Amy Z's Biography

Amy Z is a 27 year old Lyme patient that lives in Cincinnati Ohio. Amy has Lyme Disease, Babesia, CPN, Mycoplasma, Bartonella and Erlichia. Amy's doctor also suspects that there may be some foreign (tropical) infections that she may have picked up from internetional volunteer work based on her initial and recurring symptoms.

Amy struggles with a variety of symptoms, but the currently the symptoms that give her the most problems are severe fatigue, cognitive dysfunction, peripheral neuropathy and severe GI problems. She has nausea, gastropareisis and functional vagal neuropathy.

Amy fell ill very suddenly upon returning home from a medical mission trip to the mountains of Ecuador almost 5 years ago. She was a new RN graduate and had just recently passed her boards. She had a job that she loved, was active in her church and was very excited about her future. Life as she knew it suddenly changed when she fell ill. Of course her doctors couldn't figure out what was wrong with her. Amy went to them with severe GI problems and they progressed rapidly to involve neurological as well as flu like symptoms. She was never able to return to her full time job.

Even though Amy had abnormal test results, her doctors still weren't able to figure out what had caused the damage much less the severity of her symptoms. She saw specialist after specialist, but no one could help her. Amy tried everything in and out of the book to help relieve her symptoms including: acupuncture, traditional Chinese medicine, chiropractic, functional medicine, homeopathy, and naturopathic medicine. Some of them helped temporarily, but none of them stopped the progression of her illness.

After four years, she began to lose her vision. Amy grew so weak she felt as if she would die if she didn't find help soon. At that point, her Naturopath suggested that Amy might have Lyme Disease and insisted that she see an LLMD for treatment. Finally, she saw Dr. H in NY last summer and the ND was right. Much of the last year has been trial and error trying to find just the right protocol. Amy had a PICC Line placed this past spring and started IV Rocephin and combined that with several oral medications. She praises God that she is finally noticing progress with that combination of meds. It has renewed her hope that she can and will be well again.

Amy wants you all to pray that God will continue the good work that He has started by continuing to heal her. She wants God to guide her doctor in the treatment decisions especially since her GI symptoms have come back recently. Amy thanks God for how he has provided for her over the last few years. She could not have made it with her own strength. She feels it is truly a miracle that she has been able to work at all during this time. Please pray that God will continue to provide for her financially as she is single and only able to work part time to provide for herself.

Amy is now having to appeal her insurance company for IV coverage so she could use prayers that God will continue to move in her behalf. There was confusion by the insurance company and they have now denied two months worth of coverage and she is currently paying out of pocket for IV coverage. It is also her prayer that as God heals her that he will grant her with new hopes, goals and dreams. That He will put His will in Amy's heart so that she will only follow Him. Amy had given up on a future being sick so long. She needs God to guide her. She just wants to please God and in all that she does she wants to glorify, honor and obey Him. She wants her life to be useful for His purpose. She really misses being active in her church and community. She wants to be ready to "Go" when God says "Go."

Jaime's Biography

Jaime is a 30 year old Lyme patient that lives in Ohio. One of the top Lyme doctors in the world believes that Jaime was born with Lyme Disease after Jaime explained her father had Bartonella and committed suicide when Jaime was only 9 years old. Her mother was also diagnosed with Childhood Rheumatoid Arthritis and Lupus which are both red flags as possible Lyme Disease.

However even if Jaime wasn't born with Lyme Disease, she had two embedded ticks that were engorged on her back when she was 7 years old living in Texas. Her Dad burned them off with a Cigarette which as we now know is the worst way of removing a tick. Jaime had a few symptoms her whole life, but at the age of 19 her symptoms got really bad and she's continued to go downhill from there.

She has nearly every symptom of Lyme disease and co-infections. Unfortunately, she received 12 shots of Cortisone into her lower spine because her pain was so severe. They were driving from Ohio to Florida for a family vacation. She was so young and how could someone so young be in so much pain. She knew she would be unable to ride the 20 hours in the car with such pain so she begged her doctor for those shots.

Those shots disseminated everything. Jaime found out a month later that she had Lyme. It was too little too late. She has two young kids and tries to seem normal as she can for them.
Jaime's children have seen her come home from 7 different surgeries as her body keeps producing tumors. So they worry a lot that their mommy is going to die.

Jaime would love prayer for this all just to be gone. She desires that her body, mind and spirit be completely healed. The pain is something that is not even describable. Those Cortisone shots also activated dormant viruses all of which is horribly painful. She desires for her children to have peace in all of this. Please pray for her children.

Jaime now has a relationship with God and she is trying to raise her children in a Christian home. Her 7 year old daughter is getting there, but her son needs prayers for guidance towards God. She desires prayers for her husband too. He doesn't want to hear anything about her Lyme Disease or even God. Please pray to soften his angry heart because his thoughts are "if God was going to heal you he would have done it by now" Jaime has been sick since they were married and she knows that this is difficult for him. Jaime needs support and pray that God will send her the support she needs.

God has used Jaime to help thousands of people find doctors and help. Prior to getting diagnosed, she didn't know anything about Lyme. God has blessed her with very compassionate children. Before she got too sick, they would delivery Meals on Wheels with her. They would also make jewelry together and raise money for people with Cancer. Once they raised $500 for a 5 year old boy whose medications cost $1,000 a day. So they see others who are sick too, not just their mommy and love to reach out to others who are hurting just as much as Jaime does.

As an online friend of Jaime, I have watched her faith grow ten fold. Please pray for my dear friend. Thanks to everyone who is involved in this Online Ministry for Lyme Disease Patients.

(There will be a post coming soon in which I put all of the April Biographies in one post for review).