona. And they were great. I went through an 8-week treatment program and I've come back and continued to do better year after, month after month. I'm continuing to gain back strength and continuing to get my legs back. And they just were huge for me. And I've had other friends who have gone out there since, and they've, you know, been very, very helpful to people. But there's also doctors who will talk to you over Skype, and there's doctors who don't require you to do inpatient visits. So there's so many options that we'll continue to talk about.

Yeah, bring them to— and we're not done. I— we, we are gaining, but I— we still have a long fight ahead of us. So, uh, we're excited to hear, uh, of new treatments. Uh, we're excited to bring them. We're excited, excited to discover them. So, I mean, if you have ideas, if you have contact us. You can find me at aaronlsanchez@gmail.com, sarah@lionvoice.com.

And yeah, if you have a treatment, you know, we will have specific shows that get into more treatment stuff. Um, we've got different authors and, um, there's just a ton of information out there. And maybe you're not at a point where you can kind of articulate and develop a plan, but there are people and resources out there to help you develop a plan. Um, yeah, and we've seen, you know, we've seen people heal from Lyme, but the big part is just really getting to that point where you know what you're fighting. I feel like with Lyme, you can't— when you don't have a diagnosis, you can't run from it, but you can't confront it either, right? And I think there's so much delay in that sense. Like, if you know what you're dealing with, you can confront it or try to run from it. But if you don't, I mean, that's the mystery. And that's even why we're doing the puzzle piece on the front of the podcast, because it, it is, it's a, it's a mystery. And each person's— I have a dear friend who just found out she had Lyme, and her, you know, what she's doing is very different than the protocol I did. But yet there's success in both protocols. And I think each person really has to understand that for them to really succeed— and I hope I'm gonna succeed long term, we don't know what the future will hold, but we're also totally committed to doing everything possible. If I have to juice every day and do coffee enemas every day for the rest of my life to stay out of pain, I will do it because I don't ever, ever want to go back to the suffering and the hopelessness of just being trapped. In your, you know, you feel trapped in your own body.

Yeah. Together we will fight. Together we're gonna heal. I forgot the rest of that.

And together we're gonna live.

This is our first attempt at our story. In a nutshell, in a nutshell, I'm sure we're going to expand more and more on these topics and go into a lot more detail. We're so excited to have you with us. We're so excited to hear from you. Yeah, there's a lot of voices. We need to collect our voices, collect our knowledge together, and together we're gonna— we're going to fight. We're going to heal from this nasty, destructive disease. We can only do it with support from each other and from those that love us.

Yeah, so thank you for joining us. Rate us on iTunes.

Yeah, rate us on iTunes, please. We're just starting out. We're starting to learn this whole business, but, um, um, we need this word to get out. So rate us on iTunes, suggest us if you feel led to post us on your Facebook. We'll have that kind of stuff. We need people to find this out so nobody else has to have the same mistakes that we've had and that you've had. We want people to avoid these mistakes. Get the word out.

Disease is contrary to life. Therefore, wherever disease exists, life must also fight to exist.

Good job fighting, Lyme fighters. Keep it up. We'll see you next time. LymeVoice contains general information about medical conditions and treatments. The information is not advice and should not be treated as such.. Okay, Lincoln? Okay. The medical information on LionVoice is provided as is without any representations, warranties, expressed or implied.

Okay?

Okay. LionVoice makes no representations or warranties in relation to the medical information on this podcast. You must not rely on the information on this podcast as an alternative to medical advice from your doctor or other professional healthcare provider. If you have any specific questions about your medical matter, you should consult your doctor or other professional healthcare provider. And for you, you consult your parents. Okay? Okay. If you think you may be suffering from any medical condition, you should seek immediate medical attention. You should never delay seeking medical advice, disregard medical advice, or discontinue medical treatment because of information on this podcast. Got it, Lincoln?

Got it!

From the creators of Lyme Voice and Disappearing from Society comes a brilliantly simple idea, but this time it comes as a book. Imagine a world in which birds can talk like people. You'll get a bird's-eye view of life with Lyme disease as one bird family must use unite to overcome the obstacles of life with Lyme disease. Guaranteed to make you laugh and cry. Written in a way that helps you articulate the losses you are experiencing as a household while simultaneously empowering you to keep fighting. Little Bite, Big Trouble is available today at Amazon.com.