2017, a tick behind the ear!

I don't keep many photos from that time. I really did want to erase it all. But a friend took this one and held onto it. This was after 2 weeks at the hospital. Liam's face looked better already and his symptoms were gone. He was about to be discharged.

Liam was home for two weeks, flat on the couch with a high fever and an ear swollen to twice its size. The doctor said not to worry, it would pass. But me, the ultra sensitive, intuitive mother that I am, I kept going back every few days with the sick kid in tow. I kept insisting they test him; put him on antibiotics. No way this was a virus. This had to be something bacterial, something bad. But the doctor kept sending us home.

Until 2 weeks had past, with Liam still laying on the couch, sweating from his never ending fever, he gave me that crooked smile!

I rushed to the doctor and one hour later, Liam was in the hospital getting a lumbar puncture.

The diagnosis: neuro Lyme. It's serious, but two weeks of IV antibiotics and some mouth exercises and he'll be back to his old self.

Facial paralysis, apparently, is pretty common with neuro Lyme. Nothing to worry about.