Lyme Into Lemonade

I've been thinking about the life we are living, and there are a few things that impact daily lives beyond what you might imagine.  Chronic illness and constant stress from it is hard to live with, but it is also hard to watch.  Sometimes people who believe they are helpful wish to contribute unsolicited opinions.  The devil's advocate in me believes they probably mean well, but the mama bear in me sometimes goes on the offensive. A little preface here.  My husband is a genius.  Literally.  And while I'm not a genius, I am very well educated.  I'm also fairly OCD.  I pour over major life decisions.  I research thoroughly.  I talk to my circle of health-oriented friends.  My husband and I discuss our parenting decisions together and we often include our sons in many of these discussions.  While we ask their input, we are in charge of raising them and our viewpoint weighs more.  Luckily, though, they typically agree with w...

Do you remember the Bill Murray classic movie, "Groundhog Day"?  The premise of the story is, Bill's character, Phil, kept reliving the same day, Groundhog Day, until he stopped making mistakes.  He replayed the same scene over and over and over again until he got everything just right.  Our medical life is starting to have this same feel, as our oldest son just got the same Lyme diagnosis that our younger son has.  While we remember a wood tick on our younger son, we do not remember an attached tick on our older son.  But, living in an endemic area, you just never know. So what does this mean?  Well, I suppose since Lyme can be transmitted mother to baby, perhaps I need to get tested.  Do I have symptoms?  Well, some but not all, and not nearly all the ones my kids have.  I didn't think Patrick had it because he presents differently than John, but here we are with the diagnosis. How do you know the diagnosis is right?  Patrick's doc...