When it comes to understanding the impact that Lyme Disease has on the lives of individuals and families, there’s no better source of reference than going straight to the proverbial horse’s mouth. That’s why in October of 2014, we launched “The Big Green Heart Tour” – a campaign to bring awareness to the eight hundred and twenty-two people diagnosed with Lyme Disease every single day.
In thirty days we traveled over 10,000 miles and interviewed more than seventy Lyme Fighters in over twenty states. And that was just our first trip! We hope to do many more. In fact, our goal is to show people the impact that one single day has on the lives of eight hundred and twenty-two people, which is why we’re going to keep planning trips until we’ve met and interviewed eight hundred and twenty-two Lyme Fighters.
Check out the gallery below to learn about the Lyme Fighters we’ve met so far (more pictures coming soon!)and subscribe to our YouTube channel to be the first to know when we’ve started posting the interviews (coming May 2015).
Laurie
October 27, 2014: Met up with the lovely Laurie in Marathon, NY. Had a wonderful chat with her sitting in the town gazebo about her 13 year journey with Lyme Disease and her activism work. Laurie first noticed symptoms in 2001 when she began having unexplained miscarriages despite two healthy pregnancies. As time went on she began experiencing persistent fatigue and pain and despite her hypothyroidism diagnosis, she did not see the improvements she expected and noticed a worsening in cognitive function including a sudden onset of dyslexia. When her eleven year-old son began presenting with odd symptoms himself, Laurie eventually was able to deduce that he had Lyme disease and saw immediate improvements with him when he started antibiotics. Eventually, after many years of misdiagnoses, Laurie realized that she too had Lyme and found an LLMD. Since then she has tried multiple therapies including oral and IV antibiotics, herbals, frequency therapy and ozone therapy. She estimates having spent nearly $500,000 dollars and has traveled to Florida, Texas, Arizona, Idaho and Pennsylvania to seek treatment. Her son is now in remission and she is hopeful for her own full recovery after seeing positive results from a new therapy she has recently begun. We had a wonderful time chatting with Laurie and were thrilled to have had time for a quick lunch with her at the local diner (if you're ever in Marathon, the burgers at Riley's are amazing.) We look forward to visiting upstate NY again!