merrygirl
Frequent Contributor (1K+ posts)
Member # 12041
posted
With Thanksgiving around the corner I thought it would be nice to start a thread about what we are grateful for.
I am grateful for all my Lyme friends. Just the other week I was in a crisis situation financially. It was so bad we had no food and had to go to a food bank. My friends here and at another forum, rallied around me and sent what they could, clothes for me and my children, Supermarket GC, food, and cold hard cash. I am no longer in a crisis, and think that it is only up from here. I would never have thought that I would meet such nice caring giving people on the internet. GOd bless all of you. I think of you often, and you are all in my prayers.
posted
Im thankful to God for saving my life and for giving me a new day. Have not been able to take antibiotics for 9 to 10 weeks due to complications and am thankful for life.
Great topic!
Posts: 515 | From In His Loving Care | Registered: Apr 2009
| IP: Logged |
2roads
Frequent Contributor (1K+ posts)
Member # 4409
posted
I am thankful for many things, not the least of which is my Lyme family here on Lymenet.
But, what takes center stage in my mind are my children.
God has only given me two, although I have tried exhaustingly for one more to no avail. So, I am grateful for the two precious babies I have.
I believe they are the greatest things I can leave behind unless I'm some Einstein (which I am not).
They bring me such joy that is not without heartache, though. That is all a part of life.
Posts: 2214 | From West Chester, PA | Registered: Aug 2003
| IP: Logged |
kam
Honored Contributor (10K+ posts)
Member # 3410
posted
I am thankful for you Merry Girl and many of the others on this board and other lyme web sites.
Posts: 15927 | From Became too sick to work or do household chores in 2001. | Registered: Dec 2002
| IP: Logged |
merrygirl
Frequent Contributor (1K+ posts)
Member # 12041
posted
that is so sweet Kam thank you. I havent received a nice compliment like that in along time.
hugs melissa
Posts: 3905 | From USA | Registered: May 2007
| IP: Logged |
Tincup
Honored Contributor (10K+ posts)
Member # 5829
posted
I'm thankful for Merrygirl too... always.
I'm so happy she MADE me reflect on all the things I am thankful for by starting this post.
posted
I am thankful for one of my children being in good health.
I am thankful we know about Lyme and are able to go all over the country looking for the right answer for our other child.
Posts: 984 | From US | Registered: Dec 2007
| IP: Logged |
posted
I am thankful that I am not sicker than I am. Yes, my situation is difficult and I'm having a lot of pain all the time. but. I can still walk, I can still talk. Heck, once in a while I skate!
I'm thankful that I had a few good hours Thursday night/Friday morning seeing New Moon at midnight with my best friend. I'm thankful for my best friends Lauren, Lisa and Christina for making me feel good and special and happy. I wouldn't still be me without them.
I'm thankful that we can afford to pay for my treatments and medicine.
I'm thankful for my parents for being.. more amazing than words can say, during the last 4 years. It has.. completely turned their lives around and, they have done so much for me. so much. given up so much. and, I thank God for blessing me with my family. my incredible amazing family.
Lymie since 2005 Live well, love much, laugh often Posts: 17 | From NJ | Registered: Mar 2008
| IP: Logged |
kam
Honored Contributor (10K+ posts)
Member # 3410
posted
I am thankful I slept through the night last night.
And I was able to take a couple of excedrin, cruise down to the man made lake via my power chair yesterday evening....usually I can't make it that far...
and got to see my grand kids. They were in town for my mom's funeral.
Got to watch them play on their scooters and feed the ducks at what they called the duck pond.
Which I think is a better name for it than lake..as it is more of a pond.
I was even doing well enough to be able to take some pics.
Sure hope they come out OK.
Posts: 15927 | From Became too sick to work or do household chores in 2001. | Registered: Dec 2002
| IP: Logged |
Brussels
Frequent Contributor (5K+ posts)
Member # 13480
posted
I'm thankful for having got lyme disease. I truly am. I wouldn't be kidding on that.
I'm thankful because I fell sick before my daughter and I could save her and not listen to the doctors saying there was nothing wrong with her or that they didn't know what to do with her.
I'm thankful to lyme because it made my life change completely. It made me understand what dentists are doing to us all, what toxicity means to our health and what we have been doing to this planet, putting more and more pollutants, encouraging consumption and disregarding nature and health as secondary to our own fabricated 'needs'.
I'm thankful for lyme because it made me think about pharmaceutical industries and their lobbying, it made me think about vaccinations and autism or neurological diseases and allergies, and I decided never ever to vaccinate myself or my child to anything whatsoever from now on.
Despite all exterior pressure, my feet are now like steel and I won't move away for that, and I take full responsibility for my choice.
Without lyme, I would have bits of doubts thinking that vaccinations could have a minor part that was not business... After lyme, and seeing what a damaged immune system can do to us, no way to get a risky procedure that could still mess up more with my immune system and my daughter's.
So no way to feel guilty for not vaccinating my child. I know it's a choice that has matured during the years. Because of lyme. Thanks to lyme.
Without lyme, without fighting encephalitis, candida, mycoplasma, without having fought so many doctors and dentists, I would never have arrived to be confident in what I am today. Even if there's not a single person in flesh present here that supports me most of the times.
No doctor with any PhD and white clothes will ever be able to convince me of anything, unless I do my own research and get my own ideas about a subject.
I don't feel anymore any intimidation to deny their proposed treatments with respect. No regret after either. Thanks to lyme and to all I have been through.
I'm thankful to lyme because it made me have so low esteem for myself once, and from there on, I couldn't go lower. I could only go up and build myself from zero, from scratch, to what I am now. Few people would have the privilege to know what this is. But most lyme sufferers have this privilege.
It is a privilege, because with that 'lowest of lowest', comes humanity. And because I reached the lowest bottom, I know it didn't kill me. I could still 'be' myself even then.
So many times, here in this forum or in private emails or conversation, I felt I was so close to so many of you, much closer to you all than to my own friends and family.
It made me see that my own small world around me is just one world and that there are others out there with whom I could truly connect, even not knowing their faces, their real names, only their 'feelings'.
Suffering the way we do, feeling hopeless, useless the way we do or did, is a privilege in my view today. It humbles you to a point that what rests could only unite me to others. I thank lyme for that.
Today, having overcome lyme disease, I truly thank it every day.
What I lived, no one can take out of me. Few people in flesh around me understand. You guys do, I'm sure. What I lived gave me extreme strength, subtle strenght to the exterior eyes, but to myself, I know I'm like steel now.
Without lyme, I would never have learned energetic testing, because I believed it was quack. Who says it's quack? The same doctors that told me I had no lyme disease. The same doctors that say that herbs are inneficient or dangerous. That microcurrents do nothing, that Rife is scam, vaccinations a wonder...
As I was desperate, I gave energetic tests a try and after feeling improvement with it, I decided to learn how to test myself energetically.
From then on, a WHOLE new world appeared, where plants are alive and can communicate with you in their way, where animals do communicate, stones, mountains, rivers, everything around me started shining. Homeopathic remedies, Bach flowers, these stuff were like screaming to me 'take a look at me!!'. And I did. Only because of lyme!!!
I don't expect anyone to believe all that, and I don't force, but I thank lyme for having opened that gate for me through despair, a gate of communication and connection with the world and 'entities' (plants, animals, nature) and frequency remedies in a way I would never imagine possible.
I was never religious, not a believer on any organized type of religion so far. I was an atheist, I think. During desperation, once, I prayed for my daughter. I never thought I was ever going to pray in my life.
I think I was heard because I could 'confirm' it through my energetic tests.
She was not cured, but got out of danger after a deep prayer. It never happened before for me. Thanks to TBE (tick born encephalitis) that usually cripples a great amount of people. This experience changed me forever too.
No one has to believe on it, because all is subjective. But I have my own beliefs that are totally 'lonely' (and many will always be lonely without any exterior support of anyone, but they are still with me) and they have been built on zero ground, from nothing. That was what I was reduced to, right?
I suffered from an invisible disease, that was purely psychological, no pathogens involved, no social respect from anyone, no friends, no family member supporting me right? My body feeling like dying, no more energy either ....
No self esteem anymore, just being there trying to take my daily pills using the resources my husband was earned through hard work. Bad mood most of the time because of herxes or lack of energy on top. No energy to thank anyone for any little help they provided. I even couldn't notice when someone actually helped due to lack of energy. So I was just a bad person.
Well, believe me. Anything you build on that base above will be solid. Any inner conviction that arises will be solid because it arises from zero, without no support, no exterior belief, just you and your loneliness. Only something like lyme could have given that to me. And now I see it as a privilege.
I thank lyme for many other things too, but I won't write any longer. I now feel there's a reason for having so many of us sick with these chronic diseases. The ticks are not guilty.
The most sensitive are the sickest, because of toxicity. The more we are sensitive to toxins in our world, the sicker we fall.
Sensitiveness to toxicity, I believe, shows sensitiveness in a broader sense. Somehow, I suppose we have all something in common: a sort of deep sensitiveness. We're like birds that can die with poisoned air, while other creatures still survive, like antennas of something going on in a planetary level.
I know it sounds a bit crazy what I say and I'm not sure of what I'm writing. These are just impressions I have thanks to my lyme journey.
Posts: 6199 | From Brussels | Registered: Oct 2007
| IP: Logged |
Dekrator48
Frequent Contributor (5K+ posts)
Member # 18239
posted
I am thankful for my faith in God, my family and my friends.
I am thankful for any chance to help others, for the beautiful smiles of my dear grandsons, and for the sunshine.
I am thankful for all the people at lymenet who willingly give of themselves to help anyone in need.
I am thankful for my LLMD who told me "I can't guarantee you that you will get better, but I've never treated anyone who didn't".
I am thankful that after 9 months of treatment I had my first glimpse of decreased neck pain....and it is ever so slowly improving.
I am thankful for my time on this earth and the chance to make the most of it.
I am thankful for my freedom and my son who is is willing to fight for it by joining the Army Reserve and going to Iraq in April 2010.
I am thankful for my husband and my daughter, my son-in-law, and Deven and Kaden...the 2 dearest little boys whom I am blessed to have as grandsons.
I am very thankful for God's promise of eternal life in Heaven.
-------------------- The fibromyalgia I've had for 32 years was an undiagnosed Lyme symptom.
"For I know the plans I have for you", declares the Lord, "plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future". -Jeremiah 29:11 Posts: 6076 | From Pennsylvania, USA | Registered: Nov 2008
| IP: Logged |
posted
Brussels, your post just made me cry! I thought you were kidding at first, but then, reading about you being able to save your daughter's life, and yes re all our new health awareness, and our hard-won strengths, well, thank you for reminding us of these gifts!
We are really different than the able-bodied world, who can do pretty much what they want (except in this poor economy!), identify themselves by what they do and accomplish, have control over what goes on around them, like run for the bus and make it, etc!
I know I talk different now. I can talk about how the color of light returned my sense of smell, or how a magnet machine took away pain, or how my supplements can shrink tumors. Whatever it is we've been trying, out of the desperation of this situation, has educated us to a profoundly new place.
We know now to stand up to medical authority we might never have thought to question previously. I know I didn't.
We know what it means to take a stand because we have to. Like I have long done disability access advocacy, way before I knew what I had, and am still having to do it, and then it ends up benefiting a lot of other people too. Plus it's made me more sensitive to other people's conditions as well.
And yet, even though we're really changed from this experience, I've lost my prior sense of separateness from other people.
Initially, it was a sudden need for the help of healthcare people, an experience I had never gone through before. I have spent so many of my days with healthcare providers because of this condition, and gotten to know some of them well, as the wonderful caring people they are.
And as far as everyone is concerned, I know we're all in this same strange boat now when it comes to protecting our lives, that we have a message that will benefit everyone, and pets too.
And can I say, too, that I am thankful to finally be able to understand my past - I mean to finally understand what was happening to people all around me, with all these strange symptoms that we can now identify -
I find it still really strange to think back on who I lived with and did things with and they were not well and no one could understand, and now to understand in hindsight -
I know I would not have chosen this experience, but I can see its gifts. So thanks for reminding me/us of that.
And also, for everyone else too, your thanksgivings are appreciated!
[ 11-24-2009, 01:47 AM: Message edited by: Robin123 ]
Posts: 13116 | From San Francisco | Registered: May 2006
| IP: Logged |
posted
I am thankful for all of you on LymeNet....
I could not get through this without you all....
I am truly blessed....
have a nice Thanksgiving everyone!! mtree
-------------------- worrying about tomorrow takes its strength away from today Posts: 970 | From Point PLeasant , NJ | Registered: Jan 2008
| IP: Logged |
randibear
Honored Contributor (10K+ posts)
Member # 11290
posted
i am thankful...
For the teenagers who complain about doing dishes, because that means they are at home & not on the streets.
For the taxes that I pay, because it means that I am employed or have a retirement and money coming in.
For the mess to clean after a party, because it means that I have been surrounded by friends.
For the clothes that fit a little too snug, because it means I have enough to eat.
For my shadow that watches me work, because it means I am out in the sunshine.
For a lawn that needs mowing, windows that need cleaning, and gutters that need fixing, because it means I have a home.
For all the complaining I hear about the government, because it means that we have freedom of speech.
For the parking spot I find at the far end of the parking lot, because it means I am capable of walking and that I have been blessed with transportation.
For my huge heating bill, because it means I am warm.
For the lady behind me in church that sings off key, because it means that I can hear.
For the pile of laundry and ironing, because it means I have clothes to wear.
For weariness and aching muscles at the end of the day, because it means I have been capable of working hard.
For the memories of my mother and the tears it brings, because it means I can love.
For the alarm that goes off in the early morning hours, because it means that I am alive.
For my lymenet friends, because it means I am not truly alone.
For my faith because it means i believe in God.
-------------------- do not look back when the only course is forward Posts: 12262 | From texas | Registered: Mar 2007
| IP: Logged |
lymeinhell
Frequent Contributor (1K+ posts)
Member # 4622
posted
I am thankful that I have been off antibiotics 5 years now (as of yesterday!) and I have my life back.
I am thankful for this board, which led me to the dr. that saved my life.
I am thankful for the many many good things that have come my way during my life... Good friends, a great husband, a supportive (if small) family.
And this year I am especially thankful for the vets that saved my 14 yr old dog's life Monday - somehow her gallbladder was necrotic and burst, she developed peritonitis, and she so far has miraculously survived after several hours of surgery.
She won't be home for the holiday, but knowing that today she can get up on her own and may very well come home to us, is more than I ever could ask for. Keep her in your prayers.
God bless you all.
-------------------- Julie _ _ ___ _ _ lymeinhell
Blessed are those who expect nothing, for they shall not be disappointed. Posts: 2258 | From a better place than I was 11 yrs ago | Registered: Sep 2003
| IP: Logged |
The Lyme Disease Network is a non-profit organization funded by individual donations. If you would like to support the Network and the LymeNet system of Web services, please send your donations to:
The
Lyme Disease Network of New Jersey 907 Pebble Creek Court,
Pennington,
NJ08534USA http://www.lymenet.org/
UBBFriend: Email this page to someone!
![[group hug]](graemlins/grouphug.gif)
![[Big Grin]](biggrin.gif)
Printer-friendly view of this topic