Sharing her story has helped Kim Gettys become one of the top fundraisers for the 2012 Lymewalks.

In the summer of 2006, Kim Gettys was a young military wife in Virginia, with a 22-month old son and a husband who was deployed.  One morning, she woke up to find she was having trouble breathing.  Over the next days and months, she developed other problems: crushing fatigue, dizziness, ringing in her ears, floaters in her eyes, numbness, chest pain, a racing heartbeat. She went from doctor to doctor, who all said there was “nothing wrong” with her.

“My body was shutting down on me,” she remembers, “and no one could tell me why. I literally felt I was dying…day in and day out.”

Kim had always been active. “It was quite a shock to me when I could barely walk to my shower without feeling debilitating fatigue and breathlessness!  I became bed ridden for months.”

It would be two years before Kim found out she had chronic Lyme disease. With treatment, things have improved significantly, though her health still has its ups and downs. Now 38 and living with her family in southern California, she has created a fundraising page to raise money for Lyme disease research and plans to attend this Saturday’s San Diego Lymewalk.

“My sincere hope is that through my suffering, others have the opportunity to learn and will not have to endure what I had to.  This terrible illness has cost me years of my life I will never get back,” she writes on her page. “Despite what some in the medical profession may say, Chronic Lyme disease IS REAL and it’s an epidemic that I and many, many others suffer from.”

By sharing her story with friends and family, Kim has raised $2240.

Thank you Kim, for stepping up to help the Lyme community. Enjoy San Diego!

TOUCHED BY LYME is written by Dorothy Kupcha Leland, LymeDisease.org’s VP for Education and Outreach. Contact her at dleland@lymedisease.org.