A Laundry List of Symptoms--Kim Trick

Hi, my name is Kim. I’m a 27 year old Christian woman living in New York City with a heart for hurting people and a love of whole, natural, healing foods.

For most of my life I suffered from a laundry list of ever-changing and ever-increasing symptoms that kept me constantly feeling under the weather. I experienced extreme exhaustion, constant muscle and joint pains, chest pain, severe headaches, rashes and hives, chemical sensitivities, frequent sinus, kidney, and bladder infections, digestive issues, anxiety and panic attacks, sleep disturbances, and eventually tremors, drooping eyelids, memory loss, and problems with word recognition, among other symptoms. At best I felt “not so well” and at worst I felt downright miserable.

I spent years trying to find an answer as to why I was feeling so ill all the time. I was diagnosed with food allergies, irritable bowel syndrome, fibromyalgia, Chronic Fatigue Syndrome, arthritis, anxiety, chronic migraines, endometriosis, and several other conditions. It was overwhelming. How could one young girl have all of these issues and still be told “there’s nothing wrong?” I now know these were symptoms of the real illness I was fighting.

After graduating from college, my health began to plummet quickly. I didn’t have health insurance, but I couldn’t afford to stop looking for an answer. Most of the doctors I saw knew something was wrong, but they had no idea what was causing the constantly changing symptoms I was experiencing. I began paying out of pocket for visits and tests, going so far as to pay for an operation in late 2006 to treat a tissue disorder I’d developed from a weakened immune system. All of this added up to major medical bills but no real answers.

In January of 2008 I was finally diagnosed with late stage Lyme Disease and its coinfections Bartonella and Babesiosis, with the possibility of Erlichea hanging around on the side. These systemic and chronic infections were the cause of all my previously unexplained symptoms. Who knew a brush with a cute deer during my days as a kid in rural Ohio could lead to such pain? I quickly learned that Lyme is a tick-borne bacterial infection that, if not caught early, often becomes a systemic and chronic illness attacking multiple organs and eventually working its way into the neurological system. To make matters worse, the medical community is still learning about this disease, and it is often very difficult to diagnose by standard tests. As a result, many people suffer with misdiagnosis and pain for years just as I had. In my case, Lyme was the catalyst that set many of the other imbalances in my health into action and caused me to feel ill for all those years.

Getting my diagnosis of Lyme Disease and the coinfections was one of the greatest things that ever happened to me. I finally knew what kind of opponent I was up against. From early 2008 through early 2010 I channeled most of my time, energy, and resources into overcoming the infections and bringing my body back to health with a fantastic Lyme Literate Medical Doctor (LLMD) and a team of great physicians, physical therapists, friends, and family members.

While it hasn’t always been an easy journey towards health (at times it’s been downright hard, scary, and expensive!), it’s been an incredibly rewarding one. I quickly learned that with a systemic illness like Lyme, beating the infection would only be half the battle. If I didn’t make some big, sweeping changes to make sure that I was eating right, sleeping right, living right, and thinking right, all the medicine in the world couldn’t put me back together again. Working towards wellness meant that I would need to reevaluate my priorities and learn to simplify, slow down, and live with less to value what’s truly important in life, and I’m grateful for these changes in my life.

In January of 2010, after two years of aggressive antibiotic therapy combined with vitamins, supplements, lots of PRAYER, and healthy living, I hit “remission” and am feeling better than I’ve ever felt in my life. I’m incredibly grateful to be where I am today, and I’m excited for what the future holds. I feel like I have a new lease on life, and I want to make this one count for all it’s worth.

Kim Trick, New York