I am a 36 year old female. I live with my husband and our four kids in rural British Columbia, Canada. We both have degrees in engineering, but have opted for a more quiet life. We live in the country. He fixes furnaces. I homeschool our kids. It works.

I have clinical diagnoses of Lyme and Babesia. I had a Western Blot test and Lyme Multiplex PCR test, whatever that is, from IGeneX labs. THe PCR came back negative and the Western Blot was indeterminate. I didn't have any further testing. I'm not sure if I should or not. I am currently being treated for the Babesia by my Naturopathic Doctor, as I couldn't find an MD to take me seriously. And she's the one who thought of Lyme in the first place. She's giving me a bunch of pills and tintures to support my system and something called Acute Malaria Formula by Heron Botanicals to kill the bacteria. I started that about 5 or 6 weeks ago.

I am not exactly sure when I was infected. I think it was in 2002, when I went walking in the woods in Indiana. It could have been any time, though, because I've lived in areas where Lyme disease is present for at least the last 25 years, and I fought depression from when I was 16 until late 2000. I have been obviously sick (and not simply depressed or tired) since early 2004.

My primary symptoms are extreme fatigue, difficulty breathing, and confusion/difficulty concentrating/understanding. I've read it called air hunger and it's a perfect description of it. It's not like I'm out of breath, but I just can't get enough air. That's constant. I never feel like I have enough air, although I know I'm not going to get it, so I've trained myself to just ignore it and breathe normally. I also have pain in my joints (I was also diagnosed with Fibromyalgia late last year), but the fatigue is what keeps me from doing anything. I just don't have the energy. And if I push it and try to do it anyways, everything just gets worse.

I am very sick. Some days, the only things I do are get out of bed and go to the bathroom. On my best days, I manage to fold a load of laundry, but at least I can think reasonably clearly. My eldest two are almost 11 and 13, and the bear the brunt of day to day life. My mother comes over every week on her days off to do laundry and make lunch for everyone. My husband's boss's wife makes us dinner sometimes. My husband does the rest.