Health Update: New Diagnosis … Lyme Disease.

As many of you know I have been on a journey with mental health over the past 7 years. I have shared this both online and in my talks and am thankful for the prayers and other support during this time. About 3 weeks ago I was diagnosed with Lyme Disease and have started a new road on this journey. We have shared with a few people and I am starting to get messages, emails, and texts about this so I thought I would do a post and share information with all of you. Let me do a Q and A below to answer the questions I am currently getting.

1. What is Lyme Disease? You can find a good description of Lyme Disease here – https://canlyme.com/lyme-basics/
2. Do you remember being bitten by a Tick? I have no memory of ever being bitten by a tick, or having the common circle rash that comes after being bitten.
3. Is this the root of all of your mental health struggles? This is a great question and one currently I do not have an answer to. I don’t know if this is something new or if Lyme is the root of my 7-year journey. I will know more as treatment progresses.
4. Have you started treatment? I actually started treatment a few hours before I began writing this blog post. I have a US Lyme Doctor, a Canadian Doctor, Naturopath, and a Psychologist who are my “team” for the next little while. Treatment, as far as I know right now, is a combination of antibiotics, other medications as needed, vitamins and supplements along with special diet, exercise and rest.
5. Will this affect your speaking? No, this will not affect my speaking. This is one of the main reasons I also wanted to write this blog. I don’t want people who are interested in having me in to speak not book me thinking I am not able to. My speaking schedule will continue as is. I am fortunate in my job as a speaker that the majority of my time is spent in my home office writing, researching, building talks, etc. The 2-3 times a week that I have to go and speak I will be fine during this treatment plan. Booking me to speak will actually take away some of the financial stress knowing that I have upcoming speaking engagements. I will make sure I have lots of downtime in between speaking dates to make sure I am taking care of myself.
6. How can I help? If you are a praying person, please keep me in your prayers. I have been told that this will be a long journey toward recovery.
7. How can I make a donation to help with costs? I have had some people this week ask me if they can help by making a financial donation as they know a lot of my treatment will not be covered. If you are interested in this, please make your donation to Worlds Apart (https://www.canadahelps.org/en/dn/15850) which is the charity that I am Director of. Just choose the fund “Brett Ullman” while making your donation. I really appreciate any support.

Thanks for taking the time to read this quick update.