One of the things that brings me solace in challenging times is reading and writing fiction. I particularly love mysteries, so much so that I have now written and published two of them.

My newest, Fragment of Doubt, is an entertaining, suspenseful read with a plot that revolves around Lyme disease. I hope it will turn the lights on for readers who may be unknowingly infected.

In Fragment of Doubt, my protagonist, a social worker and reluctant clairvoyant, begins to learn about Lyme disease through a client, a friend, and her own sister. She simultaneously becomes entangled in an investigation of a bioweapons laboratory experimenting with ticks.

Those of us who know we’re struggling with Lyme read everything we can get our hands on to learn more about this challenging illness. But people who have no clue that their symptoms might be Lyme-related, who know nothing about the intractable conflicts in the medical field around diagnosis and treatment, are left in the dark.

Lyme can be painful, frightening, and isolating

It’s true that you don’t “get” Lyme until you get it. Once I did get it—the infections took me down. The intimate relationship I developed with this illness was painful, frightening, isolating, and despair-inducing.

I suspect my first tick bite occurred in 1983 when few knew Bell’s Palsy could be a red flag for Lyme. That first infection was mild and I recovered, unaware of any lingering issues.

I suspect my second tick bite occurred six years later. A summer flu pummeled me with bronchitis, fever, and body aches. Subsequently, fatigue and joint pain became unwelcome companions.

I also became reactive to new paint, new carpets, fragrances, chemicals, and foods—as many of us do—because Lyme can derange our immune systems. I had no idea this was Lyme disease, but in retrospect I have little doubt.

I adapted my private psychotherapy practice by reducing my hours. Treatments with an environmental medicine specialist, acupuncturists, naturopaths, osteopaths, and energy healers helped me heal. When I recovered, I traveled, studied esoteric healing modalities, and returned to cross-country skiing, ice-skating, and biking.

Unfortunate relapse

I was relatively well for many years until I came home from a sunny summer day at a state park with a pinprick on the side of my knee that looked like a tiny hole from a sewing needle. There was no tick. The site itched and burned, and began to look like an ulcerated hive surrounded by a pink donut. Doctors at the ER diagnosed an allergic reaction to a spider bite.

Luckily, my husband, an osteopathic physician, was learning about Lyme from his patients, ILADS workshops, and consultations with renowned physician Richard Horowitz.

My IGeneX test was positive for Lyme, bartonellosis, anaplasmosis, ehrlichiosis, Epstein-Barr, and babesiosis. I was lucky to become a patient of Dr. Horowitz and began an intense treatment protocol.

As many of you may know, time blurs when you’re living with Lyme. It may have taken a year or more before I recovered and returned to a reasonably full life. I began taking writing classes, and took up swimming, kayaking, and bicycling. I did well for about ten years until I began a slow slide into another multi-factorial relapse.

This time, I couldn’t do much beyond reading, sleeping, sipping tea, and taking slow walks with my dog. Occasionally, I attended writing workshops. To distract myself from pain, fatigue, and tedium, I returned to writing the mystery I’d begun during my first serious bout with Lyme.

Writing what I knew

In Termination of Benefits, I wrote what I knew from my psychotherapy training and practice, focusing on relationships and weaving information about the symptoms of trauma, treatment options, and recovery into a suspenseful story about mental health professionals targeted by a psychopath.

At the same time, I co-created and co-led workshops with a colleague and friend who also struggled with Lyme. We taught other psychotherapists about the social, emotional, economic, and neuropsychiatric consequences of Lyme disease. I wrote articles for a social work newsletter—pointing out symptoms psychotherapists might be misidentifying in their clients, such as the anxiety and panic attacks Bartonella can cause.

I worked on other writing projects, too, and committed to writing a second mystery that would inform readers about the many ways Lyme disease devastates lives. My personal experience and research informed Fragment of Doubt.

You all know—but many people don’t—how we can be pathologized by physicians who don’t understand the course and progression of these infections, physicians who still don’t understand the unreliability of tests or the need to diagnose and treat based on signs and symptoms, or the importance of checking for co-infections.

Physicians, extended family, and friends often don’t understand the toll tick-borne illness takes on our emotional, physical and financial health—as well as on our relationships.

The realities of Lyme

Fragment of Doubt is a suspenseful mystery that braids women’s friendships with the delights of romance and the realities of Lyme. I’ll leave you with my favorite endorsement because it so perfectly says it all:

It is rare to find a book that so gracefully weaves genres and themes–mystery, romance, trauma-informed psychotherapy, public health, even the mystical–and still tells an authentic and riveting tale, but Fragment of Doubt does just that…Those treating Lyme or recovering from it will appreciate the careful attention given to accurate information about the fastest growing–and most misunderstood–epidemic of our age.

…Newcomers will be inadvertently empowered with information that could save their lives. And all will leave this special book with borrowed memories of a few weeks in Maine with close friends, solving a mystery in between quiet moments appreciating dragonflies in dappled sunlight.         

~Dr. Kristin Reihman, Author of Life After Lyme, and Host of The Life After Lyme Coaching Program.

Author Jane Sloven is a writer, retired psychotherapist, and attorney. She lives in Maine.