My partner in lyme

Have you ever heard the Sex and the City quote, “Maybe our girlfriends are our soul mates & guys are just people to have fun with,”?  A year ago I would have laughed at this quote, not because I didn’t have great, supportive friends, but I always assumed I would have a serious, steady boyfriend by now.  Since becoming friends with “my shadow,” my thoughts have changed on this quote.  When I first met my shadow I saw someone who was not looking for new friends especially ones with as many problems as me.  Granted we met right after I had my PICC line yanked for the last time due to a blood infection and I was over this illness.  I was tired of trying to be positive. 

At that time my shadow needed intravenous treatment immediately due to the severity of the illness in her central nervous system.  Why would she want to be put on IV after hearing my horror stories and my negativity towards IV treatment?  It took me a little while to realize I need her.  She is my person.  Although I have met an amazing group of friends who also have Lyme disease, it is hard being the youngest in the group.  Every other one of my friends is married and has children, they have lived important chapters without Lyme disease debilitating their life and quite frankly sometimes I was jealous.  I hate to even admit that but it is the truth.  I always wonder will I be able to experience the important chapters of my life even while battling this disease.  I do eventually want to get married, have kids, and work full time. 

My shadow gets it.  She gets the disease.  She gets the same fears about the future as I do.  She gets random unbearable aches and pains just like I do.  She has been through hell and back just like me.  She has experienced the severe feelings of depression and anxiety, which no one else could even begin to relate to.  After getting a PICC line over the summer, she encountered blood clots and didn’t give up just like me.  She is a warrior.  She is someone that appreciates the little things such as a new nail polish color or ordering essential oils online and anxiously awaiting their arrival.  She is willing to drop whatever she is doing to help me if I am in need and I would/have done the same for her.  She even has a dog, just like me.  She knows what it is like to do several IVs a day and try to be a college student.  The even weirder part is we were both diagnosed with Lyme disease at the same place even though we live over an hour from each other. 

I can’t imagine living an hour and a half from her starting in the fall.  But I have come to accept that it was fate, her entering my life that is.  Someone was looking out for the two of us that day we were introduced.  She is someone that gets what I am going through, she doesn’t have to try to understand like everyone else because she experiences the same thing on a day in and day out basis.  I look at her and feel like I am looking at a mirror and seeing my reflection.  Maybe the silver lining in having Lyme disease is I found my person, my soul mate, my partner in lyme. 

Thank you for being my partner in Lyme.

"We don't met people by accident.  They are meant to cross our path for a reason."