A few weeks ago a friend contacted me about doing some product shots for Halo, Purely for Pets, a company co-owned by Ellen DeGeneres. As a vegetarian, I was at first slightly apprehensive; would it involve opening tins of meaty goo (imagine that under hot studio lights)? I did some research on the company, it’s philosophy and product lines. Halo’s mission: to provide people and their pets with honest information and wholesome products to better the lives of animals and the people who love them. I then read that Halo, Purely for Pets evolved from three guiding principles: balance, nature and love. I was SO impressed by this, I couldn’t help but enthusiastically get to work!

My brief was to create product pack shots and then, having a free hand, create some shots that highlighted the ingredients used in the products. Having read the ingredient lists, I discovered Halo, Purely for Pets is much, much more than your average pet food & pet treats! Heck, there are EVEN VEGETARIAN dog treats (see last photo: pumpkin and peanut biscuits)!!! I also discovered the other amazing ingredients they put into their pet products. For example, NEW Liv-a-Little® Healthsome™ dog biscuits with real chicken not only contain chicken, but also rolled oats, pumpkin, tomatoes, apples, sweet potatoes, cranberries, split peas, carrots, green beans, green bell pepper, celery and parsley - a vegetarian’s paradise!!!

This also got me thinking about my own pets. The dog I owned as a child who loved nothing better than to sneak into our vegetable garden and eat carrots directly out of the ground, or who loved to eat apples down to the core. Come to think of it, I don’t think there was a vegetable my dog didn’t like! Remembering all of this endeared me to Halo, Purely for Pets even more!

For more information about Halo, Purely for pets, check out their site, follow them on twitter, read about Halo Purely for Pets news via their blog, including this article which includes my photo of NEW Liv-a-Littles® Healthsome Well-Being™ treats with chicken & cheese, announcing this has been featured in h Magazine.

Pack shot of all Halo, Purely for Pets Liv-a-Littles® treats	Pack shot of Halo, Purely for Pets Spot’s Stew
NEW Liv-a-Little® Healthsome™ dog biscuits with real chicken. Ingredients also include apples - yum!	NEW Liv-a-Little® Healthsome™ dog biscuits with real chicken. Also made with green bell peppers, celery and tomatoes.

NEW Liv-a-Little® Healthsome™ dog biscuits with real chicken (and parsley).

NEW Liv-a-Little® Healthsome™ dog biscuits with real chicken made with oats, cranberries and split peas.

NEW Liv-a-Little® Healthsome™ dog biscuits with real chicken, noticably made with oats.

NEW Liv-a-Littles® Healthsome Well-Being™ treats with chicken & cheese. Also see Halo Purely for Pets Blog

NEW Liv-a-Littles® Healthsome™ dog biscuits/vegetarian with peanut ‘n pumpkin

Tweet This Post 

Portrait of Connie, May 2009

EARLY SYMPTOMS

In 1992 I was involved in a motorcycle accident where I suffered a neck injury, which left me with a host of neck, back and nervous system issues. I suddenly was suffering from migraines and constant pain in many parts of my body. Month after month I went to an osteopathic doctor for treatment, seeing only moderate improvement. I continued to do so with a new DO after moving to New Hampshire to start a job with the US Postal Service in 1995. I had recently gone through a divorce and the added stress of a new job plus the move overloaded me. I developed an anxiety disorder and ulcerative colitis, which complicated my physical ailments.

After remarrying in 1999 and moving to a rural town in southwestern NH, I started to feel worse instead of better. There were a lot of stressful things going on in my life at the time and the fact that I worked nights didn’t seem to help. In 2001 I had complained to my primary care physician about a number of symptoms that I thought could be anemia, but all tests were negative. My stress and anxiety levels were high, and since I had a history of PTSD, he put me on depression medication. After nearly a year, things had settled out enough in my life that I was able to stop that medication. I was still having headaches and chronic pain so I continued to see my DO every month. My husband began to question his competency, wondering why I had been seeing him for so long without getting better. I chalked it up to the nature of a neck injury, the fact that colitis is an autoimmune disease and the poor sleep from working nights. There were so many reasons why I just couldn’t get better. All I could do was live day to day and hope tomorrow wouldn’t be as bad.

LYME DIAGNOSIS

Fast forward to early 2007. We had moved to southeastern NH to shorten my drive to Maine where my daughter was still going to school (at my alma Mata) and where my family lived. I began to experience bouts of vertigo and decided to see my PCP for help. During the exam the doctor noticed I had an irregular heartbeat. Being a good patient, I passed this information on to my DO at my next visit. He paused for a moment and said, “I want to have you tested for Lyme.” Then he explained that the vertigo and irregular heartbeat together were symptoms of Lyme and he thought he had been “feeling” something in my nervous system consistent with his other Lyme patients. He was sure I had Lyme and insisted I get tested through a lab in California that specializes in Lyme.

Positive. By IGeneX standards, I had Lyme. By CDC standards, out of a necessary five positive markers I had four, plus one indeterminate (not negative, but not quite positive enough): as close as possible. I wanted to believe it. I wanted to deny it. I wanted it to be someone else, but not me. My DO was persistent yet understanding. He wanted to get my treatment started right away. After a weekend of discussing it with my husband and mourning the diagnosis, I started treatment. In the following months I went through tough days and horrible days. There were not many good days. I ached, I felt sick, I herxed (short for Herxheimer reaction when the bacteria die off and dump their toxins into your system all at once) at which time I would sleep for 16 hours. My husband had to lift me out of bed and walk me downstairs to go to the bathroom or eat and then help me back into bed. I don’t’ know how I managed to continue working nights full time.

Between the onset of my vertigo and my Lyme diagnosis, I developed severe brain fog. I couldn’t finish a sentence or remember what someone had said to me five minutes before. I was nauseous from the vertigo and its treatment and I had no energy. My body ached all over. I couldn’t stand in one place for long because my feet hurt too much. If I sat for very long, I would be stiff and sore when I tried to get up. How could I feel so old when I was only 42? The neurological symptoms piled up…eyelid and face twitches, tingling and numbness in my hands, stiff neck, knee pain, back pain, worsening eyesight as well as the vertigo and irregular heartbeat…all of the classic symptoms of Lyme, yet I still hesitated to fully accept the diagnosis. That happened gradually and as I educated myself about Lyme, I began to see Lyme everywhere, including in myself.

At my next visit to my PCP, he referred me to their resident infectious disease specialist. After meeting with him for less than 10 minutes, telling my story and showing him my test results, I got a dose of reality that I had only read about. He didn’t believe I had Lyme. He tried to explain away my symptoms because of all the other health problems I had. When I asked him what he thought I had, he said, “I’d sooner diagnose you with MS than with Lyme.” MS? I was in disbelief and I started to question it myself until he made a statement that shocked me back to reality. He said instead of Lyme, he thought I had a neurological disease. I was speechless (and not just from the brain fog). My head was screaming “Lyme IS a neurological disease!” Suddenly I realized that he was among the group of doctors who don’t believe Lyme is as prevalent as WE know it is. I decided an argument would be futile so I thanked him for his time and left.

For the past two years I have been on a number of different combinations of medications. Some have worked better than others, but that is the nature of Lyme treatment. What works for one person may not work for another. I have slowly regained my mind and body, though at a cost. Like others, I have had to modify how I live. I still work nights, but I take time off when I feel I need to recharge. I try not to push myself beyond my limits unless I know I can make up for it soon afterwards. My family has grown to understand how I cope with my limitations and have made accommodations to help me. For that I am ever grateful.

HOPE

I don’t know what to say about what gives me hope; I just wanted to feel better. I was sick and tired of being sick and tired (cliché, but it fits). I needed to keep going for my daughter (who graduates from high school this year) and my husband, whom I love traveling with. He was my rock through the toughest times. After his long days at work, he would do all the household stuff I just couldn’t handle so I could sleep more. He held me when I needed to feel safe, cried with me when I was having a particularly hard day and encouraged me when I wanted to give up. Most days he would come home, cook dinner, and then ask, “Which meds do you need?” and go get them for me so I could just relax on the couch. He took care of me and made me feel like I really could get through it all. For that I can never thank him enough.

Outside of my family, I found hope in an online support group who helped spread ideas and information as well as chare stories and encourage each other. Oddly enough, my hope came in reading of someone else’s hardship. It made me realize that no matter how bad I thought I had it, I was really one of the lucky ones. I could still work full time and managed to have a relatively normal life. If these people could soldier on, so could I. My thanks to them for sharing their lives with strangers that they may never even know they helped. Through them I discovered a website created by a woman who has Lupus. www.butyoudontlooksick.com Lyme and Lupus have many similar symptoms, like a lot of other autoimmune diseases. Her Spoon Theory summed up my life with Lyme and I have used the story to help explain to friends & coworkers how I deal with Lyme day to day. Many thanks to her for sharing her hope.

INSPIRATIONS

Besides my family, I am inspired by my hobbies of photography and traveling. Photography lets me experience beauty and emotion and shows me that there is a great overall plan to the world. It makes me want to get up and out to enjoy nature and take part in life rather than fade away on the sidelines. The thought of traveling to somewhere new excites me. I feel like a new person when I’m in a new place. If I’m traveling with others and having a bad day, I will often put on a brave face to make sure those around me don’t get bogged down feeling bad for me. Oddly enough, that has helped me get through some tough days. It’s amazing how much strength you can have for another’s sake when you don’t have the strength for yourself!

FINAL THOUGHTS

Everything happens for a reason. I have always believed this and have tried to see the greater good that comes from adversity. Though my battle with Lyme disease has come at a personal cost, I have already seen some good come from it. While on a business trip for the Postal Service, I was discussing the effects of one medication with a man who worked in the Trenton, NJ postal facility that was shut down because of the anthrax mailings. As a precaution, everyone who worked there was put on Cipro, which I had recently been on. I explained that I was taking it for Lyme disease when the man sitting behind me from Albany, GA suddenly said, “You have Lyme? What are your symptoms?” The intensity in his voice was overwhelming. He had been bitten by a tick six months prior and had since developed serious cognitive issues and vertigo. When he heard that vertigo was one of my main symptoms, he said, “I think I’ve got it!” That afternoon he went to the local hospital and insisted on being tested. As it turned out, he did have Lyme. He immediately began treatment and has since recovered well. If not for that chance meeting and the discussion about anthrax and Cipro, he might not have been diagnosed soon enough to recover so well.

The bottom line is that I have Lyme. It is personal to me, but I choose to share my story in the hopes that someone will be helped by the experience I have to offer. I feel that I will never be totally free of Lyme because of the length of time it ran unchecked in my body. Today I alter how I do certain things in order to maintain some semblance of normalcy. I have been off all Lyme medications for only a month so I can get a better understanding of how well I am. Maybe I’ll stay off them, maybe I won’t. That remains to be seen. I don’t know what tomorrow will bring, but I’m doing what I can to enjoy today.

Tweet This Post