hi lymefight,
I can relate to that anxiety. My son was diagnosed with lyme in Jan. of 2014 (almost 4 at the time), after 3 1/2 months of bad symptoms and us trying to figure it all out. Since it was then winter I didn't start to feel the anxiety until spring. And then boy did I feel it. He was on antibiotics, so that helped calm me a bit, knowing he be covered if, God forbid, he was bit.
But I remember looking out at our big, beautiful, heavily treed back yard, and feeling like it had all been spoilt. Like, I could never relax about
him just being outside, climbing trees, running around again.
Needless to say, I doused him with tick repellent (non-deet) everyday; still do. He smelled, reeked of the citronella smell, b/c of it.
I love gardening too! Have had a large garden for about
6 years (that he would help me with since he was a toddler). But last summer…no garden. Only some tomatoes in containers on our patio. I couldn't do the garden, I was too scared to. I would think to myself, maybe that's how he got bit…mice in the garden carrying ticks and them dropping off into the garden, the birds who land on the garden beds carrying ticks, and so on. Before the lyme, my son would walk barefoot with me in the yard, the garden, sit in the dirt, and so on, like a normal kid enjoying the spring and summer.
But last year not really, no garden, no sitting in grass, dirt, etc.
And, then I realized…I can't be afraid so much and live that way. Regardless of my anxiety and keeping him away from some normal play things (climbing the tree, the gardening), he could still get a mosquito bite with an infection, or a tick regardless of my best efforts to prevent it.
When it's fresh and early on in treatment, I agree, it can be so nerve wrecking, at least it was for me, about
if he might get bit, but over time, it does get better, even if just partially.
And actually, I think now he may have got bit by a tick last week, despite my best efforts for him not to. There's a mark that was suspicious so the llmd started antibiotics just in case. If this were last year, I'd probably have had a nervous breakdown and completely freaked out. Not to say it doesn't seriously bother me (b/c it does), and that I don't worry, etc., but he's on antibiotics for it, and I've learned a lot about
how to try to help his body be healthy, to detox, to use herbs too for lyme fighting, etc. and I just know he's going to be ok.
Not trying to down play concern or anything, b/c as moms (and dads too) we will always worry, especially about
something that we now know "can" happen (as compared to when a person hasn't gone through something and they think, "oh, it won't happen to me.") But we just, I couldn't, keep living with the constant fear of it. We have to find peace too.
It gets better, you learn that it (the infection) can be overcome, especially when caught relatively early, even though it isn't always easy necessarily. And you learn to not be (too) anxious again. I had to add that (too) to make this honest, b/c I still cringed when we were at my sister's house last month, and the kids played half the day in her wooded lot (in MI. But they all were sprayed heavily and checked over good.)
So anyway, cautious-yes, prevention methods-yes, change some things- yes. My son can't play near the firewood pile, or piles of dried leaves, things like that, but (with repellent on) he can climb his tree again, run around the yard, and also, this year we have our garden back.
I hope for you too it (the anxiety) gets better. Mine's not 100% gone, but so much better.
Post Edited (stacestar) : 6/8/2015 9:32:43 PM (GMT-6)