How Three Rounds With Lyme Disease Ruined My Skin

Why am I decomposing If I'm still alive? I have really, really, really sensitive skin. It hasn't always been like this. I use to have great skin. With the exception of a small mole on my upper chest, not a single flaw. Even during puberty, I watched my peers fester and scar while I remained blemish free.

Then I moved out to East Hampton full time. And got bitten by the wrong tick. No tell-tale bullseye rash -- just a general feeling of malaise and moderate joint pain. Three weeks on antibiotics and I was back to normal. Until I got bitten by another wrong tick. This time, I developed THE rash -- a concentric series of dark red circles radiating out from where the initial bite occurred. I had been woken up in the middle of the night by what felt like an angry spider bite. By the next morning, the welt had become so inflamed and painful, I was left with no other option but to seek medical attention. Which was difficult because I avoid doctors at all cost.

Then, just a few years ago, I was bitten again. And reinfected with Lyme.

Ever since, I've developed a insanely severe allergetic reaction to the saliva of any tick -- Lyme-carrying, or not. Now, the bite of a single tick leaves me with a welt the size of a golf ball. With itching so severe that it actually burns. Like an acetylene torch. For up to six weeks.

The only thing that helps are frozen compresses continually applied throughout my waking hours.

And even on a good day, my skin looks like I just lost at paint ball. Various patches of red. Random welts. Odd marks. My hands become so dry during winter months that I have to slather them in fresh Aloe fillets. Just to keep them from cracking and bleeding.

Oh, and I'm also fairly sure that self-replicating, non-carbon based nano machines are living under my skin.

And I'm not alone.

The CDC formally opened an investigation in June of 2007 of "Unexplained Dermopathy."

They don't make enough Valium.