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Walking Against Lyme Disease


shazdancer
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I am doing the "Walk Against Lyme -- For Those Who Can't," beginning on May 1st in Augusta, Maine this year. The Walk was initiated last year by the Ya-Yas of Rebecca Wells' fan website. A similar walk will take place in Minnesota on May 5, but ours is a month-long deal.

Here's how it works: teams of 4 will walk each day in May (we did it in April last year). Pledges and donations support the walk -- 10-25 cents per mile you walk is fine, or a flat donation. Miles walked are reported each week to the team captain. The walkers that come in LAST have to pay an additional $25 each to a Lyme cause, such as the non-profit LymeAid4Kids Fund, that provides needy children with access to specialists and treatment. I will also be putting local donations to an information event to be held in my town in May.

My son and I had fun with this. And I gotta warn you -- our team did not lose! But I paid anyway.... :D

I would like to walk our first mile to the Augusta State House on May 1st, when they will declare May Lyme Disease Awareness Month.

If you would like to join a walking team, or make a pledge, please PM me.

Your Lymie,

Shaz

from last year's walk

and the end, Acadia National Park

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I am doing the "Walk Against Lyme -- For Those Who Can't," beginning on May 1st in Augusta, Maine this year. The Walk was initiated last year by the Ya-Yas of Rebecca Wells' fan website. A similar walk will take place in Minnesota on May 5, but ours is a month-long deal.

Shaz --- where in Minney-soda??

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Merci, merci, coolchef!!!

I will also send you some information on an event we will be doing in my hometown on May 10. You guys should definitely attend if you can. Give me a few days to get to it, as I am up to my tushy in projects. AND I will pick a flat part of the walk, and let you know!

Lyme reared its ugly head last month up here with the passing of Mainer Bill Chinnock, member of the E Street Band before Bruce Springsteen. He died of suicide after a Lyme relapse.

May is to be declared Lyme Disease Awareness Month in the state of Maine and other states. Maine is also working on some legislation to mandate coverage of long-term Lyme treatment by insurance companies, and education of school healthcare workers. Mainers packed the Statehouse committee room recently with stories about being misdiagnosed and undertreated.

Just trying to leave a dent,

Shaz

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Dennis, so sorry to hear that. Many people who knew him were upset, because he was always such an up person, and he had been feeling better lately and was back recording. There is an online Lyme group here that quickly got together to be sure that people received support. There is a very nice article about him, and about Lyme, in the Sun Journal in Lewiston, Maine.

[And FYI, the dance teacher in the article is not me]

Lyme disease is more than a bull's eye rash, flu-like symptoms, and a swollen knee.

Left untreated or under-treated, Lyme and other tick-borne diseases can produce a whole host of symptoms, depending upon where the infection spreads. Headache, crushing fatigue, body aches, and brain fog are common. But hearing loss, blindness, paralysis, seizures, cognitive deficits, psychological problems and heart disease are also not unusual. Some people die from Lyme.

Depression is common, both as a symptom of Lyme itself and as a consequence of dealing with a chronic illness, especially when that illness is hard to see and often not acknowledged, even by the medical community. Because so many of the symptoms are subjective, people are written off as faking it, psychosomatic, or lazy. Add to that the pressure in TWI and spinoff groups to not "speak a negative." They can look good, but feel like he11.

Dot, I know of one other poster who has said she'd had Lyme -- I hope she is well. And there is another prominent ex-Wayfer who doesn't post that told me she'd contracted it, but I have lost touch and don't know how she is doing. I hope she is out there dispelling the notion that disease = bad believing.

Lacing up my Nikes,

Shaz

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