They could not explain what was going on. One doctor told me: Well, you know, you're going to die some day anyway.

Rick Houle
Grand Prairie, TX

I went to an infectious disease doctor in New York with a positive Lyme test, with the tick in a plastic bag, with a bite wound, with classic symptoms, and he still said: Well, I don't think this is Lyme.

Thaddeus Gamory
Fort Lauderdale, FL

My biggest outrage is that I have lived and worked in the medical community so many years--I just am so angry that they're not willing to be flexible enough to understand there could be another disease out there that's devastating people.

Caroline Brown
Springfield, CT

I can't make myself think. It's like I'm trying to run to this tunnel where I can think. But there's a rock blocking the tunnel and I can't get to it.

Jeb Cliber
Frederick, MD

I've spent $150,000 over the last ten years. Last year alone, I spent $30,000. Most of it was not covered by insurance.

Rick Smith
Reston, VA

Simply by having Lyme disease, I have been drawn into the medical schism over both diagnosis and treatment. I now know the greatest danger that borrelia has highlighted: ignorance.

Amy Tan
San Francisco, CA

A lot of it was just frustration about the medical system and how I went through so many years unable to get an answer or get any kind of treatment or support of any kind.

Debbie Cubillos
Schenectady, NY

A lot of people just think it's a small thing that you get and then get over--like the flu. On my bad days, I can hardly walk across the room without passing out.

Callie Darms
Marlton, NJ

Lyme disease has been labeled as a yuppie disease, which is why people of color may not feel as if they fall into that category. Lyme disease knows no color.

Lisa DeBois-Murray
Ellicott City, MD

Another day with the pain and the confusion: You don't want to go on. It's just easier to close your eyes and hope that you die.

Stephanie Donovan
Whitinsville, MA

It's a feeling of hopelessness because no one believes you--that you're having all of these symptoms. So you just feel sort of trapped, and like you're sliding down inside this big black hole.

Carol Ellingsen
Everton, MO

I haven't been able to help my little girl with her schoolwork. I just have not been able to, for several months, be a father or a husband at all.

Mark Asher
Ellicott City, MD

We probably spent $75-$100,000 on treatment. My insurance companies over the years barely, barely, scratched the surface.

Staci Grodin
New York, NY

I thought I was going crazy because it's not something so obvious that people think you're sick. They're like: You're sick? What do you mean you're sick?

Shaconna Haley
Springfield, VA

It changes you physically. It changes you emotionally. It changes you mentally. And you are not the same person as a result of this bacteria.

Kristin Hill
Salisbury, NC

I think Lyme disease is endemic in the UK. But we're all misdiagnosed with other spectrums of illness--from ulcers to Alzheimer's, to everything in between. I was diagnosed with chronic fatigue, fibromyalgia, and I just got sicker and sicker.

Brian O'Flynn
Blackpool, England

What the doctor said to me was: I don't think you are sick. I don't think there's anything wrong with you. You want attention and this is your way of getting it.

Jennifer Kane
Arbor Vitae, WI

I went to bed fine, and woke up unable to move from the waist down and the neck up. And I wouldn't walk again for a year and a half.

Brooke Landau
Los Angeles, CA

I couldn't get up off of the floor because I lost all functioning of walking. And I have not walked since.

Karen Lesinsky
Cincinatti, OH

Hair loss, cognitive problems, hearing problems, sight problems, loss of taste and smell, TMJ, heart problems, muscle and joint problems, peripheral neuropathy, migraines, stomach problems: It's a long laundry list.

Kathleen Liporace
Melbourne, FL

I was a fireman, paramedic, nurse, world traveler. I went from jogging mountain hills five to ten miles a day, to not being able to get out of bed.

Bernadette Lopez
Front Royal, VA

I thought I was going to die. In my darkest days, I did not think there was a possibility that I was going to recover.

Mary Cochran
Landenberg, PA

I felt like I had no one, because after a little while--when you're at your local doctor and they're saying, We don't think there's anything wrong with you--even your family starts to kind of get that glazed look over their eyes.

Mike McNally
Binghamton, NY

I would have to crawl to the bathroom because I had no energy and was so weak. I had to find people that could walk my dog for me, go to the grocery store for me, come and bring me food.

Linda Messier
Austin, TX

So I gave him my case history and he basically said, Well what do you do for a living? And I said I was a housewife with three children. And he said: Well, I don't think you have Lyme. I think you're bored.

Colleen Nicholson
Great Falls, MT

The doctors thought I had ADD. They gave me the wrong medicines and stuff, which kind of messed me up more. Now I'm doing much better because I'm on the right medicines.

Chase Paisley-Sparlin
Solana Beach, CA

I don't feel good. I don't know--I get sleepy. My brain gets tired.

Hunter Paisley-Sparlin
Solana Beach, CA

I remember the doctor looking into my face and telling me that he believed I was not paralyzed. He told me that he thought I had a panic attack and that my choice was to get up and walk out, or to admit myself into the psych unit.

Laura Paisley
Solana Beach, CA

Every day we sit together at the table to eat--Lyme, it's there. Lyme is there with us. Every time we go out--Lyme, it's there with us.

Virginia Anez
Greenacres, FL

I'm still looking for a primary care doctor in my area. And every time I say I have Lyme disease, they say, I'm not the doctor for you.

Name Withheld

I've been to 45 doctors at this point. It's been nine years. I've spent over $100,000 out of pocket. Taken over 35,000 pills. Given 300 vials of blood.

Scott Forsgren
San Jose, CA

I was standing in the bathroom one night. I couldn't decide why I was there. Was I supposed to get into the shower? Was I supposed to get out of the shower?

Barbara Roberts
Bridgewater, VA

I lose track of roads. I can't finish sentences. I can't think. I would like to be able to do things like just mow the lawn.

Bill Jackson
Fayetteville, AR

I started having problems with thinking and getting lost driving home from the grocery store on roads I'd driven for years--and word retrieval problems. My life was turned upside down.

Christa Sherrod
Nashville, TN

We've had several of our friends test positive for Lyme--that probably would have not gone and gotten tested had we not insisted. I'm glad we can help other people know what to look for and how to be treated.

Benjamin Simmons
Fairfield, NC

That's where I stayed and that's where I lived was in my bed--not seeing any light of recovery for what the doctors were doing for me.

Pam Simmons
Fairfield, NC

When I picked up the mail I got a little yellow slip that said I was not eligible for Social Security Disability. So I parked in the garage and closed the garage door, and I kept the engine on. I did not see any reason to carry on.

Richard Sylver
East Dennis, MA

I was terrified that I was going to lose my sight and I didn't want to live without it. The worst part of Lyme disease is I feel like I'm living half a life.

Maria Yaworski
Alexandria, VA

I had one family doctor tell me that it was a bad nightmare, and that I was going to wake up and everything was going to be fine.

Joell Szachara
Frederick, MD

My greatest fear is that I will always be like this and I won't be able to spend the time as my boys are growing up and spend time with my family.

Rick Thomas
Sterling, VA

It takes away your job, your wellbeing, your ability to support yourself and your family--financially and emotionally. It takes away everything.

Gretchen Witzgall
Apex, NC

I used to be an athlete. I'm currently disabled, disabled because of my disease. Chronic Lyme disease affected my memory--short term, long term--my balance. I'm unable to drive.

Steve Mason
Tolland, CT

We've had two sons and my husband tested, and we all test positive for Lyme. My fight with Lyme is probably going to last a lifetime.

Tricia Platas
Springfield, VA

I felt like I was dying, and the only thing I thought I could do was write a last will and testament--to tell my parents I love them. I thanked them for sticking through two years of going to doctor after doctor after doctor, and believing me when I said I was sick.

Geoffrey Wiggins
Cary, NC