Hi! I'm new here and I'm desperate to help my husband understand what I'm going through. We have dated since I was 15 and I am now 23 and we have been married for a year now. I have been symptomatic since middle school, and I took at turn for the worse 5 years ago before being diagnosed with Lyme in January of 2006.
Even though he has been with me through it all, I still don't think he comprehends what it is like to have a chronic illness. Now that we are married, I see my health issues taking a toll on our relationship and I think if he could understand a little more, things would improve a bit. He is a wonderful man but I don't think he will be able to support me in the way I need right now if he doesn't fully know what Lyme is doing to me right now.
I am looking for anything that would explain/portray what it is like to have lyme disease.........your favorite articles, youtube videos, etc. Thanks! I look forward to exploring and getting to know the boards more!
Posted by InADaze (Member # 7711) on :
If you have a good local support group, I recommend taking your husband. Mine came with me to a couple sessions when I lived in California and got to see the range of symptoms people had. Of course, there's a wide variety of people in a support group, so you might want to test the waters before bringing him, in case it could hurt your cause.
Even so, it's hard. Make sure you constantly communicate. It's taken me 3 years to get my husband to fully understand that when I don't eat what he cooks, it's not a reflection of his efforts, but of my disease. And he still grumbles, but he mostly "gets it".
Posted by trish4 (Member # 14156) on :
Theres a great thread in here titled "Dear Husband" written by bejoy.
Posted by mtree (Member # 14305) on :
Hi Kga....
welcome to the board
what has helped for me and my husband is.... him reading on LymeNet....picking things out for him to read....or he just reads on his own...
him coming with me to doctor appoinments....helps a lot....
and constantly trying to communicate with each other....your both going through this....and doing it together is better then doing it alone for each of you.
also read what Trish said...."Dear Husband" by Bejoy....its here somewhere in General....
This "letter to normals" is circulated in fibromyalgia circles but the symptoms are often identical because chronic lyme can turn into fibromyalgia. Just substitute "lyme" in place of "fibromyalgia" http://www.fmscommunity.org/lettertonormals.htm Posted by bettyg (Member # 6147) on :
look in my newbie package to you; copy it to MS WORD, and then use EDIT, FIND, and type in
lymedad, hit enter, and it will bring his up followed by dar's toy story, and the links tutu had; they are all there together.
you tube; go to top of medical to my post LYME VIDEOS COMPILED; look thru them; excellent and many short ones there.
play UNDER OUR SKIN for him.
play MARIA'S...canadian young woman; getting tired ready to log off. Posted by kgaTX (Member # 15314) on :
thank y'all so much for your responses! I really appreciate it. Happy Sunday to you all.
Posted by carly (Member # 14810) on :
Some people don't respond well to being told how helpless they are regarding the chronic suffering of their new bride.
Remeber, some men can't handle too much at one time. Remember that your goal is to keep him supportive, not drive him to depression.
I don't mean to be so blunt, but I know my husband can't handle too much info, it backfires on me. Just trying to be helpful.
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for each of you.![[Smile]](smile.gif)
mtree
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