[ 09-07-2009, 11:02 PM: Message edited by: Amy C ]
-------------------- My lyme disease blog: http://lymetimes3.blogspot.com/ One BIG Lyme family! I tested CDC + 10/08 My mom Igenex + 11/08 & My brother Igenex + 4/09, My 2 boys some + & IND bands, clinical diagnosis 3/09 (youngest has Aspergers too) Posts: 470 | From Painesville, Ohio | Registered: Mar 2009
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bettyg
Unregistered
posted
amy, please copy your info and my post to SUPPORT forum; there is an ongoing post of LYME OBITUARIES there.
you can post it as you did here, i'm sure melanie reber will add it to the OBITUARY COMPILED POST .... thx for advising.
i see we can leave a message for her family too. her photo is posted as well.. betty
i did post for her family just now ...
ANDREA ORTIZ PETERSON
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Andrea Ortiz Peterson 1981-2009
"The light that burns twice as bright burns half as long." While she was healthy, her light burned long and strong!
Andrea Ortiz Peterson, 27, of Graham, WA, passed away from complications of Lyme Disease on September 1, 2009.
She was born December 31, 1981 in Renton, WA. She grew up in the Renton Federal Way area, graduating from Thomas Jefferson High School, where she was an award-winning golfer and played the violin.
During her short life she also resided in Richmond Beach, VA and New Orleans, LA.
Andrea loved the sea, securing a job following her passion as a Merchant Marine Able Bodied Seaman, and sailed the waters of the world for Military Sealift Command.
Her travels of the world included the Seychelles, where she contracted Lyme Disease.
She remained strong of will and optimistic until the end of her life, in spite of her overwhelming medical issues.
Her love of the sea encompassed her life so much that she had purchased a sailboat and planned to live aboard.
Surviving Andrea are her parents, Sherry (Clark) and Dean Peterson, her sister Erin Moon, and many others who will miss her intelligence, love, warmth, and energy.
Family and friends will celebrate Andrea's life promptly at 1300 Hours (1:00PM) on Monday, September 7, 2009, aboard the Virginia V, 860 Terry Ave. N., Lake Union, Seattle, WA.
-------------------- My lyme disease blog: http://lymetimes3.blogspot.com/ One BIG Lyme family! I tested CDC + 10/08 My mom Igenex + 11/08 & My brother Igenex + 4/09, My 2 boys some + & IND bands, clinical diagnosis 3/09 (youngest has Aspergers too) Posts: 470 | From Painesville, Ohio | Registered: Mar 2009
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posted
I'm sorry, maybe I'm missing something, and I know I'm a bit of a skeptic at times, forgive me. I do have a mind of my own and I have questions. How did she die of LD? Like what happened? It breaks my heart so much. She's my age, actually a year younger.
But unless it's heart problems, what else could make someone die of this? Oh yeah, suicide....that would be a "complication of Lyme Disease" to say the least. I hope I'm not being out of Lyme by asking this. Apologies in advance if it rude. I'm just a curious lil cat.
-------------------- ---Beautiful Disaster--- IgeneX WB: IgM: 18+, 31+, 41+, 58+, IgG: 31++, 39 IND, 41++, 31kda Epitope Test: Positive Labcorp: IgM: 23+, 41+ No LLMD due to money since Sept 2008. Was on Doxy, I.V. Rocephin (30 days), Flagyl. Also dx with Bartonella. Posts: 139 | From United States, East Coast-ish | Registered: Aug 2009
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Vermont_Lymie
Frequent Contributor (1K+ posts)
Member # 9780
posted
So tragic and sorry to hear this.
What is unusual, is that her obituary says she lived in WA and VA, but contracted Lyme in the Seychelles, which I think are small islands in the tropical Pacific. Perhaps she had lyme longer than anyone thought?
Posts: 2557 | From home | Registered: Aug 2006
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seekhelp
Frequent Contributor (5K+ posts)
Member # 15067
posted
Very sad. Too young. I have same question as Beautiful Disaster.
Posts: 7545 | From The 5th Dimension - The Twilight Zone | Registered: Mar 2008
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posted
She might have gotten some exotic species of spirochete and co's over in Seychelles, but more than likely had unknown tick bites in the places she lived in the US.
Posts: 655 | From USA | Registered: Sep 2007
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posted
read this article from the NYtimes, "you surely can die from lyme disease" my thought would be compromised immune system or lyme issues affecting the heart.
posted
Very tragic. She was only 6 days older than my friend with neuro-lyme.
I too wonder what actually caused her death. Was it generally wasting away, or organ failure. And I wonder what kind of treatment she was getting, or not getting.
That would be important to know since the IDSA Drs in UOS said that they "don't know of anyone who died of lyme".
What a needless loss of life.
James
Posts: 872 | From New York City | Registered: Jun 2008
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posted
I believe this is the same spunky Andrea from Youtube.
If it is, she had severe neurological issues. I think she had massive seizures because she talked about her friend always having to dial 911 because she'd be fine one minute and the next she'd wake up on the floor...or she wouldn't respond for some time and would wake up later in the hospital. She also had issues with her heart that were related to the problem. I think she had multiple surgeries for all of this.
Then again, this could be a completely different person and I could be mistaken. I am also speaking from information on youtube videos. Regardless though, my heart goes out to Andrea and her family. It's heartbreaking and terrifying at the same time. RIP.
Posts: 710 | From West Coast | Registered: May 2008
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Ocean
Frequent Contributor (1K+ posts)
Member # 3496
IckyTicky
Frequent Contributor (1K+ posts)
Member # 21466
posted
Very sad. From her blogs she admits to doing drugs and partying and several suicide attempts.
So I would think this was suicide or possibly drug induced. But she has been sick a long time and was told at age 23 that she wouldn't live long. She doesn't elaborate exactly why she was told that.
She was on IV abx several months ago, per her blog.
Either way... 27 is too freaking young.
-------------------- IGM: 18+, 23+, 30+, 31+++, 34+, 39IND, 41++, 58+++, 66+, 83-93IND IGG: 31+, 39IND, 41+ Also positive for Mycoplasma Pneumoniae and RMSF. Whole family of 5 dx with Lyme. Posts: 1014 | From Texas | Registered: Jul 2009
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Melanie Reber
Frequent Contributor (5K+ posts)
Member # 3707
posted
This is AP, a member here since 2005... I just can't stop the tears. Not another one... of us.
-------------------- �Did you ever stop to think, and forget to start again?� - A.A. Milne Posts: 1987 | From No. VA | Registered: May 2005
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posted
I took a ferry back from Sausalito today, and thought of Andrea being out on the water. She wrote very clearly about what she went through. I'm very sorry she didn't make it.
Posts: 13134 | From San Francisco | Registered: May 2006
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posted
Well, I thought a bit more about this young woman, and read the rest of her blogs.
This past spring, she was asked to come down to my area to be closer to her LLMD.
I'm sorry she didn't make the decision to do so, but I guess who knows what the future would have been if she had.
And how many of us can make a decision to uproot? I have done it, but it ain't necessarily easy.
She wrote this:
"I wish someone would write a song about me...and mean it."
Ok, Andrea, here are some lyrics for you:
Twenty-seven years old, and too young to go, More folks may now read you than you'll ever know.
Your fun and your laughter, your heart and your spunk - Life, for you, should have been a slam-dunk.
You traveled the world, you seemed fearless to me. You lived your adventure, on land or at sea.
You left us a video, "Life vs Lyme" - The fore and the aft - the sublime, and the crime.
Knowing, when sick, that you really shouldn't hide all you were dealing with, Lymewise, inside.
Wondering, when ill, if you should have a man - Your honesty moved me, as the truth can.
Here's to your spirit, your heart and your youth - What I have learned from you: Honor your truth.
Posts: 13134 | From San Francisco | Registered: May 2006
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Melanie Reber
Frequent Contributor (5K+ posts)
Member # 3707
posted
Goodness Miss R, and I thought I was finished with the tears. Thank you for that beautiful tribute.
I too read her blogs and watched the video... and was so touched by her capacity to express in the written word all the nuances of these dreadful diseases.
It is just so heartbreaking what so many of us go through... and mostly in silence. Andrea, while expressing many of the same things we all feel so eloquently and succinctly... still, it seams, was unable to truly convey the total devastation of a ravaged being.
I pray that her example will light the way for others to keep reaching out for help when needed, knowing that there is always one of us who is here to hold on to through the darkest of hours.
Posts: 7052 | From Colorado | Registered: Mar 2003
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"Future... A new option for me. I realized during my break that I'd been living in anticipation of dying. I've come so close, medically speaking, that I couldn't help but think every night when I closed my eyes they wouldn't open again in the morning... Right out of the gate, when I was diagnosed, the doctors matter of factly told me that I was not going to survive my stay. That's what I've thought the entire time I've had Lyme - that I wouldn't survive my stay. I've thrown out the earlier calculations that I wouldn't make it past 30, and at my 27th birthday dinner, I proposed a toast to the future, I mentioned how happy we'd all be the day I turn 31... Though I know that the doctors that made those calculations were idiots, I can't help but keep the number in my head. It's been there for so long... Now it's there as a milestone. My friends dread turning 30, when I think that my 30s will be the happiest decade of my life...
As best as my body has tried to shut down, It hasn't, and I don't think it's going to. I'm certainly not planning on letting it..." AP
-------------------- May God Bless you, answer your prayers, relieve you of your pain and make you stronger than what you are today. Ameen. Posts: 341 | From Columbia, MD | Registered: Jan 2009
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SunRa
Frequent Contributor (1K+ posts)
Member # 3559
posted
rest in peace, Andrea, warrior woman. you will be deeply missed.
from her blog (2/22/09):
"Though I've now been told differently, I still don't think I'm going to live all that far into my 30s. I look for good friends, but really try to stay unattached, because when I go I don't want tears and black and all that sad stuff...I want pirates and cannonballs, and lots of stories about the things I've done in life. I want everyone to laugh. Trust me, my pillow has been soaked more than enough in the last 4 years that the tears should all be maxed out by now."
Posts: 1563 | From MA | Registered: Jan 2003
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posted
How was she so sure she wont live past 30? She has mentioned this so many times. Wow....
-------------------- May God Bless you, answer your prayers, relieve you of your pain and make you stronger than what you are today. Ameen. Posts: 341 | From Columbia, MD | Registered: Jan 2009
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bettyg
Unregistered
posted
robin,
very beautiful tribute son to andrea from you using your god-given talents to write this during this time.
you captured the essence of andrea; kudos robin for being as succinct in your son as andrea was in her writings, etc....
here's a thought to copy this entire post to one SHE STARTED so if her family has access to her email, they may receive this if her internet service is still running since it would be sent to her HOME email. what do you think??
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I went to her blog site and read a few entries. She did mention that she had been in the hospital over 100 times and had coded (code blue) at least once. She obviously had some very serious medical issues but did not really focus on those or her treatments all that much on the posts I read.
Bea Seibert
Posts: 7306 | From Martinsville,VA,USA | Registered: Oct 2004
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posted
Thx, Melanie and Betty - I am still feeling sad that a real look at what she needed medically and what she might have needed to do medically doesn't seem to have happened. - ??
Anyway, she wrote well, and I think that's one reason why she's affecting us here.
[ 09-08-2009, 07:19 PM: Message edited by: Robin123 ]
Posts: 13134 | From San Francisco | Registered: May 2006
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posted
Do a youtube search on her. She posted videos. She made me smile and laugh while I was suffering, and I'm sure she was suffering herself. She will certainly be missed.
Posts: 710 | From West Coast | Registered: May 2008
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bettyg
Unregistered
posted
if someone gets the chance, please copy her videos here giving length of them too,
and we could add them to my SUPPORT FORUM....LYME VIDEO COLLECTION there ...
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Too young. I have same question as Beautiful Disaster.
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