Imagine having every single bit of your energy and motivation literally sucked out of you. Well, for Myranda Kenshalo this nightmare became her reality. Myranda was diagnosed with Lyme Disease in July of 2015. She has had it for about three and a half years now, and it was all caused by one little tick bite.

Myranda’s Lyme has affected everything she does and how her body works. It has affected her eyesight, thinking, eating, pain, heart, breathing, allergies, fatigue, and everything else you could think of. Myranda went from being president of many clubs to missing 17 days of the second semester of her senior year-she could not go to school because she was so sick.

The severity of Lyme is different for everyone. For Myranda, it became overwhelming and horrible. She said, “I could not move due to pain and muscle stiffness. I had migraines regularly. The pain ranged from muscle aches to feeling like my bones were shattered.” When her pain would ease up, she would sleep. She would get up to go to school and go straight to the nurse’s office to sleep because Lyme took all of her energy. She could not function. “I went from never struggling in school to barely being able to understand basic and simple subjects. I could not put together sentences because of the brain fog. I felt my life slowly drain away. I really believed that I was not going to make it a week longer at one point.” said Myranda.

All of this was because no doctors or physicians assistants would diagnose her with Lyme. They all said it was not possible to for Lyme to be in Illinois. “Dr. Molt listened to me after years of going to other doctors and he diagnosed me with Lyme.” He started her on the antibiotic, Doxycycline. This as the first step of the Lyme protocol. Then she went to a specialist in Missouri that has been treating her for one and a half years. She has slowly been able to gain back parts of her life. “I know if I overdo it, I will pay for it later. I am still on antibiotics and supplements to replenish what my body lost in the first year and a half of Lyme. I am able to attend college full time. I am president of two clubs at the college. I hold a part-time job and volunteer as much as I can.”

Myranda has to live her life differently. She now has to plan ahead if she wants to do extra things to make sure that she will have enough energy to accomplish tasks. She can not stay up late so her homework has to be done early instead of waiting until last minute. Any physical activities can cause her body to shut down for several days after so she has to have a backup plan if she cannot function over the following days. She is slowly getting to add parts of her life back such as driving. She had been so tired that when she was driving she would fall asleep so she could no longer drive. Myranda has attended a community college for the past two years because she could not move away while she was so sick. Myranda is planning on moving to a university next year to complete her bachelor’s degree.

Each year, the CDC approximates about 300,000 cases of Lyme disease to be reported. Lyme disease can be hard to catch. One way to identify Lyme Disease is if you get a “bullseye rash.”  This rash forms around the tick bite. However, many people like Myranda do not get the rash. Myranda’s first blood test came back negative for Lyme. The specialist said that it was normal because there are two strains of Lyme. The first test they run only checks for one strain. Since Myranda has the other strain, it did not show up. Most Illinois doctors will not run the correct test because they believe you can not get Lyme in Illinois.

Myranda has had different doctors/PA’s try and put her on amphetamines to keep her awake and psych pills to help nerve pain. She refused both of those because it still did not explain why it was happening. It was just a cover of the real problem. Myranda said that if she had taken those treatments they may have never found the source of her sickness.