The Perennial Border

Hello! If anyone out there is wondering if this is another one of those well meaning blogs that get forgotten about, well… we are back.

The reason for the delay here was my continuing battle with Lyme disease. Whether or not Physicians and insurers can agree if  there is such a thing as chronic Lyme and it’s coinfections, I can tell you first hand that there is.

About the time of the last post, I became ill with what I thought was depression and severe anxiety. I was barely able to make it into work, and once I got there I was not sure what to do. My cognitive skills were severely impaired but luckily my physical health was intact.

I later learned that this was my second bout with Lyme disease, accompanied this time by a secondary infection of Babesia, also  carried by Ticks. After 4 months of antibiotics, both oral and intravenous, I am back to my old self or close to it.

Please, when gardening or walking through tick infested areas, fields with tall grass and stone walls, make sure you take proper precautions. Wear  light colored clothing, long pants and tuck them into your boots or socks. Treat you clothing with permethrin sprays (they last through several washings) and use repellants such as  picaridin and some of the skin so soft avon products. Check yourself thoroughly when home, dry your clothing for 20 minutes on high and shower immediately. Have someone check you daily.

I highly recommend reading Dr. Richard Horowitz’s book “Why Can’t I Get Better?:m Solving the Mystery of Lyme and Chronic Disease”.  It is filled with good information.

Find a Lyme literate physician and attend a support group. Feel free to contact me. At some point we hope to have talks based on this topic for those of us who work and play outdoors.

Thanks to the support of my co-workers, Chris Elliot, Felipe Aparicio, Joe Caputo and Dan Pecquex, I was able to continue working. My employer, Fred Landman never stopped encouraging me to rest and delegate.

Back to what we are about here; The photo we put up in March  of the Perennial Border under construction now looks like this. What an amazing transformation, and more to come in the future. Stay tuned!

Thanks. Alan