by Sonya Rose Atkinson
I
I can’t hustle…
when some strange disease has attacked my joint and muscle.
I can’t think straight,
when I’m carrying all this added weight.
I can’t go on believing-
in a system that isn’t seeing.
I can’t dream for too long,
when I feel something inside me is so wrong.
I can’t solve a riddle,
with confusion and crying—dying in the middle.
I can’t do the things that I once could do…
If it hasn’t happened yet, it could happen to you.
I can’t stand the pain at times…
Am I really a victim of biological warfare—terrible crimes?
This is a very critical rhyme,
from a simple soul suffering with Lyme’s in her prime.
II
Wouldn’t you know, sprinkles are now coming down on my face:
I can barely feel the rain, yet I embrace-
God’s Grace is taking place.
I can almost see in the cloudy skies — a moving staircase.
Close to the ocean, I feel the big wind and my heart race.
Healing begins with a Wounded Healer, at a slow moving pace.
Sonya Rose Atkinson thinks she has had lyme disease for many years, but was just diagnosed last month. She received an LLMD referral after contacting Turn the Corner organization and had her biggest burst of energy just recently after her first month of antibiotics. She writes about her experience with lyme on her MySpace blog: Turning 39: In the Lyme Light Finally.
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Earthwalker is the username that PT founder Julie Genser created for her online interactions so many years ago when first creating Planet Thrive.
Julie's (Earthwalker's) life was derailed over twenty years ago when she had a very large organic mercury exposure after she naively used a mouth thermometer to measure the temperature of just-boiled milk while making her very first pizza at home. The mercury instantly expanded into a gas form and exploded out the back of the thermometer right into her face. Unaware that mercury was the third most neurotoxic element on Earth, Julie had no idea she had just received a very high dose of a poisonous substance.
A series of subsequent toxic exposures over the next few years -- to smoke from two fires (including 9/11), toxic mold, lyme disease, and chemical injuries -- caused catastrophic damage to her health. While figuring out how to survive day-to-day, and often minute-to-minute, she created Planet Thrive to help others avoid some of the misdiagnoses and struggles she had experienced.
She has clawed her way over many health mountains to get to where she is today. She is excited to bring the latest iteration of Planet Thrive to the chronic illness community.
In 2019, Julie published her very first cookbook e-book called Low Lectin Lunches (+ Dinners, Too!) after discovering how a low lectin, gluten free diet was helping manage her chronic fascia/muscle pain.
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Happy to see that you’re back on track…writing poetry again. However, it’s sad to see that our everyday health problems inspire us to write poems, songs, books, films, etc; but, then, again, they make the best art, give the best messages…We all can come together & relate somehow. You make great poetry videos. You could breathe life into this one… :) You have my greatest health blessings.
I honestly feel 100% better after being treated for Chronic Lyme Disease at the Malibu Hyperbaric Medical Center, while in the care of Dr. Ralph Potkin. Last year, I seriously felt as if I was dying. I’m not kidding: It was that strong, that real of a feeling.
However, something still didn’t feel right. Just couldn’t put my finger on it just yet.
I was led through a dream to get help for CLD in 2010, now, I had another one of its kind for the New Year, which led me to the Pink Lotus Breast Center in Los Angeles. I’m currently under the care of Dr. Kristi Funk for ILC (Invasive Lobular Carcinoma).
It will be another rough year, but, I feel strongly that I will get through it, with lots of love and care.
It’s sad to put your career and wedding on hold for so long, but it is what it is… for whatever reason, like survival -:) Gosh, we all want to feel our best.
My heart will be with… praying for those, and their families and friends, who may be facing similar situations. We are not alone. Today, more than ever, I feel so much a part of that circle of faith and healing~
I believe that it’s very healthy to keep on writing, whenever you’re able. I pushed myself so hard through the Lyme’s. The last blog that I wrote was called “Under the Radar” http://t.co/ZpxfjHv. Now, I feel almost certain that lady who came to warn me this time in my dream — to get checked for breast cancer — was no other than St. Agatha of Sicily… Patron Saint of Breast Cancer. My final diagnosis (after all the test results poured in) came on the starting day (Feb. 3rd) … of Catania’s (one of Sicily’s most important cities) annual festival to commemorate her life. She is now so much a part of me.
Must be some kind of divine power… Her story left me in tears… and made me stronger.
Thanks for the inspiration! Exactly one year later from your comment, Kyle (May 21, 2010)… I’m writing this one. I finally finished a poetry video tonight in between my chemo treatments for “Lose the Lyme: Save the Rhyme” — http://youtu.be/C3yz_n97wYY … Today’s an important date. My Oma’s birthday, Grandma from Bavaria. If she were alive today, she would be 108 years old!