One of the most important things we can do in life is to let people know that they are not alone- join us and share your experiences in our free meetings. Our journey began when we realized people suffering from Lyme disease had few places to go for support and coping. After a year in the making, we have banded together to create the Lyme Care Resource Center. Our goal is to be educational and sel
f-sustaining and to use collaborative support to give each other hope to cope with chronic ailments. We welcome anyone living with Lyme disease, either personally or in a support role. Our doors are also open to those who would simply like to learn more about Lyme disease as it is the fastest growing vector-borne illness in the United States. Odds are, you will eventually know someone with Lyme disease if you don’t already. Living with Lyme disease is life-altering, to say the least. Those with chronic Lyme disease have had to learn a very difficult lesson – that there is no bodily system, some would say no realm of existence, that is beyond Lyme’s reach. Coupled with that inconvenient truth is the chaos that surrounds Lyme disease: finding help, getting coverage, enduring treatment if you can get it, all while having to be ever-vigilant lest you lose any small bit of validation you have struggled to achieve. These circumstances present a daunting challenge for even the most resilient. It’s hard to think of any other illness that is so all-encompassing while at the same time being so misunderstood, even ignored. And when we find ourselves in this perfect storm of physical illness, emotional anguish, professional apathy, and ignorance, it is easy to become overwhelmed. Our hope is that the Lyme Care Resource Center can help you to feel that you are not alone in your journey, that you can discover tools of support, and that you can come to each meeting and learn something valuable. Moreover, you will see that there are professionals who are aware of Lyme disease, who do care, and who are working for the cause. We hope to provide not only information, which in itself can lead to a feeling of empowerment, but also a sense of belonging, which can help to counter those feelings of isolation. Rather than subscribing to the fractured Western paradigm of medicine, the Lyme Care Resource Center takes a holistic view of caring for oneself through the Lyme journey. Therefore, in these meetings you will not only hear people talk about issues concerning the physical body, but also you will hear information about issues pertaining to the mind. You will hear references to the spirit and the soul. You will hear about the importance of caring for all aspects of a human being, because a life of wellness is a life of balance; because body, mind and spirit are not separate entities; they are connected…always. An imbalance in one of these can both create and be the result of an imbalance in another. You will learn about issues concerning symptoms and treatments, and also about ideas involving hope and gratitude. You will hear about exercise for the body, meditation for the mind, prayer for the soul. And the ideas will not come from just one doctrine – but rather, from a variety of viewpoints. None of this will be a hard and fast prescription, but rather a suggestion for new paths of coping and healing. Dr. Bernie Siegel, an internationally recognized expert on healing, once said, “Exceptional patients refuse to be victims. They educate themselves and become specialists in their own care. They question the doctor because they want to understand their treatment and participate in it. They demand dignity, personhood, and control, no matter the course of the disease.” This resource center is committed to helping you, your family member, or your friend be an ‘exceptional patient’ – a specialist in self-care and not a victim of Lyme disease. We endeavor to help Lyme patients and those who care for them to be active participants in their journey of healing, and thereby to transcend the boundaries of living with Lyme.
