FIRST PROJECT HE DID:
A little background on my son in relation to my journey with Lyme. He was 4 when I started having health issues after a tick bite. When he was 6 I remember being home alone with him and was about to have a seizure. I had to guide my little boy in the dark to take a flashlight and go next door to where my parents lived (in the country so scarier) to get help. He was so brave.
He used to keep checking on me when I would have to take supervised baths wearing a bathing suit so he knew to go get help if I needed it.
He knew what things to grab me when I couldn't help myself. I have a video when he was 8 and he could name all of my co-infections. I was shocked he paid that much attention. He would make me bracelets that said brave on it. Instead of placing kick me stickers on my back, he would write I AM A SURVIVOR. I actually took a picture of it and have it here.
He has witnessed some awful stuff as a child of a parent with Lyme. He is beyond special. Kind and compassionate and ALWAYS the first to know if something is wrong with me, even now at almost 14 years old. I cherish who he is. Keep in mind his sister got diagnosed 1 year after me.
He had an assignment for school..a poem. When he was done, he came in my bedroom and said "Mom, can you come to my room?" So I followed him, sat down and he read me this poem. I was speechless and cried. We hugged a long time.
"LIME"
I hate Limes…
just the word makes me sick.
They don’t taste necessarily bad but,
they just… I don't know…
but I do know that I hate them…
They are like budget lemons. Too scared to
be sour enough. Always, “Lemon-lime Drink”
Why not “Lemon Drink” or “Lime Drink”
Just make up your mind already!
The color isn’t even that nice, it’s the color of barf.
A Lime is the broken alarm clock that needs an alarm clock to wake up on time.
A Lime feels like a glass of lukewarm water on a hot summer day.
A Lime is the friend in the group that is just there for the popularity…
and that it is what makes it petty.
It doesn’t try to get better… it just tears down everything around it.
Trying desperately to “get what it wants”
What is it trying to do then huh?
It ain’t trying to do anything? But it takes the lives of so many… so many…
INNOCENT PEOPLE
Who have nothing but hope and those like them.
BECAUSE THE DOCTORS DENY THEIR PROBLEMS ARE REAL
They deny that the Limes are there because they hide.
And because the doctors “aren’t good enough to look”
And those innocent people usually can’t even find the Limes until it is
TOO LATE.
But I guess I am lucky because I get to hate limes.
Me and my loved ones are here on this planet long enough to hate those limes.
And even though I am just one small piece of hope in the big picture,
It still hurts to hear when people so young are challenged so fast.
And sometimes the survivors need to help those who can’t help themselves.
Together.
Because they have hope,
because they have knowledge,
and because they have love…
Did I mention that I hate Lyme?
Parker Devine
PODCAST PROJECT:
So keep in mind my son said I had to answer as simply as possible for an 8th grade audience and asked me not to be too detailed basically as he had time restrictions on the project. No easy task as I have a lot to say on the topic of Lyme.
He asked me sit down on his beanbag and answer the questions he prepared and told me to be as brief as possible.
He had to do this podcast for a school assignment and he is so sweet to pick Lyme disease as the topic. This kid is something else. I had to share with you because his comments in between were so sweet and I didn't tell him the information or help him write it whatsoever. He just wanted the ILADS part. Then last night he asked me to come in and hear it all put together. I asked him to send to me.
