Lyme Disease Awareness Month: Author Rebecca Wells's 'survivor heart' triumphed after a 12-year misdiagnoses
Bestselling and highly acclaimed author of 'Divine Secrets of the Ya-Ya Sisterhood' Rebecca Wells' story of battling Lyme disease is an inspiring one. From being misdiagnosed for over a decade to finally learning how to combat the disease like a pro, Wells truly has a 'survivor's heart' that aims to positively spur people afflicted by the disease, awareness surrounding which is still obscure.
Back in 2004, Wells was reportedly diagnosed with chronic neurological Lyme disease while on a book tour. In her previous interviews, she has also spoken about how she misconstrued it was a bad cold, adding that the lack of proper diagnosis for 12 years led to the illness making its way to her neurological system.
Spread by the bite of a tick, if Lyme disease is misdiagnosed or diagnosed years later, it is known to leave the victim with symptoms that are debilitating. The illness affects many of the body's systems such as the nervous system, joints and heart resulting in so many different symptoms making it hard to find an accurate diagnosis. While Wells also suffered the same for the longest time, it was only after going to an environmental medicine doctor that she was finally diagnosed with Lyme. Now sitting on the honorary board of the Lyme Disease Association, Wells has always been a firm advocate about the necessity for proper diagnoses for the disease.
Speaking to MEA WorldWide (MEAWW) about how she rose from the ashes of misdiagnoses and lives with the illness like a pro, Wells said: "I have many heroes and heroines. Along with my family and friends, included in my pantheon are the doctors, acupuncturists, intuitive healers, hyperbaric oxygen tank operators, nurses, lab technicians, other patients, and a whole host of unbidden angels who administered to me during the darkest years of Lyme--and the activists who would not be silent. This survivor heart of mine is busted open with gratitude."
As for the facts and the dangers of being misdiagnosed, Wells has said in a 2009 interview with Goodreads: "I hope that many people will learn about Lyme disease because it has been reported in every single state. Sadly, it can be passed in utero and most people don't know it, so children are getting misdiagnosed with cancer. There is such a shortage of Lyme-literate pediatricians, and the children are just so sick. The very first research institute just opened up at Columbia University last spring. It needs research money, and it needs more primary care doctors to learn about it. And we need to tuck our socks into our pants when we go outside."