Dear New York Times

Dear New York Times,

It pains me to know that journalism has diminished to the point where fact and fiction are so tightly entwined that the people can no longer decipher truth from error.

I recently read your article entitled "Me Son Got Lyme Disease.  He's Totally Fine" by Apoorva Mandavilli which stated many falsehoods about a disease that plagues thousands of people and destroys hundreds of lives to which everyone seems to turn a blind eye too.  While I am so happy for this family and that her son found an easy solution, this is not the case for hundreds and thousands of Lyme families all over the world.  It seems to me that while people are slowly being tortured to death, everyone else seems to be running around screaming that "it's not a big deal," and that is a tragedy that needs to be reevaluated at it's finest.

But at this time I won't speak for the hundreds and thousands, I'll speak for myself.  Because coming from the girl who came home from high school every day to her mother in seizures and screams due to insufferable pain, and then found herself in that place just a couple of years later, Lyme disease is nothing to downplay, and nothing to claim that we're all crying wolf when the wolf in this story is 100% real.

Late-stage neurological Lyme disease destroys lives, disables bodies, kills people, and is one of the most painful and complex diseases that a human being could be forced to experience.  I wouldn't wish Lyme disease on my worse enemy because when I was eighteen, my world stopped in a black hole of pain and agony, while everyone else's world seemed to keep going.

Medications
Hospital Visits
Cancer Treatments
IV Therapies
Diet Changes
Sauna Detox Protocols
Endless Pills and Supplements

Lyme disease is far from "easily treatable" and seemingly impossible to cure as seven years later, although we've seen improvements, our battle with Lyme is far from over.  For without constant vigilance, Lyme returns and it returns with a vengeance.

I was diagnosed with Lyme.  My blood test came back positive.  Lyme disease is real.  And to silence a community of people who have worked so desperately to be heard so that others do not have to suffer the same battle alone is not something that is ever okay.  We will not be silenced, because the silence that is forced upon the Lyme community every day is insufferably loud.  Because if you actually had to hear it, it would break your heart.  

Lyme disease can be a debilitating chronic illness, just like it is for me.  In the case of chronic Lyme, there is no room for fiction, because these are the facts.

With Love,
​Claire

---

You can write your own letter using the #NYTIMESTHISISLYME to spread real awareness for this disease, and you can read the original New York times article here.