Exercising and The Children

The experts say Lyme patients won't get better if they don't exercise. It's makes complete sense. It's essential for detoxing dead toxins out of your body and boosting the immune system.

Exercise is good for everything. I used to exercise regularly before I got sick. I've run he gamut of Aerobics classes, Step classes, Palates, Yoga, Tai Chi etc. In the years prior to diagnoses I had basically pared my exercising down to walking about 2 miles and doing some lite weight work at home. I didn't have the same stamina I used to have. Now I know why.

Exercising when you are sick can be a problem. I do the best I can and try to get out on days I don't feel as bad. It's not consistent, because the days I find myself confined to the couch, clearly the last thing I can do is exercise. Like I say, I do the best I can.

Today I felt well enough to go for a walk. My hip is still hurting but not as bad. I am not as spacey and my headache is more manageable. I slept a little better last night so I had the fuel. My husband and I went to the track at the Middle School campus nearby. I feel pretty safe there, if I stay in the center of the track lanes as it is surrounded by fields. It was a beautiful day here and I didn't want to miss out on the sunshine.

I have walked at this track on many other occasions. It's in a very rural area where many families have moved north from the boroughs of New York City or Westchester. The area is safe for raising children and the cost of housing is reasonable. The school districts although large, are for the most part pretty good.

I was at the track in the middle of the day once last spring and some of the school kids were out on the grass having gym class. They were playing soccer. It was a warm day and many of the kids were wearing shorts. They were running all over the place, diving for the soccer ball. As I drove past the soccer area, headed for the track itself, I glanced to my right and about 25 yards away I saw at least 30 deer grazing and wandering around. They were literally only yards from the kids. I remember being shocked. These innocent school children were playing in the grass where obviously these deer had walked. I remember doing some quick math in my head, guessing the percentage of kids in that group that would be bitten that day.

It's the children I feel the most sorry for. In the 2 years I have been sick, I have seen my share of sick kids at the Lyme doctors office. They are destroyed. They are pale and listless, thin and very sad. If a child is bitten when they are 5, misdiagnosed with ADHD, depression or a behavior problem for a few years, and become very low functioning, occasionally a professional along the way will think of Lyme. It's a long road back for them. They have missed tons of schoolwork to say nothing of the childhood fun and socialization they will never get back. Their lives are about coping with illness and doctor's appts. The treatment is rough and unpleasant. I've wondered how many tears have been shed, over a child not wanting to infuse their Picc Line with IV antibiotics, or take their meds because it gives them stomachaches. Their parents sit next to them in the waiting rooms, exhausted emotionally and probably financially as well.

Very often I feel that if someone of power at the CDC or NIH had a child who suffered with Chronic Lyme, the road to research and a real cure would be evenly paved and much much shorter.

*posted National Lyme Disease Risk Map - Darkest Areas Are the Most Endemic*