When Lyme Leads to Cancer — My Untold Story – Part 1 of 4

As you might have heard by now, May is Lyme Awareness Month and so I want to use this time to talk about something that’s been a huge part of my journey — something no one warned me about, but I really wish they had.

It started almost 30 years ago with Lyme disease, something that messed with my body for years and near the end of that time I was misdiagnosed with fibromyalgia, only after being told nurmerous times that there’s nothing wrong with me but thanks to the help of a Lyme specialist, Dr Ernie Murakami, I was able to put myself into a state of remission … only to find myself facing cancer a few years later.

Today, I’m connecting the dots for anyone else who’s currently living this nightmare but first I’m going to back up a bit to where I went undiagnosed for 4.5 years, which is sadly very common and during that time I saw around 15 doctors and specialists, went through endless tests, and still had no answers. Is this is sounding like you?

Over time I was labelled as a drug seeker, told it was all in my head, even dismissed with ignorant suggestions from nurses like “put on some makeup and go shopping, you’ll be okay.” In the meantime, Lyme was destroying my body and even my will to live, and by the time I found out I had Lyme, the damage was already done. I was deep in the chronic illness hole and had no clue how far it was going to go.

Then came the recovery part— if you can call it that. Two years of double-dosed oral antibiotics, rotating combinations that unbeknownst to me, tore through my gut like a wrecking ball, even though I tried to protect it with food and probiotics.  I got through it, sure, but “surviving” left me with leaky gut, adrenal fatigue, and hormonal chaos never mind everything else.

Here’s the kicker: after all of that; the antibiotics, the gut damage, the trauma – I was diagnosed with breast cancer a just a few years later. What do you even do with that? Looking back at the wreckage — the medical gaslighting, the stress, the trauma, trying all sorts of pills, losing my quality of life — it was a slow-burning fuse to yet another bomb, and here’s a truth I want to share: Lyme didn’t just destroy my immune system. It set the stage for cancer…and no one warned me.

Not one doctor said, “You’ve been in a chronic state of illness for so long that if you don’t heal, something worse could happen.” Nope. Just more symptom suppression and moving me back out the door as fast as possible.  But it wasn’t just the Lyme, it was also the treatments – the trauma of it all and a failing system that gave me no answers. It was the loss of health, relationships, my career, and the daily stress of fighting just to be believed, or even validated.

That toxic storm didn’t go away when the bacteria did. The damage stayed, and here’s what I’ve learned from this: You can’t slap a Band-Aid on chronic illness. If you don’t rebuild from the inside out, your body will keep screaming, and eventually it might even scream cancer. What does that mean? It means Lyme remission doesn’t equal recovery. The damage doesn’t undo itself. Your gut stays wrecked. Your immune system stays offline, and eventually, it opens the door to yet another serious challenge that nobody wants or needs. 

Cancer thrives in an unresolved mess of chronic inflammation, stress, and a shattered gut and if you’re not rebuilding, not giving your body what it needs, it creeps in very quietly. I’m still devastated that no one told me this was possible, and I don’t want that to happen to you. If you’ve battled Lyme or any chronic illness and think the war is over? I’m telling you, sorry, but it’s not. 

If you don’t rebuild, you’re setting yourself up for another fight down the road, so don’t wait. Don’t wait until your body shuts down or cancer shows up, start now. Rebuild your gut, calm your nervous system, and fuel your body with real nutrition, meaning clean food, probiotics, healthy fats, and good digestible protein. Not the garbage the system sells…The real stuff.  I’ve lived it, and if I’d known how deeply Lyme broke my body, I would’ve acted sooner.

I would’ve started rebuilding right away, but if you’re just learning this now, the good news is that it’s not too late for you. You still have time to take control, so don’t let Lyme, or any chronic illness for that matter, set you up for cancer! You have the power to stop it before it even starts, so please join me next week when I break down what immune system collapse really looks like: How Chronic Lyme Wears Down the Body’s Defenses. 

In the meantime, if you’re looking for down to earth know-how or knowledge to start rebuilding yourself with, you’re welcome to start in my wellness center where there’s all sorts of great articles, interviews with experts, recipes and more. Drop the word HELP if you’re interested in learning what all worked for me, I’d be happy to share.

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