About the Author

 Jenna Smith has been a competitive dressage rider (USDF bronze and silver medalist) for the past five years. The picture at left was taken during a victory gallop after winning third place (for adult amateurs) at Prix St. Georges in Saugerties, New York at the Region 8 Championships – 2 weeks before coming down with a “mysterious” flu-like illness.

Within weeks Jenna went from daily riding workouts to spending her days bedridden in a darkened room.

"What really frightened me was the combination of symptoms – acute abdominal pain, body aches and chills, itchy rash, joint pain, profound weakness, debilitating sensitivity to light and sound, repeated migraines, dizziness, brain fog and wild mood swings - all of which I had suffered with over the years at different times – but separately.  Previous doctor visits and medical tests revealed nothing, and the symptoms always resolved themselves so I stopped going to the doctor when something flared up. I never dreamed it was all tied together – and I didn’t know a thing about Lyme Disease (other than the risk to horses!)”

Luckily, a friend introduced her to a “Lymie Old-timer” who steered her to a Lyme-literate doctor right away. Still, it was thousands of dollars and many, many tests later before getting positive results on a western blot and starting aggressive oral antibiotics.

“I feel fortunate that I had a diagnosis within 3 months – it felt like 3 years because I was so sick, but compared to so many – it was fast. I was also lucky to have a primary care doctor who was open to working with the Lyme specialist – otherwise the insurance company would not have covered the mounting expenses.”

Unfortunately, the oral antibiotics didn’t seem to work, and Jenna’s doctors ordered IV antibiotics. A CD-57 was ordered which confirmed the long-term nature of the disease – a count of 28 after 4 months of treatment (acceptable range is 60 – 360 but for Lyme patients a count of 200 is desired before ending treatment), and provided a goal for IV treatment.

“If you’ve suffered with Lyme disease, you know how frustrating and depressing it can be – especially for someone active like me. Food shopping, laundry and household chores never even registered on my daily list – I just squeezed them in between riding, gardening, managing a working horse farm and a mortgage business – now I have to plan a whole day to do laundry and I still haven’t the strength to leave the house let alone run errands.”

As Jenna struggled through the roller-coaster of good days and bad days, she tried to utilize any clear days to research as much as possible about the disease, and any life-style and diet changes recommended for beating illness. This website is the result of that effort.

“It was so frustrating to find a list of suggestions, and then have to search for the web for the right products. I found a lot of great information in a great many places, but felt that a central resource site would help other people – especially for those who suspect they have Lyme disease.”

Jenna is married to her childhood sweetheart and business partner Scott Smith (www.stonemountainmortgage.net) and they have six children and live on a lake in the western mountains of Maine. She is also the author of the action/adventure novel, The Goddess of Sumer