Jacey – Strength Born from Struggle
I’m 21 years old and live in Colorado. I’ve struggled with difficulties ever since I was a little kid, some being more hidden than others such as ADHD. Most doctors wouldn’t have viewed my symptoms of anything serious. One of the first symptoms I had was severe anxiety, especially social anxiety. This has impacted me my entire life. It got so bad I couldn’t go in grocery stores alone, go in buildings alone like to get the mail, or do basic tasks like calling people on the phone. I hated school due to the anxiety and had to start homeschooling right after I finished 3rd grade and did that until graduation which made things much easier for me. I would ways tell myself that once I got older my anxiety would go away or at least improve significantly to where I could at least go in grocery stores and do normal things that normal people do.
Once I hit my teen years things weren’t improving and if anything, they were getting worse. I’d attend my congregation meetings twice a week and my anxiety became so severe I’d either have to sit in the bathroom or just go home in tears. It seemed everything I did, no matter how small a task, took tremendous strength and effort, and after years of fighting due to reasons unknown at the time, I became exhausted and depressed and didn’t even feel like I had ever experienced real joy.
As soon as I became a teenager, I had horrible acne! Beyond what was normal. This caused me to become really self-conscious so in 2020, when I was 16, I went to my PCP and she put me on a medication called Doxycycline. I took it for about one day and all the sudden these symptoms I had never felt before hit me like a freight train. I became bedridden overnight because my dizziness became so intense. I was sure it was just a side effect to the medication so I stopped taking it, but my symptoms didn’t clear up and just kept getting worse and worse.
Within days, I was completely housebound and couldn’t get off the couch. I felt like I had a really bad flu virus and was so sick my parents had to hold me up so I could walk. My mom slept with me at night because we didn’t know what to do. It seemed every day was like living through an emergency. We got an appointment set with a doctor shortly thereafter, and he looked at me like I was a crazy person. He said there was a stomach bug going around and that that was all it was. He said I should have yogurt for probiotics and go home and have a glass of milk. He also went on to say that he saw my chart said I have anxiety. I knew anxiety could not have been causing these “alien” symptoms!! I looked at him with tears in my eyes and said, “Are you telling me to just go home and get over it?” He just smirked and giggled but didn’t give me an answer.
The days turned into weeks, which turned into months, which turned into years. Over the course of being bedridden nonstop for nine months I saw over ten doctors, including specialists who were unable to help me and got more symptoms including tremors, shaking, flushing, purple marks on my upper thighs which looked like stretch marks even though I wasn’t gaining weight, brain fog, circulatory issues, depression, joint pain, joint swelling (on knees and ankle), fluid buildup on knees, chest pain, etc. They diagnosed me with POTS which stands for Postural Orthostatic Tachycardia Syndrome. They told me to take lots of salt, get on beta-blockers and any other needed medications. I had several brain MRI’s, heart scans, etc., everything coming back normal. Salt and beta-blockers aren’t any cure at all, merely a band-aid to cover up symptoms whilst allowing the cause to get worse and worse spreading throughout the body. I eventually saw a POTS specialist. She was surprisingly the first doctor to help me and got me off the couch! I was so thankful to at least be able to sit up and walk again. However, things were continuing to worsen again.
My eosinophil levels were off the charts and she even told me I’d set a record for the highest eosinophils ever seen in her clinic. She kept putting me on steroids which seemed to lower them but once off the steroids they’d jump right back up again. My mom had learned a little about infectious diseases and asked if there was any possibility I could have an infection. Her answer was no, that that was something I didn’t need to worry about. By then I felt hopeless and knew I wasn’t getting better. I felt like a freak of nature and began to accept that death was around the corner. I felt completely depleted.
My mom started learning about Lyme Disease, and everything she had read about it sounded exactly like me! I got to thinking if I had been bit by a tick and sure enough, I was bitten when I was about four years old in Fairplay, CO on the back of my ear. My grandma had discovered it and removed it using a match, which we didn’t know at the time causes the tick to release more poison. My mom found a Lyme-Literate practitioner in CA who was able to order a test for Lyme and co-infections. Shockingly, the test came back positive for Lyme and co-infections like Bartonella. The treatment he put me on led to some improvement but I was still struggling with a lot of symptoms like dizziness. I saw him for about six months and he told me he felt like I had made zero progress and he just wasn’t sure he could help me anymore. By that point I felt like we were back at square one! I was so frustrated and exhausted. But I had a real diagnosis and a test proving an active infection.
We prayed a lot about it for days and with the help of both my mom and dad we discovered a clinic in Boulder, CO with a doctor who is a naturopath and is Lyme-literate and a member of ILADS. I applied for a LymeLight grant and was thrilled and grateful to receive the news that I had been accepted. I could move forward and pursue treatment!
My new doctor has been able to help me in ways no one else ever has! I’ve made tremendous improvements that I never thought possible in this world. She has me taking a lot of herbals morning and night, probiotics, and other supplements targeted towards specific things. She also believes I have Babesia due to my symptoms, and the treatment has been helping me so much!! She tested me for mold and mycotoxins which came back positive for multiple strains, so I am being treated for that as well. In addition to herbs and supplements, cold plunging has been very beneficial and exercising (like walking; low impact) daily.
Since I started seeing her (in February 2025) I feel like it’s been night and day. I went from relying on steroids and medications to now being completely medication-free and am more stable than I’ve ever been! I can be active now and attend my congregation again! And I’m no longer bound to the couch! My anxiety has gotten much better and soon I’m even hoping to get my driver’s license. It’s truly a dream come true!
As one of Jehovah’s Witnesses, I always clung to a better hope for the future but it has truly been a miracle to have a better hope TODAY, not just tomorrow! I love volunteering my time to help others learn about the Bible since it helped me remain courageous and not afraid during my worst times of suffering; it kept me going. It’s been so amazing to be able to preach again in-person instead of just writing letters! One of the scriptures that really helped me get through is found in Psalm 73:26 which says: “My body and my heart may fail, But God is the rock of my heart and my portion forever.”
If you’re in a dark time right now with your Lyme treatment or even if you just need some real hope, I invite you to check out JW.org! Everything on there is free of charge and Bible-based. It really helped me tremendously when I felt I couldn’t keep going. Maybe it can help you too! 🙂
Revelation 21:3, 4
Recently, my doctor told me I’ll be 100% no later than this coming fall! I can hardly believe it and am so grateful to have her as my doctor every day! I will need to be on a maintenance program for probably another year or so following this fall but I’m just so excited and beyond relieved to be getting better and truly getting a cure, not just getting rid of symptoms.
I want to express my heartfelt gratitude to LymeLight for the grant which has allowed me to get to the point where I am today and in the future! Thank you beyond words for all that you do! You’ve made this difficult journey so much easier for me and my family.
I hope my story can help you. Whatever you’re struggling with, no matter how terrible it is, never give up and keep looking to the future! God promises it will get better and we can have every confidence that he’ll keep his promise and that one day no one will say “I’m sick”. – Isaiah 33:24