A Lyme Warrior's Quest for Survival Opened Drawers this Spoonie Never Imagined Possible!
Channel: Starfire Creations and Design
Date: 2020-01-11

https://www.etsy.com/shop/StarfireCreations2Go

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     In this video you will see the handmade jewelry of Naomi Pruitt, owner of Starfire Creations & Toys. Naomi is a NASM certified personal trainer and mother of 3 boys. She was bit by an infected tick in 2016, just months after fulfilling her dream of qualifying for the Boston Marathon. Her life was tuned upside down when she contracted Lyme Disease as well as four additional co-infections including Bartonella (aka Cat Scratch Fever) and Babesiosis  (Babesia microti, a Malaria like protozoa which infects the red blood cells ).  No longer able to work, exercise or do daily activities such as prepare food or make simple choices, Naomi was locked in a prison of her own mind.
     Naomi describes the months after being infected as if she were a car on I-465, the loop around Indianapolis, Indiana. In order to do anything or make a choice to do anything, she had to chose an exit ramp and exit there. Her mind was that car, a fast moving vehicle , so fast that everything was just a whirl and she could not remember which exit to take to do certain things. Trying to remember which exit was so mentally exhausting that it actually caused physical pain and tears resulting from the agony of trying so hard to make a choice. Sometimes she would get off on an exit but it was the wrong exit and she had to navigate the city streets to get back on I-465 to try again.
      A simple decision like standing up or opening a door could take hours or even days if left to her own mind. Prompts from her children could help but were sometimes so distracting if she was already in an attempted  thought process, that she would sob and scream, blaming the intrusive sound for her difficulties. She sometimes spent entire days sitting on the bathroom floor trying to remember what the next step was to standing up.
        During this horrible time, her mother tried to help and would make the trips from her hometown over an hour away to do what she could. Having to work to support herself, going through her own health issues, including a hip replacement, having the nanny duties of the young children of Naomi's younger sister depending upon her and sensing that the stress of company was intolerably detrimental to Naomi's fragile mind, there were times all she could do was pray. The family was mostly held together by Naomi's oldest son, barely a teenager, he made sure his younger brothers were fed and that his mother drank water and took her meds.  Naomi's mother took the family to Florida on vacation where Naomi was ecstatic to find that the ocean water healed and soothed the boils and painful sores covering the landscape of her aching body. 
     Naomi found a vector borne disease specialist who saved her life but the road to recovery has been a long, hard journey, not yet over. As her mind and cognitive process were changed and rerouted, as encephalitis plagued her with confusion, memory loss, irritability, hopelessness and frightening auditory hallucinations, she received creative gifts from a loving Heavenly Father. She began to write music, sing and play guitar, something she never imagined she could do. She began making jewelry, painting and soothing the agonizing vortex of her mind with busy hands. 
     Sister Missionaries from the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints began coming to her home weekly to clean and bring joy and the healing Light of Christ to her home. When she and her boys were evicted and had to file bankruptcy the sisters showed up with 40 Church members who helped her pack and move. The Church loved her and supported her and her boys through the last 4 years, weathering the storms with her family and showing by their actions that Jesus really did come to heal the sick, bind op the brokenhearted, provide sight for the blind and set the captives free. This video is simply a compilation of Naomi's creative endeavors and how she now supports her family.