Laurel’s Story
Laurel, Herbalist, Plant Enthusiast & Mama to All The Critters and One Human Child
“I have been sick since early childhood with tick-borne illnesses. Growing up in endemic areas, I was labeled as sensitive and anxious my whole life. My growing list of physical and psychological complaints was disregarded, especially as a female-socialized highly sensitive person in a broken system of medicine.
I thought I grew up knowing the dangers of ticks. But only at 37 years old, after 6 years of fully debilitating illness and after specifically seeking out a Lyme literate practitioner, was I able to understand and even retell my entire health (his)story.
After several more bites in my thirties, followed by a steady neurological and physical decline, I could no longer deny the root of my illnesses.
The saying is that the hardest part about having Lyme is not knowing you have it. But what comes next feels just as hard. There is absolutely no structural or systemic support for our set of diseases, and by the time we find appropriate care, we are often too sick to withstand treatments, which take time, money, and family support that only some have. Most of all, we are all missing cultural support and understanding. The deep injustice of it is how preventable so much of this is.
Even with my known and extensive history of bites, and my background in medicine, I believed none of my illnesses were from Lyme, because I believed the vast amount of misinformation given to me (even by alternative doctors), which is due to the lack of current research, funding, and medical training.
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Lyme has taken almost everything from me, but I am still here. I dedicate all of my healing efforts toward advocacy, public education, research, and funding, and I will never shut up about it.”
Stories reflect the experiences and perspectives of the individuals featured and are not intended as medical advice.
