Shira’s Story
Shira, Still Sick, But Still Fighting
“In 2014, at the age of 29, I started getting sick. I was experiencing full body pain, debilitating fatigue, weakness, hot flashes, night terrors, migraines, and depression, and at one point I lost my vision. My Dad, who was a practicing physician at the time, was an incredible diagnostician, and even he couldn’t figure out what was wrong with me. I was frequently dismissed, laughed at, and gaslit by doctors who were convinced that it was all in my head or that I was making it up.
I got so sick that I couldn’t take care of myself anymore. I had to give up my career, my dream apartment, my independence, and I moved in with my parents. I was 30 years old. At my worst, I had trouble speaking, walking, and I couldn’t make decisions.
Being really sick and being told over and over that, “You’re over-exaggerating”, “You’re being overly sensitive, Shira”, or “Look, your labs are normal", is a special kind of torture that most people will never understand. I attempted suicide multiple times. Dying seemed to be the only way to get relief.
It would take three years, and a chance meeting that my Dad had with a Lyme literate practitioner at a medical conference, to finally get diagnosed. I never had a rash. I never saw a tick. My ELISA test was negative. After I started treatment, my brain cleared enough for me to read and speak again. I decided to create Lemon or Lyme to educate the public and to make others like me feel less alone.”
Stories reflect the experiences and perspectives of the individuals featured and are not intended as medical advice.
