rhyme and reason

I have had an impossibly difficult time trying to decide how to begin this new adventure.

Perhaps, I should start by talking about Lyme disease.  It is, after all, why I’m here.  I live in California, where Lyme disease barely registers on the radar of most health professionals.  Most West Coast residents don’t even know that Lyme is something from which they should protect themselves, much less what it looks like or what to do when they actually get it.  And so, a smart, little, spiral-shaped bacteria found its way inside my husband’s body and changed our lives, quite presumably, forever.  We’re coming up on four years of dealing with the effects of the infection, just in time for our ten-year anniversary, and we still don’t know what the final cure will be or when it will come.  Will I ever have my husband back the way he was?  The jury is still out.  But, then I figure, I have plenty of time for making you cry.  More on that later.

Since our Lyme journey began, I began work on a novel that I hope will help to shed some light on what chronic disease can do to a young, thriving couple. Who and what is left when life suddenly shuts down and reality sets in that the person you promised your life to may be changed forever?

Different versions of the same story are written all over the Internet in chronic disease support groups and chat rooms online.  But it’s the outcome that matters. More often than not, patients who suffer long enough end up alone.  Understanding chronic disease is next to impossible, even for health care professionals. Family and friends can’t help but burn out after of countless cancellations, lack of contact, and the changes in personality that are inherent with the development of life-long pain or chronic disease.  The human instinct is to move forward, move on.  Unlike our more fire-challenged ancestors, people rarely die anymore when they are left behind, but they are still left behind to die every day.

After believing they had everything to live for, and then having it all stripped away, the characters in my book continue to hope.  And, so do we.  But, leave that for the book.  I have to finish it first, and I really like fairy tales, so it could have unicorns in it tomorrow.  I’ll let you know.

And that’s it.  That’s what I hope to offer you as I venture out on the next part of this bold adventure: an introduction to who I am as a writer, a peek into what it means to ‘live with Lyme’, and maybe even a chance to see me in a way you never expected.

I hope you enjoy the ride.  I promise it was bumpier the first time around.