Facing Holidays with Chronic Lyme
Author: Paula Jackson Jones Orig Pub: 11/25/2017 Nothing reminds you of your illness more than when you’re limited by the things that you can no longer do and the places that you can no longer go. And nothing highlights those limitations more than the holidays. Grieving the loss of holiday traditions, or feeling like you’re letting your friends and family down by staying home or cutting outings short, can elicit so many difficult emotions that no one should have to deal with around the holidays. No one ever thinks that something as tiny as a tick bite can change their life in so many ways, until it happens to them. I sit with people in person and on the phone who are struggling to understand this disease, struggling to make sense of their new normal, struggling to keep it together for their families. Struggling. It’s something that chronically ill people do constantly. Everything is a struggle. Getting up in the morning, even getting through the day. Trying t