Traveling with Lyme: Oh, & Recovering from Brain Surgery
Oh…where to begin….
Two words: exhaustion and exhilaration. In that order.
After surgery, aside from short distance car rides, I was instructed not to travel for the first 3 months.
Grateful it was summer, because I spent the majority of my days in our backyard. In all honesty, it was (and still is) one of my sanctuaries. Between the avocado tree, the Japanese maple, & fig tree, to our mini citrus grove, small seasonal garden, moss covered rocks, and the greenhouse that Ross built for me during Covid-19, it was the perfect spot for me to heal.
I spent the majority of my days alternating between the sunshine and shade, watching and listening to the birds, as well as witnessing the butterflies & other critters that inhabit our yard. It’s magical how much you notice when you become still and or embrace stillness.
It was just about 3 months post surgery that I began to experience symptoms that my neurosurgeon and neuro-oncologist told me were not at all related to the surgery itself.
I’ll never forget the moment it hit me – I was on a walk and suddenly had vivid memories of my previous bouts of Lyme (PTSD). My symptoms were Lyme related. 🍋🟩
I immediately reached out to my Lyme doctor, Dr. Marty Ross who was re-opening his practice in Seattle, WA in November. Talk about divine timing. 💫
Pause.
Let’s talk about Lyme for a moment, and briefly, as there will be many more posts about Lyme. And if you want to learn more about all things Lyme before then, click on the link above, go to LYMEOLOGY GUIDES (top left), and there you’ll find a myriad of free educational resources. Continuously updated as well.
And if you still want to learn more, Dr. Ross offers a free webinar 2-3 times a month. You have to register beforehand and you can join live or there’s a recording that will be emailed to you the next day.
It’s 90 minutes, and a lot of information, so be prepared. If the webinar is too much for you, just read his articles on your own time as you wish.
I’ve learned a ton, or as Dr. Ross says, …I’ve become become my own doctor, by reading his website and book, Hacking LYME Disease).
I use Lyme as an umbrella term for tick-borne illness. There are 20-25 different strains of Lyme (each with their own name) and within those strains, there are hundreds of genetic variants that exist within those species. It’s highly complex, to say the least. Complex to diagnose, test, treat, etc.
I’ll go over the strains I’ve had and currently have in another post 🔜.
Ok, back to travel
By the time Dr. Ross re-opened his practice, I had the green light to get on an airplane to go and see him.
I always look forward to seeing him. He’s a true healer, brilliant, extremely experienced, and has been doing this for a very long time. Not to mention stylish, funny, and as my husband Ross says, “Dr. Ross brings the sunshine.” I fully agree. ☀️
Traveling with Lyme is incredibly difficult AND I do it – by myself. The flight from Oakland to Seattle is ~2 hours and while Oakland airport is typically pretty chill, Seattle airport is definitely not. Fun when you’re healthy, but not when you’re not.
Q: What is it about travel that makes it so hard when you have Lyme?
It really depends on your symptoms. Lyme symptoms are different for everyone and can show up in different ways. For me, it’s the noise, the fluorescent lights, the number of people in airports, making sure I’m at the right gate (6 weeks ago I definitely showed up at the wrong one 🤣), hypervigilance, anxiety, etc. There’s a lot to track and pay attention to when traveling with Lyme.
Every trip, at least for me, is different. Yesterday’s flight/journey, January 12, 2026, was much easier than 6 weeks ago (progress).
When I’m in Seattle, I stay with Ross’s cousin Hanna. She and I are really close, so it’s perfect for me that I have her cozy apartment, (and dog Ruby), as my home base when I’m not at my 30-60 minute appointment with Dr. Ross. She lives in an adorable neighborhood and is also the best tour guide.
I’m always excited and curious for my visits with Dr. Ross. Excited because I’m continually making progress, and curious what next steps will be, because they are always different. Lyme is stealthy, so to treat it, you’ve got to be crafty and covert, like a secret agent. 🥷
I’ll tell you more about my visit with him today, 1/13/26 another day...all went really well though. 😊
Food & Lyme
This will also be another blog post, but with Lyme, it’s pretty much essential, at least for me, that you cut out gluten and sugar from your diet. Entirely. This means that when I travel, I pack my own food, and unfortunately cannot accept the snacks that Southwest offers because they almost always contain gluten 😭.
Luckily, once I’m here Seattle, it’s a food metropolis, so it’s easy to find food I can eat.
That being said, you should see my carry on…snacks upon snacks upon snacks. I eat ~every 2-4 hours, otherwise I’ll become extremely hangry and or my blood sugar levels will start to drop, and nobody wants to be around that. 🤨
In Conclusion
Bringing it back to the beginning of this article, it’s 100% worth it to travel to see Dr. Ross. Finding a Lyme Literate Medical Doctor (LLMD) is critical, especially one that will advocate for you and treat appropriately.
My hope is now you have a mild understanding of traveling with Lyme, especially after brain surgery.
Exhausting and exhilarating.
xx ❣️
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