#1 New York Times Best-Selling Author of
the Divine Secrets of the Ya-Ya Sisterhood ...
Her Lyme Diseased was Missed!
During the same time in 1998-99 that my novels, Divine Secrets of the Ya-Ya Sisterhood and Little Altars Everywhere introduced the Ya-Yas to millions of readers, and the hot white light of success hit me as a #1 New York Times best-selling author, I was getting very sick and did not know it.
At first I thought I just had a recurring case of bronchitis. I didn't foresee the difficult journey that lay ahead of me.
Things went from one weird symptom to the next, then a whole cocktail of symptoms just to keep things jumping. Right when I thought it couldn't get worse, it did. Again and again. I stopped saying "Things can't get any worse than this." Those who have suffered know it CAN get worse.
Years went by in which I did not know what was wrong with me. I was told maybe I had epilepsy, maybe I had dystonia, maybe if I only took the latest miracle anti-depressant that all my symptoms would magically disappear. (Pause very carefully if ANYone tells you that.)
In the last seven years, my symptoms have included severe respiratory infections, intense muscular skeletal pain, severe fatigue, Multi-Chemical Sensitivity (MCS), hunger for air, extreme sensitivity to light and sound, seizure-like events, and freezing hands and feet (probably due to peripheral neuropathy). Weakness in my lower limbs has been one of the most physically dangerous symptoms because it can -- and has -- led to falling down ...
I was so sick for so long -- and did not know why -- that I grew ashamed of my illness. This meant that my own sisterhood and brotherhood was left uncultivated. I lost a sense of community. With the exception of my sweet, steadfast husband and a few dear friends (most of whom live far away), I became painfully isolated ...
On some level, I bought into the unhealthy belief that many of us suffer from: the idea that we should have been able to control everything. That somehow, we must keep up with this increasingly fast-paced culture we live in, no matter what the expense is to our body. My illness has taught me differently.
After having seen 12 different doctors, I was not correctly diagnosed until my wonderful environmental health doctor, Dr. David Buscher, who treated me for chemical sensitivity (MCS), thought to test me for Lyme Disease. I received the results of the lab tests on Election Day, 2004. I tested positiveÉ I learned I had to be very careful to be sure I was treated by a Lyme-literate doctor. I was fortunate to become a patient of a doctor very experienced in the treatment of Lyme Disease.
Now that I've been diagnosed, I have begun to reach out to more people, tell them the truth about my life and ask them for support. I know more deeply than ever that friends are everything. I need support from every corner of the universe to make it through this.
I have advanced Lyme Disease. This, along with other factors dictates the course and design of my treatment. I've taken several rounds of antibiotics to try to eradicate the bacteria and will have to take more. In addition to Lyme, I also have a malaria-like infection called babesiosis which I probably got from the same tick or insect which introduced the Lyme bacteria into my body ... Rebecca Wells
*****
Amazingly this author has written her newest book sick with severe and advanced Lyme and the co-infection Babesiosis.
*****
For readers everywhere who are ga-ga for the Ya-Yas and clamoring for more and for those who are lucky enough to be discovering the Ya-Yas for the first time, comes a new book about the incomparable Sisterhood, bursting with life and funnier than ever ...
An emotionally charged addition to Rebecca Wells' award-winning bestseller Little Altars Everywhere and #1 New York Times bestseller Divine Secrets of the Ya-Ya Sisterhood, YA-YAS IN BLOOM reveals the roots of the Ya-Yas' friendship in the 1930s and roars with all the raw power of Vivi Abbott Walker's 1962 T-Bird through sixty years of marriage, child-raising, and hair-raising family secrets ...
