Ticked When I'm Down

Hi, friends. As of today, I am three weeks out from surgery. However, due to some unfortunate complications, I am not recovering in the smooth upward trajectory we’d hoped for. It has been more of an up, down, plateau, down, up, down, up, plateau… You get the picture.

You might remember that a couple of months ago I contracted Lyme disease — yes, Keilani Lime had Lyme. Just before surgery, we did some bloodwork to make sure I had cleared the infection, which I had. Buuuut…

 

The bad news is that in my post-op appointment, I learned I’d tested positive for another tick-borne illness called babesiosis. If you’ve never heard of it, babesiosis is a parasitic infection caused by babesia (those are the parasites), which attacks red blood cells. It’s rare and, fun fact, is a distant cousin of malaria — its symptoms are often described as “malaria-like.”  

So to recap: It wasn’t enough for me to get stabbed in the belly several times by a scary five-armed robot in the hospital. I also needed to contract a super-rare tick-borne disease that requires going on antibiotics and a gnarly antiparasitic for two weeks. That’s just how I roll, apparently.

Here’s another fun fact: Medicare covers the hyperspecialized test for babesiosis. Do you know what Medicare doesn't cover? (Drum roll, please…)

The medication to fix it if you test positive! At least not without a prior authorization, which meant I had to wait nearly a full week to start treating the infection. Which again: tick-borne malaria. 

In the meantime, I’ve struggled with crippling fatigue, nausea and pain, on top of just trying to recover from the freaking surgery. (See: Stabbed by robot, above.) The medication is doing its thing, but is actually exacerbating many of those symptoms, though hopefully just in the short term.

So in short, we’re not out of the woods yet. If anything, said woods are getting deeper, darker, and are infested with ticks. We could use some help. If you have the capacity, there are many ways you can: Please sign up for the meal train or raise your hand for other ways to help, like recommending movies and shows to watch or helping with yardwork. And of course, you can always donate funds to our rapidly shrinking bank account. 

As always, thank you all so much for continuing to stand by me and Dan, even if it is just reading this update and sending well wishes our way.

My gratitude is endless.

Keilani