Monica White, on her yearslong struggle with Lyme disease and her advocacy as founder of the Colorado Tick-Borne Disease Awareness Association

In this episode of the We Are Chaffee: Looking Upstream podcast, host Adam Williams talks with Monica White, founder of the Colorado Tick-Borne Disease Awareness Association.

Monica enjoyed a career as a wildlife biologist for the U.S. Forest Service for a number of years, and then experienced a life-changing illness that took years just to get support for diagnosis, let alone treatment. It’s her path with Lyme disease, and that of her husband and their two children getting sick with it, as well, that inspired her to become an advocate in the field of tick-borne diseases.

In this conversation, Monica talks about the brutal shift, physically, mentally and emotionally, from an active, adventurous outdoor life to one of years long, ongoing isolation and grief, for her and her family.

She talks about why it was so extraordinarily difficult to get the medical community’s support in her diagnosis, and why Lyme disease continues to be such a challenging illness, in general, to get treatment for.