I Just Want My Brother Back
by Marie DiDario

I have always had a normal life for a kid. Every day, I would get up for school. Participating in sports and extracurricular activities after school would follow. On weekends, I would go out with my friends. I am just a typical kid living with the perfect American family and the normal everyday life, right? I could only wish for that type of living because my brother, Ed, has Lyme disease.

When I was just about the age of three, a boy my age would always pick on me and bully me around. However, Ed was always by my side to protect me from this nasty kid. That was when I knew my brother really loved me at such an early age. He protected me from the outside world.

Ed has been sick ever since I could remember. Even when I was not in school yet, I could recall countless nights of Ed complaining of a bad ear infection or something else. Then, when Ed was in fourth grade, his absences started piling up. Of course, all his classmates would crack jokes because they just could not understand what was going on.  As his sister, I wanted to protect him like he did for me, but how could I if I did not understand what was going on myself?

Finally, after endless trips to about forty doctors, my brother Ed was diagnosed with Lyme disease. By this time, he was in high school missing out on his freshman year. At first, he went to school on a regular basis, going every day for the first two months. After that, Ed started to have sleeping problems. Sleeping twenty to twenty-three hours a day, the only time I saw him was for the few seconds when I had to administer the many antibiotics he had to take.

Then, around the summer, Ed seemed to be getting better, and he was all excited about starting his sophomore year out on the right foot. The same events then occurred. Going to school the first few months, he would eventually get sick again. The same happened his junior year. During this time, Ed was being tutored, trying to get on the right track so he could keep up with his class. There were many times when I did not think he could do it.

Depression sunk into Ed's heart. I felt helpless, even though we became very close these past few years. I just felt I could not help him. No one has an idea how hard it is to see the pain in your brother's eyes of how he is suffering so badly. I, myself, do not even know what he really is going through.

It is now his senior year in high school. Ed started out going everyday trying with great effort to not let the reoccurring events happen again. However, they did. After the first couple of months, the sleeping problems started up again. Now this time, he cannot fall asleep until four or five o'clock in the morning. One could only imagine what that can do to a person. But the strong willed person that he is, my brother works hard every day to keep up with his school work. Tutors come almost every day, and I see the determination in his eyes to not let this illness control his  life. With the help of God and my mother, he will be graduating with his class in the spring.

I commend my brother very highly, for I could not go through what he is going though. He struggles to get by one day at a time. How he does it, I just do not know. I wish I could just protect him the way he once did when I was younger. I know Ed, though. He is a strong person who will fight to be a normal kid again. I, however, just want my brother back.

Note:   On July 2, 1997 three of Marie's tests came back extremely positive for Lyme disease

For more information on Lyme disease see: Lots Of Links On Lyme Disease

Last updated on 29 December 2000 by
Art Doherty
Lompoc, California
doherty@utech.net

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