So in March 2011, I received a request on facebook. I set up a VERY small group a few years ago for my friends in NC and SC that have Lyme. When we started, there were maybe 5 of us. Now it's grown to 37 of us. I personally now have met 10 of them including Whitney. So in March I received a "I want to join your group" request. Whenever I get one of these requests, I pretty much send back some questions to the person. It goes something like this:
Hi, My name is Jennifer and I'm the cofounder of (insert group name here). In order to process your request, I need some information from you.
1. Do you have Lyme?
2. Where do you live?
3. How did you hear about the group?
She replies back that she lives in (----insert city name here---- which is about an hour and 10 minutes from me actually). That she's not sure that she has Lyme, but is certain she does. She goes on to tell me a little bit about her symptoms and while usually I don't add people that aren't certain they have Lyme, I figured what the harm. Plus on her friend's list we had a friend in common. And it was a real life friend. So I partially wondered if my friend had told her about my story and was also convinced it was Lyme. In hindsight, they don't know each other. My friend probably thinks that Whitney is another Whitney, but that's another story for another day.
So anyways, Whitney joins my group and we chat for a while. I highly recommend my doctor and to my surprise she starts to go to him. I often will refer people to my Lyme doctor, but honestly 9 out of 10 people start somewhere else first and then come back to me 6 to 10 months later asking for the name of my doctor again.
Well when I first started seeing him, I was completely overwhelmed. All the medications and supplements was enough to drive anyone crazy, much less someone consumed with neuroborreliosis (or with the 'chetes' as we like to call them). So I took a morning and went over to help her organize a chart for her medicine. We became fast friends.
So yesterday, I went to her raffle benefit. OH My WORD. We laughed and laughed until we could laugh no more. We shared our laughter with three other Lymies. Two were from our small group. What a blessing. I didn't win the TV, but I did win award winning looks like this:
Unfortunately, my camera was dying and I didn't get a photo on my camera of Whitney & me.
Hopefully the photo that the reporter took will be much more flattering of the both of us. Yes, there was a reporter. Now most of the time people say "reporter" and I get so nervous that I revert back to introverted Jennifer. Well I met Erin and just absolutely felt like she was friend I hadn't met yet. She was completely awesome and has done two amazing stories on Whitney. I think there will be a third story and she asked for the correct spelling of my name. So I'll probably be in the paper coming up soon of me & my newest best Lyme friend.
Ps. The another story for another day can be shortened for today:
My mother works with a lady that has the same name as Whitney's mother who also has a daughter named Whitney. They live a few counties apart. So my friend Whitney gets a lot of the other Whitney's friend requests. So more than likely, my friend *T* thought she was the other Whitney.
Pps: want to read the stories?
First Lyme article on Whitney: http://www.aconews.com/articles/2011/05/19/noc/news/news13.txt
Second Lyme article on Whitney: http://www.aconews.com/articles/2011/07/06/noc/news/news7.txt
No comments:
Post a Comment