108 Fighting For A Cure with Lauren Lovejoy of Lyme Warrior and Suzanne Burden

<ul> <li> <p>Bio-From Grad Student and workaholic to bed-bound Lyme patient, Lauren started Lyme Warrior four years ago when she learned the struggle of Lyme first hand and knew she had to help. Lauren holds a Masters in Analytics and has years of experience in promotion and the legal field. She is working to empower those with Lyme Disease and help others to join together to make a change while still fighting her personal battle with Lyme Disease.  To date, Lyme Warrior has given over $70,000 to Lyme research, Lyme patients in need, and shipped over 300 Kid's Smile boxes to children suffering from Lyme Disease. Lauren lives in Virginia with her best friend and teammate Eric where they run an Airbnb and regenerative agriculture farm. </p> <p> </p> <p>Key Takeaways:</p> <ul> <li>Loving someone with Lyme is complicated.</li> <li>Seemingly overnight,  Lauren began dealing with anxiety and panic attacks and became bed-bound while searching for answers. (10:00)</li> <li>Self-advocacy is so important when you are being dismissed by practitioners. If you can learn anything from this episode, learn that you must be driving your own healthcare journey. (12:00)</li> </ul> </li> <li>“Yeah, after two years...I finally found a diagnosis.” followed by the crushing reality that recovering from Lyme is, in fact, awful, and it didn’t work.</li> <li>I turned to the Lyme Facebook groups for answers on how to heal.</li> <li> <ul> <li>A crash landing can happen when you are close to healing.</li> <li>Our 4th date consisted of moving across the country for treatment. Dating while going through the unknowns of being in treatment.</li> <li>Tapping into your intuition...keep doing what is working. </li> </ul> </li> <li>Accepting care as a vulnerable patient can be very difficult. When you do find people who can help you heal, you must let them into your world.</li> <li> <ul> <li>Try and stay open to the possibilities around you, even when you are suffering. </li> </ul> </li> <li>“If you focus on the problems, you will miss the op