Lyme Nearly Stole 17 Years—Here’s How Kristen Fought Back

When Kristen was a college student in Connecticut—the very state where “Lyme” got its name—her body started sending strange, flickering signals.

Weird fevers that appeared by night and disappeared by morning. Exhaustion that no amount of sleep could cure. A neck that felt locked in a vise. And a fog so thick that everyday words felt like strangers.

Doctor after doctor missed the clues. First on the East Coast, then in the Midwest.

“I troubleshot symptoms for seventeen years,” Kristen recalls. “I can’t believe no one figured it out.”

By the time the word Lyme finally landed in her medical file, life had shrunk into survival mode. Yoga, massage, supplements, and appointments kept her barely afloat—but joy? Joy had long left the chat.

A Long Road Back

Treatment stretched another five years. Kristen stuck with it relentlessly, but neurological storms lingered: head pressure, cognitive fuzz, and unrelenting neck pain that flared whenever stress spiked or sleep slipped.

“It was zero fun,” she admits. “I didn’t even remember what ‘me’ felt like.”

Then came an experiment that quietly changed the texture of her days: CBD.

At first, Kristen assumed any relief must be placebo. But when she compared notes with a friend who was also in pain, they both noticed real shifts.

Not cured. Not magically fixed. But the dominoes began to fall in the right direction:

• Less pain meant more sleep.

• More sleep meant fewer stress spirals.

• Fewer spirals meant the flu-like ambushes stopped.

“CBD became my daily nudge back toward normal,” Kristen says.

Balm, Balance, and Small Wins

Some mornings, the ritual started with a frantic hunt for a travel-size CBD balm.

“If I’m stressed or tired, it always hits my neck,” she explains. “The balm buys me back the day.”

The relief wasn’t just hers. Her anxious pup, Spruce, responded dramatically to pet-formulated drops—calm enough to complete a four-week training program at a correctional facility.

By the time COVID rolled in, Kristen was finally rolling out of treatment and back into herself. She recognized how much pretending she had been doing all along.

“I thought the aches were making me tired,” she reflects. “Only when I started to get healthy did I realize how sick I’d been.”

Now, instead of marathon yoga sessions and supplement pyramids, her maintenance plan is simpler: CBD.

“If I start craving a yoga class, I know I’m in a flare. That’s my signal to dial my routine back in.”

Reclaiming Life

Kristen’s recovery wasn’t just physical—it reshaped her purpose. A trained medical communicator, she launched Healthy Not High on YouTube, a channel dedicated to cutting through CBD confusion and helping others find clarity.

She moved to Denver’s Wash Park for a bigger yard for her dogs. She filled her bags and drawers with balm sticks, her personal breadcrumbs leading out of the woods.

But the biggest shift is harder to measure. Kristen stopped being a spectator in her own life.

“CBD didn’t cure Lyme for me,” she says carefully. “But it gave me a fighting chance to function while I worked through it. Less pain meant less moodiness, less sleeplessness, less overwhelm. One day I realized—I didn’t need to complain anymore. I wanted to seize the day. That feeling had been gone for a long time.”

The Horizon Ahead

Kristen still feels the whispers of her illness when stress runs high. But the horizon is different now, wider. On the good mornings, she doesn’t think about her body at all. On the tough ones, she knows exactly where the balm is.

After 17 years of not being believed, Kristen believes herself. That alone is a victory.

At Blue Sky CBD, we’re honored to support stories like Kristen’s—real people finding natural tools to reclaim their energy, ease their pain, and step back into their lives.