It Was Something Called LYME
The day I was bit,
by that little tick,
He was so clever,
Did I feel the stick?
Not once did I notice
A sting, itch, or prick,
Since with his own anaesthetic
He came equipped.
That “needle” he plunged
Down into my skin
carried anticoagulant
To make my blood thin.
He slurped it right up
From out of my vein
Liquid dinner for one
Parasite champagne.
There’s more to it though
Than a simple blood toast
This tick didn’t know
He was a parasite host.
A stealth pathogen
Living inside
Used that little tick’s saliva
To take a ride
Down into my vein,
As that hungry tick fed,
The stealth pathogen
Through my body did spread.
I didn’t know then
That the bite of this tick
Would leave me with something
That would make me so sick..
The stealth pathogen
Shaped like a corkscrew
Drilled all through my body…
I thought it was flu.
From my head to my toes
I ached every day
Wishing the pain
Would all go away.
Doctor to doctor
I went to in vain,
All shook their heads mystified
No diagnosis to be claimed.
My knees swelled one day
All my joints hurt,
But the red bullseye rash
Was the target alert!
It was one more clue
In the great mystery
That helped one wise doctor
To diagnose me.
The test came back,
“Positive” for LYME.
It could be cured,
If it had been caught in time.
That wasn’t the case,
Since for me it had been,
Days, months and years
And pain with no end.
I’m slowly improving
One day at a time.
From this awful disease
Spread by a tick called Lyme.
Chronic Lyme disease is a controversial diagnosis. One many will not acknowledge until more research reveals how this organism has the ability to persist in its human host and evade antibiotics. Borrelia burgdorferi, responsible for Lyme Disease is one of several pathogenic organisms carried by ticks. Current research shows it can become resistant to antibiotics, enhanced partly by its ability to change life forms in its host. Morphing into a cyst with its own body armor, it shields itself from antibiotics designed to penetrate the corkscrew form of the organism. Once the antibiotics are stopped or no longer effective, the organism is free to begin replicating itself again.
***Text copyright 2011 by Cynthia Brast. No part of this story may be reproduced in any form without the expressed written consent of the author.
