Jackson Reclaims Athletic Life After Overcoming Chronic Lyme Disease Symptoms

Before we found Arbor Health, we were actually not in a great spot. Jackson had been diagnosed with Lyme disease, and it's something that we had been battling for just shy of a year and a half. He had had all of these weird things happening to his joints. So he would wake up and something would be swollen or hurt or locked up, and we were just really confused. So we took him to just about every doctor we could think of. He went to see his pediatrician. He went to see Ortho. He went to multiple PTs, and everyone just said he had tendonitis and to do a couple of PT sessions and he would be fine. And honestly, he did get better, but it just kept coming back, and nobody seemed to be helping us. So we ended up getting referred from two different friends to Arbor Health. And we started started our sort of healing journey at that point. Before Arbor Health, it was really tough. I wasn't able to do any of the things that I liked doing, like all my sports I couldn't do. I was really just stuck by myself. Probably two months prior to Arbor Health, he woke up one morning and his knee was so swollen that he couldn't bend it. He couldn't weight-bear on it. He couldn't do anything. And I panicked. I called in every favor I had, and we ended up at a friend's house who is an Ortho PT and he's the one that said, I think you should have him tested for Lyme. The doctors that we went to really just made me feel, at least, that it was my fault and that I was being ridiculous. What made me say yes to Arbor Health was partly the recommendations that we had received were from really trusted individuals. And I had been along their journey for different things and had seen them get better and feel better and rejoin things that they wanted to. When we walked in, you can just feel it. It's calm, caring. You just feel like you're being taken care of immediately when you walk in. Our care team has been amazing. They were also willing to take all the other doctors' input as well, which I didn't expect. I kind of thought it would be it has to be 100% functional medicine and nothing else. And that's not how it was. So I was super impressed that they were all-encompassing, just feeling like you're taking care of the whole body and not just the one knee that was bothering him at the time. If there was anything that was going to make me hesitate to get started with Arbor Health, I guess it probably would have been that it was a tad overwhelming because it was so much, and it is not covered by insurance, or at least for us it was not. We had to give it a shot. Nothing else was working. And really, within a month we saw a massive improvement. Arbor Health was really good, being kind and understanding, because it's a lot of stuff to do for a 14-year-old and they kind of just set it up for me to succeed. They gave me a routine that was easy. And that's what helped me get so much better. As soon as I started it, I could already feel myself getting better. Arbor Health's care team really set it up in a way that it was easy for me to understand. And anything that was tough for me, they were able to move around or take out or substitute with another thing. And it was just super easy for me to do everything with all the help that they were able to give. Working with Arbor Health, now my life just it looks a lot more lively. I wasn't able to do any sports before, and now I'm back to playing golf, playing basketball. And before, I was tired all the time, I'm just able to do so much more. What surprised me most about Arbor Health, I think, was the connection that I made with the care team. I immediately felt heard, and I hadn't felt heard in a long time. The other thing I really love is that they're available on The Portal pretty quickly. I can write in a question, and immediately somebody is responding to me. I just felt like I was being supported for the first time in a long time. It feels pretty amazing to see your 14-year-old get better. All the research we were doing about Lyme disease was pretty bleak. And now it just has been like, 180. I can't even tell you how much better he is. He has no swelling in his knee. All the rest of his joints have not swollen or locked up. I just can't imagine where we would be without Arbor Health. I would recommend Arbor Health for a whole health approach. This is a whole picture that we're talking about. And, in Jackson's case, we did find some other things within the testing that he was low in or high in, and we were able to fix that stuff really quickly. I want to say thank you to my care team for always being there, always being supportive, and making it super easy for me to get better. We didn't just focus on my knee. We were able to focus on my life as a whole. And everything has just been perfect ever since. I am Christy Coles in Webster, New York. I'm Jackson Coles in Webster, New